A trip to Oakland

As I looked ahead on the calendar last week I noticed that nothing was planned for Saturday. Really a free day? I really wanted to go to the beach, but the weather was only supposed to be in the 60's over there, so we decided to go to the zoo instead. Claire keeps telling us that we have not ever taken her to the zoo. Ever. While this isn't true, we thought that it would be a fun thing to do, so we decided to head to Oakland with a special side trip afterwards.

Claire was not really in the mood to take pictures, so you will see that she is either being silly or not looking at the camera in most of the pictures. The flamingos are right at the front, so we started there. Grant did great in the stroller for almost the whole time we were there.
I think the giraffes are amazing. Their coloring is so beautiful.

Back when Andrew was 3 years old we took him to this zoo. When we turned the corner and he saw the camels he started screaming. He tried pulling the shade on the stroller down over his face. He did not like camels at all. It was such an odd thing to be afraid of. But when he saw them today, he was most afraid that they would spit on him, but he wasn't scared of them.

They had just fed the elephants when we got there. They hide vegetables all over their pen so that they move around looking for the food and everyone can get a good view.

So one of the elephants made his way right in front of Claire and Andrew.Andrew kept saying that he really wanted to see the zebras, and when we got there he looked at them for like 1 minute and then was done.

Grant got his first banana as a snack. He has had banana baby food, but not the actual thing. Like pretty much any food we give him he liked it.

Andrew was also excited to pet and brush the goats and sheep. I didn't think that Claire would do it, but she did with me holding her hand.

They had little tables set up around the zoo where kids could touch bones or learn more about the animals in that area. I like this picture of them checking out the alligator teeth.

There was a cute lily pad trail over a pond that they really wanted to try, but I was worried about them accidentally falling in, but luckily they didn't.

Our side trip after the zoo was to the Oakland Temple. We got married here and wanted to show the kids. They talk about it at church, so I wanted the kids to be able to see it in person. I think they were surprised at how large it was.

Claire was absolutely fascinated by the fountains. She even had to visit it one more time before we left. She asked me when we were leaving if next time we come she could bring her swim suit so that she could swim in the fountain. Gotta love it!

The flowers, trees and grounds are just amazing.

Overlooking San Francisco and Oakland. You can see all the way out to the Golden Gate bridge.

Grant fell asleep on the way from the zoo, and slept through a lot of our visit. Unfortunately he woke up before we left and didn't take another nap that day.

Once again, we don't excel at the family group shots. The kids had a really good experience there. We were also able to go to the visitor's center and look around.

Overall, it was a really fun day and there was even minimal fighting. We told the kids we would go back at Christmas time when there are tons of Christmas lights.