Surprise!

Last Wednesday we realized that Jesse didn't have to work on Saturday. So, we called his mom, Karen, to see if she would like to fly out for a visit (she can fly for free because her sons work for Delta). It was especially good timing because Ian turned one on Sunday, but that's a different post. It was also good timing because we hadn't seen Karen since Christmas.

I picked up Karen and Jesse from the metro Friday right before I had to leave to work at REI. They visited me on my break with Wendy's and then spent the evening relaxing at our apartment.

Saturday we decided to head out to see the National Zoo. I have never been to the zoo before, so I'm not sure if it was a big zoo or not, but it seemed pretty updated and it was easy to see the animals, even when there were quite a few people around the enclosures. Here are some pictures:

The lion is in the middle of the picture. This is what he was doing the whole time: just staring. It was creepy--you knew he had a constantly changing plan of who he would attack first if he ever got out.

This tiger was playing with this ball, but then he lost it to the other side of the electric fence in the water. I felt bad--his day had long written all over it after losing that ball.


After that we had to walk a long way to see the elephants because they had construction going on in the elephant area. They were going to make the elephant area way bigger, and they had signs up asking for money to fund their "growing family of elephants". I told Jesse we should put up a sign, too, asking for money to fund our "growing family". He fell in love with me all over again because of my clever wit.

We saw some farm animals, which obviously weren't very interesting, and the pigs were downright disgusting. We also saw pandas, lots of birds and bugs, and the primates. Take home message: monkeys are gross.

It was hot and they had these sprinklers spraying mist across the sidewalk every quarter mile or so. Ian loved it--check it out:


I took off his shirt because I was worried about him getting too hot. I had a dilemma then: is it trashier to have a baby wearing just camo shorts and diaper, or just a diaper? I'm not sure.

Since the zoo was a Smithsonian feature, it had free admission. Then, because they didn't charge you, they had signs up asking for donations to keep the zoo running. Good thing they had them in the park and not on the way out, after their visitors had payed for parking, because NOBODY would donate after paying five bucks an hour for parking.

After we got home Saturday from the zoo, Karen watched Ian and Jesse and I went to see the Dark Knight. It was really good, and I left feeling totally creeped out by the Joker. Two-Face I would handle--not realistic at all. But your next door neighbor could totally think like the Joker and you would never know it...at least until he tried cutting your mouth open.

Sunday we went to church and celebrated Ian's birthday. We went for a walk outside and saw a ton of deer. Here's a picture of the buck we saw:
Another buck, not so young:


We also walked by the elementary school in our neighborhood and tried to find their playground I had seen from the road, but it was gone. Do schools pack up their playgrounds for the summer? We walked around back of the school just to make sure they didn't drag it back there and we saw a home-made chicken coop complete with about six chickens and a rooster. Not sure what that was doing back there, but the rooster started getting really territorial and pawing the ground with his claws, so then we went back home.

Monday Jesse called in sick (Ian actually gave both of us a cold) and we all just hung out. It was great to have Karen come visit. Thanks for coming out, Karen!