Friday Fun?

One of my favorite parts of Tiger Academy (the kids' favorite parts, as well) is Science Friday. It is one of my favorites because Jared is the teacher and my participation is often not required. (Not that I don't love the other days, but it is so nice to have a break!) It is the boys' favorite because they learn cool stuff and usually go on a field trip. So far, Jared has taken them horseback riding, to see the salmon run at the local fish hatchery, to tour a print shop, and today we took a family outing to the zoo. Yes, even after what happened this week in San Francisco. (Although I did get pretty nervous when the air raid sirens went off for two minutes. It turns out that the city of Sacramento tests their air raid sirens on the last Friday of the month. Seems like someone should have told me, because I was looking for a spot to hide my babies from the tiger on the loose.)
Now this sounds like a great thing to do as a family on a Friday morning, and we told the kids last night about our plan. Jared would first give them a science lesson about kingdom-phyllum-class-order-family-genus-species and then we'd all go together. Neither of us considered checking the weather report before giving our children such exciting news.
So, we bundled up and went to the zoo in the 40 degree rain. I'm sure that if you live in upstate New York, Winnepeg, or Yekaterinburg you don't think that is cold. But we Californians are a bit wimpy about such things. In fact, by the time we got back to the car, I was convinced that my feet hadn't been that cold since I walked the streets of Yekaterinburg (look it up here) in the winter, talking to people about my church. There were about three other families in the entire zoo who were as crazy (or foolish) as we. The kids seemed to have a great time (except Bronwen, who did not enjoy herself beyond the first ten minutes, when I managed to get this picture!). The three one-year-old Sumatran tigers (brothers) thought it was pretty cold too. We found them all huddled up together trying to keep warm. It's funny how you can watch three tigers who are brothers and think that you are seeing your own three sons! Poor little tropical guys, living in such a frigid, foreign environment. Oh well, at least they have each other.
In the hour that we spent there before we headed for the warm car, we got to see our favorites: the tigers, lemurs, and penguins, plus a few others; so I guess it wasn't a total loss. Plus, we get to count today as a school day! That means that some sunny, lovely day in May when you are all huddled over homework with your kids, we'll be at the pool!