The National Zoo

This morning we got up, got dressed, and hit the Metro to head to the National Zoo. We knew the girls would enjoy it and honestly, who doesn't love a zoo with fun animals?  The weather was quite chilly when we left, so we all had to take sweaters and jackets. It's a nice change from Texas, which is just getting hot all the time now.  This was Kate's first experience on the subway, and she was all excited about riding the train like I had told her about until she saw one speed off from the station and it was a little loud and really fast. She hugged close to me until we boarded and she was a little bit hesitant, but eventually she relaxed. For part of our ride we were on a rail above the roads so she could see out the windows, which she really liked but mostly we were underground.

We headed to the back of the zoo and worked out way forward. Kate and Olivia both enjoyed the big kitties. The tigers were pacing around their enclosure and the lions were pretty relaxed and chilling out, but the girls really enjoyed watching them. I was impressed with the large cat enclosures - they are very well suited for lots of people viewing the cats.

 The girls have been so sweet together so far on our trip. The have been playing really well together and sharing toys, and today at the zoo they kept holding hands while we were walking around. Kate is such a good "momma" to kids younger than her, so she kept telling Olivia to come on, consoling her when she'd get upset about something, and even once this afternoon she looked Olivia right in the face and told her, "You be nice!" She calls her Wibi, because I've been calling her Livi since I figured Olivia would be too much for Kate to say.

 The crowd was pretty light when we arrived but it started to really fill up by noon and it didn't take us long after we had lunch to decide it was time to go. Kate fell asleep in the stroller and Olivia fell asleep on the way back to the subway, so we did a good job in wearing them out.