The Oakland Zoo

Marie invited us over on Sunday to go to the Oakland Zoo with her family and my cousin's family. So I carted Lauren off in my car, leaving Lauris behind to work on his dissertation and the house, while Lauren met up with Marie and family at her house, where she served up a blintz brunch. After our yummy breakfast, the kids climbed into the cars to head off to the Oakland Zoo.

My cousin Ling got all the kids an Oakland Zoo "key", a little plastic key that when inserted into various boxes throughout the zoo, turned on the audio for the explanation of the particular exhibit you happen to be standing in front. The five kids fought to be first to insert the key at every box, and then took turns overriding each others keys by flipping between the English and Spanish versions of the explanation.

After seeing the animals in the zoo, we went over to the rides area (unfortunately Lauren was clamoring to go on the rides well before we got to that section of the park). She wanted to do the roller coaster, so Michaela, myself and Lauren rode the tiger coaster, while the other kids ran to other rides and had fun.

All of us then proceeded to Carrows for a family dinner. Lauren enjoyed my dinner (fried chicken with garlic bread and watermelon) much more than her own (mac and cheese, with a side of fruit). All in all a very successful and fun meeting with my sister and her family and my cousin Ling and his family.