Granny goes to the zoo!

Hard as it is to believe, Granny has been here over a month and we just took her to the zoo this week! While Granny dearly loves her grandchildren, I sort of forgot how tedious it can be to be stuck with my two little preschoolers in a compound all day. I mean, I get out and leave and interact with other adults and stuff, but poor old Granny has been stuck with the grandkids pretty much 24/7. Which can get old, even with my perfect little darlin's ;)

Monday Granny and I went to an impromptu birthday party for a friend of mine, leaving the children asleep in their beds at nap time, under the care of Sarah. We actually went to a fancy restaurant, ate different food and chatted for several hours with other ADULT WOMEN, totally child free! Yes, it was a good feeling and we both greatly enjoyed it. Due to my charming and naturally warm and friendly nature (ha!), I rarely get out and mingle with other expat women. But we did on Monday and both mom and I had fun! This kicked off a string of "get out of the compound" activities and the following day we headed for the zoo. And as always, we had a BLAST!!! I love love love doing things with my mom!

We could hardly believe at how much "our" baby camel had grown! And she is SO friendly now and is simply precious and adorable!

Totally adorable! She likes to be pet and scratched and has the softest, curliest hair!

Taking a cat nap. The fat one on the bottom woke up long enough to bite the boy's tail and wake him up for us :)

What a crew! Love it!

Guess what? A new "baby" otter! So cute!

You know you go to the zoo a lot when you start recognizing the baby monitor lizards. We've seen this little fella here by the croc pens before. My is he growing!

This old dude looked really scrubbed clean for some reason

The Eland - my favorite antelopey things

Ostriches are the funniest, ugliest looking things!

Then we crashed a prayer meeting with the warthogs. Whoops!

This gal said she'd pray for us :)

Granny was even able to watch in proud amazement and wonder as her grandchildren exhibited their sensational camel and donkey riding skills. She got some good pictures but unfortunately, I can't get her pictures off of her camera :( She was particularly amazed at Frankie's firm seat and ram rod straight back aboard his donkey, and Ella's ease and nonchalance concerning hers. It was confirmed that Frankie is indeed a little Gracie, the way he loves riding the donkeys and takes it so seriously. She was also impressed with Frankie's enthusiasm and bravery in riding the big, noisy camels. Little two year old Gracie never rode camels, poor deprived little thing... :(