Oh--one more funny thing about the zoo I forgot to mention. Every time we arrived at a new animal pen, the boys would, almost in unison, say "more!" Like the bald eagle or red wolf or penguin wasn't enough, they wanted MORE. Darn hard to please kids.

 This morning we went to the play area at the Great Northern Mall, about 35 minutes from home in Cicero, north of Syracuse. I had heard good things and hoped that it would be a good play spot for cold or rainy days. It turns out it is a toddler-only play area with lots of fun stuff for the boys' size and age. All the structures are made out of a cool smooth but also soft material, and you have to take your shoes off to go in so everything is tidy and clean. The boys LOVED it. There were lots of other families there but for the most part everyone played well together.

Preparing to go down the slide tandem.

Theo sitting on a dragon.

Beck climbing into the bear's lap ("Behhhr!")

Theo spinning the wheel of death. Just kidding. No death.

The base of the slide has a tunnel to climb through, which Theo loved exploring.

All in all, a great field trip that we will probably repeat many times this winter. The mall is also next to a BJ's so I can imagine hitting up the BJs and then letting the boys run off some energy at the playspace before getting back into the car for the ride home.