Take me to the zoo...

As always, we're loving the zoo! These pictures were taken on a recent excursion with our friends, the Schmidts. Mama's dear friend, "Auntie Andrea," has two children the same ages as ours (literally within two weeks in both cases!), and the zoo is a good place for us to meet up and share our love of animals, the sunshine (we're sort of fair-weather-zoo-goers, I have to admit) and of one another. :) Note the monkey in the background. These guys were in rare form that day, and the class clown was definitely the monkey who would occasionally hurl himself at the window where we were all standing and then get up and do it all over again. He had us all laughing!

This is my littlest monkey. Wow, he's precious! And he's at such a fun age for the zoo. His animal awareness and animal sounds have expanded dramatically in the past several weeks--way beyond "dog"--though that still appears to be his favorite to spot, pet, say and sound like.

Here are Gavin and Caleb Schmidt playing the African drums down by the gorilla exhibit. It's fun to watch these boys grow up together and interesting to see the common developmental patterns. For example, the fun three-year-old habit of choice that day at the zoo was spitting. Where does that come from? Why is it so much fun to do, especially when Mommy is disgusted by it?