Black Friday was a Zoo

I convinced myself the day after Thanksgiving would be the PERFECT day to visit the zoo seeing as everyone would be out Black Friday shopping and we'd surely avoid any kind of crowd. Twas not the case. Have I told you I hate Black Friday shopping on account of the crowds? And we were right there in 'em amongst the animals. 

It only took us 5 billion years to make it through the ticket stand, but it gave us plenty of time to get some cute pictures!

Due to my mom's recent foot surgery, my Dad had the honor of wheeling my Mom around the park all day. 

My favorite sight was when Jeff and my Dad would end up next to each other strolling their dependents through the park. 

At one point my Dad was going down a hill and joked that he was going to lose my Mom. Eli did not find this funny and spent the entire rest of the day dutifully hanging on to his Grandma's wheelchair to be Grandpa's emergency brake in the case of a runaway Grandma. 

Lincoln got front row seats to a tiger. 

If Eli wasn't carefully watching over Grandma, he was studiously perusing the map to keep us headed towards the rhinos. 

Lincoln confirmed my suspicions that he would never survive an elephant stampede. Without any direction from me, he saw a giant elephant statue and instinctively put his head under the elephant's foot. We need to work on his survivor skills. 

We stopped for a yummy lunch!

Unsure what to do with their lunch keepsake, they fashioned their bags into hats. 

And then made this face upon request of a smile: 

Eli seized the opportunity to try out the wheelchair while Grandma was up and at 'em at lunch. He was wheeling in everybody's way, but people would jump out of his path, overly apologetic. It wasn't until halfway through lunch I realized people thought he was really wheelchair bound and I decided to make him park the chair.

The only walking Carson did all day was to get off one wheeled vehicle to another.

Lincoln had to try out Grandma's wheels to see what all the hype was about. 

Linker eventually dozed off late in the afternoon. 

Eli took a break from helping Grandma to securing his floppy, sleepy brother in place after determining the rented stroller was not very compatible with napping.

We had a fun day at the zoo, ending with a double decker bus ride tour (per Carson's request. He was humorously obsessed with people driving him around the park. I wasn't kidding). 

We stopped by the San Diego temple on the way home to see it decorated for Christmas and got there just as the lights were turning on. It was such a fun day!