First trip to the zoo!

Yesterday Tobi and I took Paige and Virginia to the zoo for the very first time. We packed them in the car, drove them into the city, and introduced them to the wonderful world of endangered and otherwise incredible animals at the National Zoo. They met this momentous occasion in their young lives with...um...subdued enthusiasm. (See photographic evidence below of their ability to play it cool in the face of such awesome creatures.) We walked up and down (and up and down and back again) the zoo's trails and checked out pandas (giant and red), sloth bears, lions, tigers, flamingos, cows, goats, leopards, zebras, monkeys of all varieties, gorillas, and various other beasts of the wild. The zoo was packed with lots of families and even more strollers (including our double-wide), but none of this could rouse our girls from their afternoon slumber. We're thinking they'll dig the zoo a lot more next year when they will recognize the animals from their books. We may try the Reston Zoo next weekend when the girls' cousin Keats and Aunt Sandra return from their trip to Germany. Perhaps Keats' enthusiasm will be contagious!

A cheetah setting the tone for the girls' zoo demeanor

Sloth bear!

Rheas doing their thing. They have fakes eyes on the backs of their heads, so it always looks like they are looking at you. Freaky!

Paige and Virginia striking their calm and collected zoo pose.

Virginia gets to see her first lion

Virginia is transfixed!

The lioness.

Paige and I point at the lioness, confirming to each other the lioness' existence.

Some other variety of cat. Despite the general similarity between the zoo's cats and our cat (whom the girls are often enamored with), the girls would not be moved by these foreign felines.

All zoo'd out and ready to go home to the dog and cat.