The last hurrah?

We decided to take a family day before Emmy made her arrival so I requested off on Brad's next day off and we headed south to Chahinkapa Zoo in Wahpeton, ND. My family held the yearly Putman family reunion in this park every year during my childhood but the zoo has really changed since then. It has expanded about three fold and the animals generally seem happy and healthy.

Will was very excited when we told him we were going to the zoo. We passed the time on the drive assuring him that we would see animals but maybe not the giraffe, elephant or rhino he was hoping for.

We spent quite a long time watching the white tiger pace and the kodiak bears sleep (pictures of both are on my non-digital camera - whoops) but we spent most of the morning watching the monkeys chase each other around and around and around. I think Will felt a real connection to them. I'm not sure why...

The other big excitement of the morning was an encounter with the geese near the farm animal petting area. Will seemed intrigued enough to watch these enormous birds wandering around but when they came over asking for food Daddy's arms couldn't be reached fast enough. After watching them nibble on Will's red crocs for a bit we dug out a quarter and fed them some corn and went on our way.



When we were finished with the animal adventure we headed out to the playground for some running and jumping before loading back into the van for the drive home. Will seemed drawn to the monkey bars. Not to climb up on but go into and run away from mom and dad's reaching arms.

Will was asleep about a mile out of the city. He seemed to have a fun time despite the lack of certain African animal favorites. Maybe we'll see them next year, buddy.