last week we decided to become members of the oakland zoo. a family membership gets you free admission for two adults and four children, free parking, coupons for free rides and ten percent off at the gift shop, among other discounts and benefits. best of all, it supports the zoo <3

ellie's BFF jenna and her family belong, too, so we can all go together as often as we want, and it's just like going to the park except with animals :)

we decided to put our new membership to use for the first time last wednesday with jenna, jocelyn and tara, and our other gymboree friends michelle, audrey and baby kate.

we made our usual trek past the giraffes and elephants, zebras and meerkats, birds and monkeys. the 2-year-olds did a great job keeping up (because when you’re two, you NEVER ride in the stroller when you can walk!) and everyone was having a grand old time until we sat down by the children’s zoo to eat lunch. that’s when jocelyn started complaining that she didn’t feel well … and then she threw up right there on the grass! poor thing :( and she had been so happy earlier.

so tara did as best she could to clean up and left with her girls to avoid spreading any germs to ours. it was a good thing she did because jocelyn had a temperature of 103! luckily she felt better in a day or two, no one else caught her stomach bug (except her sister who’s all better now) and we’ll be making plans to return to the zoo when the rain lets up.

hooray for zoo membership!