a trip to the zoo

We took the lil' miss to the Maryland Zoo yesterday for her birthday.  We stayed with our favorites, the Niehoffs, and had a grand old time celebrating Tessa's graduation from hikes school.  We went to her baccalaureate the night before and then went out to a japanese hibachi restaurant for dinner.  Trey & I have never had the hibachi experience before, it was so much fun!  And delicious!

Trey photo-bombing it up...nice. 

 The Banburys are ready for a hot day at the zoo!

 Here is Luce anticipating all the fun she is going to have in t-minus 32 minutes...

 This was the first animal we saw and he was my favorite.  A little mini owl.  I could have fit him in my pocket.

 We also saw giraffes...

 penguins...

 elephants (check out the cute baby elly!)...

 a very friendly snapping turtle...

 a little lu turtle...

a huuuge python (named lucy) that they had out on the grass (I was surprised how close I got to it because I do not like snakes.  The zoo worker told us not to let lucy get too close...yikes!)...

...and much more!
After 4 hours of zoo fun, we decided to call it a day.
I think miss luce liked it....either that or she was just really happy to be in the air-conditioned car.  It was a balmy 92 degrees out there!

 And then a little while after that I looked back to see this...

Awwww!

Next item on the list of fun:  Lucy's birthday party on Saturday!  My little girly is turning 1!!!  I can't believe it!  How did this happen??  And where was I??  I guess I need to go figure out how I'm going to make a cake shaped like Pocoyo.  Wish me luck!