We went to the "Hoe- bull" Zoo.

Almost every time we drive down to my family's house we think "Hey we should take the kids to Hogle Zoo." And then we don't because we just want to get to Grandma's house and then once we get there we don't want to leave to go all the way back up to Salt Lake. Well, this year we vowed to make good on that thought. And thanks to some expert planning on Aunt Mindi's part we finally made it to the Hoe-bull Zoo!
It's been a long time coming and it would seem that the promise of getting to spend the weekend with Mindi and Kaden was just to much to resist. So we took the plunge and possibly stepped into the "cool parents" circle for the weekend.
Now here is the only bummer part of the weekend: So remember when we layed sod in our backyard and I took our camera out to take pictures with... (no wait, I haven't blogged about that yet.) Well, lets just say that just like my old, old camera was allergic to water, my old new camera was allergic to dirt... like kaput!
So... we bought a new camera, which was fine, except for the fact that we bought it as we were heading down to Logan and it had to charge it's battery and so I missed taking pictures of all the fun things we did with Mindi and Kaden. But let me tell you, if you want to have a fun time in Logan, Mindi and Kaden are the ones to call! (that almost sounds like a bathroom stall advertisement huh?)
We arrived in Logan and got to feed ducks and horses at Kaden's parents' house. Then Mindi took us to where Kaden was riding Moose and the kids got to ride Moose (their horse). Then they also got to feed and brush him. They thought it was a HUGE treat. They loved the horses. Kaden even took Kami to see some baby horses - which she thought was the highlight of her life.
After playing with horses, they took us to dinner at an awesome little pizza joint and then for ice cream at the best ice cream parlor. It was seriously such an amazing day. I just wish I had cool pictures to show you of our smiling happy faces. The only bummer of the day was that we were running behind getting there so we didn't have time to do all the fun things Mindi had planned for us.
Grandma and Grandpa Bowen came out with Aunt Mandi to go to the zoo with us as well and they even got us hotel, which was such a treat. The kids were super excited to go swimming in the hotel pool, but it turns out someone got sick in the pool so it was closed. No worries though, they got to go swimming the next day after the zoo. (And after the pool was cleaned... naturally.)

The next morning we woke up "bright and early", packed our lunch, and drove down to the zoo.

Now I have pictures!!
(please ignore the fact that they are in backyards order. Blogger makes it so difficult to rearrange pictures in posts and it's a lot of pictures to rearrange. So, we will start at the end of the day and work our way to the beginning of the day and you all will be okay with that.)

Here are the kids after a long happy day getting some dinner at taco maker in Preston. (they even got 2 toys in their kids meals. Talk about a special day.)

Here the family is rounding out the trip to the zoo on the train ride.

Poor Landon. He just had a long day.

The elephants. We actually showed up just in time to watch the special elephant show. Kami loved watching the elephants do tricks.
My camera took this crazy picture. Not sure why, but it's pretty cool.
I love this face Cooper is making!
Poor baby Landon. He really did love the zoo. He was just miserable.
(Probably because his mom sprayed sunscreen in his eyes and felt absolutely terrible about it.)
Look at that good looking group of Bowens
With the giraffes.
Funny thing, if Cooper wants to say something is really tall he says "mom, it's 15 tall" Ironically, the baby (littlest) giraffe was 15' tall.
Cooper was our map man. He would let us know which way we should go.
You can't go to Hogle Zoo with out getting a picture of someone with their head in the lion's mouth.
My boys in the gorilla exhibit.
Look how big my boys are. (and how miserable Landon is)
It looks like the Bowen's are right on track, size wise, for being gorillas. (although, Brandon could stand to put some weight on)

WOW! Who is that handsome man by the camels? Yowza!
I know this picture is blurry but it took a lot of coaxing to get Kami to make a gorilla face. (She did it just for her uncle Clinton.)
It was really hot at the zoo. Kami is practically melting in this picture.
She said to me when we were heading home, "Mom, the zoo was really fun but I was like SO FREAKIN' HOT!"
Mindi was my favorite person to take pictures of. She poses EXACTLY how I would in the same situation. I love Mindi so much. She makes me happy.
Cheetahs are my favorite animal... so I had to take a picture. Naturally.
Kami in the hotel that morning. She was excited to get going.

Kami and I kind of had our hearts set on seeing the hippopotamus (because I had told Kami about how ugly and fat they were) But I hadn't been to the zoo in at least 15 years and apparently they got rid of the hippo sometime between now and then. (Kaden remembered the hippo too, so I know I wasn't just making things up.)
All in all we saw penguins, tigers, rhinos, lots of monkeys (Landon's favorite), snakes, birds, porcupines, wolves, etc. It was a fun fun day.