July 4th

Today was nice. In the morning we took the boys to the zoo. Hogle Zoo was having a military appreciation day and we all got in free! Nothin' better than a free trip to the zoo. The zoo has changed a lot since I was there last. They just opened their new big cats exhibit, and had a new elephant/rhino exhibit. Three of my favorite animals were gone though - the polar bears, the hippo, and Gorgeous the Gorilla. Gorgeuos died a few years ago, the hippo was sent to Albuquerque and they aren't going to have polar bears again until they can build a state-of-the-art exhibit for them.
Dan enjoyed the animals a lot more than the last time we took him in Arizona. He could even name a few by himself - like the zebras, monkeys and ducks. He repeated all of the animals names as we told them to him. He's such a smart little kid. Jackson tolerated the outing pretty well. He got fussy for a while and I held him as we walked, then he went to sleep and spent the rest of the time in the stroller. We saw Susans friend Trina and her family there. I got to see Trinas new baby Levi before Susan did! This afternoon Gary helped my mom in our yard while I took care of the boys. We had dinner at Craigs house - he invited the whole family over for a BBQ. There was lots to eat and it was yummy.