San Diego Zoo

For Christmas, we received a new membership to the San Diego Zoo from Jim and Sue. We were really excited because our had expired, and we didn't think we would have the money to renew it this year.

Our new membership came with a few passes to get friends in for free, so we invited Dave's good friend Fahey and his family. (Ok, so his name is actually Jeremy, but in the Fire department they always go by last names, so that's what I call him). Fahey and his wife Danae and their son Ethan joined us for a day at the zoo. When we got there we realized that we didn't even have to use the passes right now because they were running a promotion for Firefighters and first responders. Since Fahey is a Paramedic he was able to get their family of 3 in for free!! Dave was able to get us in, but we had memberships anyway.

Dave and Fahey with Ethan showing their Firefighter and First Responder IDs to get in
Danae and Caiden follow

I was all about the comfort being 9 months pregnant, and since this was more of a last minute visit I decided that I would go to the zoo in my PJ's. So I did. I know you may think that is not cool, but frankly I wanted to be comfy, and I was. I am ok with the decision I made.

Caiden and I. I'm in my PJs...so comfy

We stopped off to by something to eat after the drive over. Although parking was free and admission was reasonable, the food was REALLY overpriced. Dave bought a churro, a soda, and a water for me and it came to nearly $12 and that was WITH the discount they gave him. We also ended up getting a kids meal (which we all shared) and some hot chocolates - it was cold....at least for us Californians.

Sharing a meal (Jeremy aka Fahey and Danae and Ethan)
Dave and I

We didn't see THAT many animals because for some reason that zoo was REALLY crowded. You'd think we had come to Disneylands with the size of the queues to see some of the animals, especially the panda bears. They just had a birth in the Panda Bear family so we avoided that cage as the line wrapped around for a ways.

Danae, Jeremy and Ethan looking at animals
Pretty bright bird
The gang

The orangutans were really cool. This one came right up to the glass and put his face right in front of Ethan's. He even put his hand up. It was hard to get good pictures because of the glare off of the glass.

Just chillin'
This one was cool. I swear he was signing, I almost signed back
He came right up to Ethan and just stared at him

We had a great time, and it was really nice to hang out with the Fahey's. :)