Zootastic!

What's a lovely long weekend without a field trip? Boring! So, on Sunday we went to a nearby zoo. The reality is, while Finley likes being toted around just about anywhere--it's hard to reason paying to do so when there are so many free places to walk--my solution: pay 1/2 price! Thank you Groupon! We drove the 20 minutes over to the Stone Zoo and attempted something new: putting Finley in the beco like a backpack, instead of a front pack. Dan's been dying to try this and I finally gave in and we found a good time/place to test it out. I'd been resisting because I just love carrying Finley around in the front, we can chat and I can smother him with hugs and kisses like all good mothers do :) Anyways...Dan got the carrier on and we put Finley in.

He seemed happy enough, but thought he needed little extra support so he grabbed hold!

How adorable is that? Off we went into the zoo and Dan quickly got the hang of turning so Finley could see all the animals. Though I thought it was more entertaining that Finley was often craning his neck not to look at the animals, but to find me!

After seeing a lynx, a bald eagle, and a hedgehog, we came to the black bears. Conveniently, the smaller of the two bears was very interested in us. It paced back and forth in front of the glass and Finley got a great view. It was really neat to watch him follow the bear with his eyes and reach out with his hand.

We continued through the zoo and saw a jaguar, some monkeys, flamingos, and other critters.

One of the last close encounters we had was with a very cute otter. He (or she) was perched up on a rock, just checking out the scenery. Dan walked Finley over and a short staring contest ensued

What a great way to end our visit (well, we did attempt to see the snow leopard, but it was sleeping behind a rock). Finley seemed happy as a clam in the beco backpack and it was nice to know that we have yet another way to cart around our little guy.