Zoo

We booked a couple of nights at the Embassy Suites b/c of my very fond memories with Kim's parents at the one by SeaTac Mall. I was amazed that at night you got FREE drinks (we got Shirley Temples) and snacks and then in the morning you got FREE breakfast (not just a mini box of Cheerios and a muffin my friend, I'm talking made-to-order omelets (the spell check gave me that - is that seriously how you spell it? I guess it is. It looks more and more right the longer I look at it), bacon, sausage, oatmeal, fruit, the list goes on!)

So we stayed there with the kids and they too were impressed with all the fun freebies. We had pretzels, chips and salsa each evening and with the free hearty breakfast I didn't even eat again until those pretzels. Staying there saved us buying 2 meals each day! We didn't even have to tell the drink lady our order the second night! She just said, "How many Shirleys and how many Roys?" :) We must have been the only adults there who didn't take advantage of the free booze (beer, wine, mixed drinks - you name it).

Part of the reason we went to a hotel instead of just camping is that we wanted to swim. We had been telling Ashlyn for a year that for her birthday we were going to California and going to swim in the ocean. So we wanted a nice pool as a substitute. We loved playing in the pool and by our second trip Ashlyn was doing well and even let us take her out of her life jacket. The kids loved the pool and the hot tub!

For my actual birthday day we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It was great! Rather than bore you with lots of our animal pics I'll post some of the unique things about our day and the zoo.
First of all - how cool is it that you can feed and pet the giraffes? They sell you these crackers that look like Ry Krisps. :) Fun! It was pretty warm the day that we went and so all over the zoo they had these portable fans hooked up to a water tank that would spray mist down the walkways. It is a pretty fine mist but my kids played enough in them that they were soaked to the skin! The day was hot enough that this presented no problem and Ashlyn especially thought that this was definitely way up on her list of "Coolest Things in the World". Also of note about this zoo are the calves of iron you will need to traverse it. Wow - I was sore for almost 2 days. Despite the picture above I lugged that beautiful double stroller around quite a bit. The whole zoo is up on a mountainside and it is SO STEEP!!! They do have a trolley for a buck or so, so don't let the hike dissuade you from going.