Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh my!

Okay, I know that that was a lame title, but I couldn't resist.  We had a really fun week!  Thursday the boys and I went down to the Santa Barbara with my mom and sister, Carina.  We started the day off at the zoo.  We checked out a few animals, then took a ride on the blue zoo train.  

Jonah says that when he grows up he wants to drive the zoo train and say "it'll be 2 bucks for a ticket to ride the train."

After our train ride, we played at the zoo's new park.  Of course Jonah's favorite part was the rope spider web.  Here he is as the human fly.

A lady came and taught the kids about different animals.  Here they are touching snake skin.  They also got to hold an ostrich egg, a turtle shell, giraffe tail hair, and Jonah's personal favorite, the gorilla's snacks.  He explains it as "they eat can biscuits because there's not a lot of ants for the gorillas to eat and the gorillas hair feels like wire."

Jaxon's new friend the bronze tortoise.  This was the first time we went to the zoo and Jaxon actually responded to the animals - he absolutely loved it!  He growled at the tigers and "ooh-oohed" like a gorilla to every other animal.  

Mama bird and her chicks in their nest :)

We had so much fun at the zoo.  Afterward we headed over to the mission.  We just stayed for a few minutes.

Gramma taught Jonah all about the old aqueducts in front of the mission.  Jonah told me we need to build one at our house so we can go swimming and take a bath in it.

After the mission we headed up the road about a mile to the Natural History Museum. Surprisingly enough Jonah said he liked it more than the zoo...wow!  Jonah loved the real stuffed animals in the mammal room exhibit.  His other favorites were the insect room and the planetarium.  I personally liked the Chumash Indian exhibit, but I didn't get to spend much time in their seeing that it bored Jonah.

On our way out we ran in to a wonderful surprise.  There was a real skeleton of a blue whale.  Jonah couldn't believe there was a skeleton really that big!
Blue whales are the largest animals in the world - I think this skeleton was bigger then our apartment! (You can see Jonah at the very end near the tail - the fin was bigger than he was!)
Jaxon didn't enjoy the museum nearly as much as the zoo and was happy to be back outside!

To end Jonah's fun-filled week off, Friday Grand Pa (yes, that's what my dad likes to go by) and Jonah went out to lunch just the 2 of them, which was a BIG deal for Jonah.  They ate hot dogs, fries, and soda...Jonahs favorites!  

Saturday we went park-hopping.  David had a few hours to spend with us, so we went to Dinosaur Caves Park in Shell Beach and the Pirate park at Avila Beach.  Jaxon and David slept through most of it, but Jonah and I sure had fun!  :) What a fun week!