At the Zoo

Not just a marginal Paul Simon song - it's also how we spent our Monday evening!

We've been meaning to get to the zoo to see veritable (well, make that literal) menagerie of baby animals born this summer and on Monday we finally made it to the Hogle Zoo. And boy were they cute! We saw the baby lynx, baby elephant, baby tiger cubs, and baby giraffe. I think that the elephant, born in mid-August, probably got the biggest "awwwwww" factor, although unsurprisingly the wolf was Sasha's favorite exhibit. I think she's the only little girl in the history of the world who goes up to the wolf enclosure and says, "awwwww, so sweet!" The girl loves her dogs!

We tried to take the traditional photo at the lion drinking fountain, however, and Sasha would have none of it despite her normal passion for all things watery. The man-eating wolf is adorable, the cartoon lion with a drinking fountain in its mouth is terrifying. Whatever.

We finished off our rather rainy but still delightful evening at the zoo with a spin around the carousel. I was so proud of Sash - she actually consented to ride on an animal, although she wanted nothing to do with the zebra I suggested and instead went straight for the snow leopard. Now that I think about it, aren't snow leopards indigenous to Kazakhstan? Let me check... yep, the internet says yes! Go ethnic heritage!

Ben chose a gorilla carousel animal; so appropriate for our little monkey. Sam went with the elephant, which was so big that he had to climb onto it from the saddle of the cheetah next to it! And we all had a fantastic time. Boy do I love a good carousel.

We rounded out the evening with dinner at Buca di Beppo, a family favorite, where Sam successfully secured the kitchen table using his good looks and natural charm. As you may have guessed from the very clever name, the table is... in the kitchen. You get to see the chefs preparing the food and you get a lot of special attention from the servers, which is a total thrill for the kids.

And as if it could get any better, we spent the night in a hotel! Steve and I had a free night voucher at Salt Lake hotel that was about to expire and since I had to be in the city at 7 am Tuesday morning we figured that there was no time like the present to spend a free night in Salt Lake! We swam in the pool, lazed in the hot tub, watched some Disney Channel on TV - it was heaven :) Shew, we did manage to pack a lot into a single evening, but, then, would you expect anything less from us?