Surprise Field Trip

Fred has been working a really crummy night shift, 6pm-6am. It's been a difficult adjustment, but we're trying to make the best of it. Seeing as how he was off on Thursday, he wanted to do something special with the kids. A surprise field trip. We simply told them to get all ready, pack water bottles and notebooks, and then waited until they guessed where we were going. Our destination was about an hour away... but they guessed it within 10 minutes. We don't head that direction often!

Thankfully, we invested in zoo passes back in the spring, when we actually had a tad of money to spare. I'd much rather spend our money on experiences than more material items that we don't need.

My Papaw came with us. It's been just wonderful to have him living here. He comes on most of our field trips with us, teaches history and Spanish to the kids every day, and plays cards with Fred and me at least once a week. He's also fixing my pantry shelves for me!

All of the kids love Papaw, but LittleLad gets especially excited when he sees Papaw pull up in the driveway. He talks Papaw's ear off, I think. :) Papaw also takes a LOT of pictures. Which is pretty nice, seeing as how I am usually the one behind the lens, and miss out on actually being in any pictures with my family. Boardwalk through the wetlands. Yes, I was wearing a tank top in mid-October. I believe it reached around 86 degrees in Tulsa on Thursday!
The kids were just as excited with the turtles as the penguins. They even jumped up and down when a squirrel crossed our paths.

I love this picture that Papaw took...

Giant tortoises

That zoo lady in the blue shirt was telling us that

that turtle the boys were petting came to the zoo in 1927. SHEESH.

And do you see what I was up to on the car trip...? It's all done now, and I'll share pictures tomorrow.