A Night out at the Zoo

John's mother works at St. Elizabeth's hospital in the nursery. For the past couple years, St. Elizabeth's has treated all their employees to a day at Mahoney State Park, but this year they changed the event to a day/night at the zoo. John had to work so we went directly over after he was off to enjoy a catered meal together. Each child received 3 tickets to use at one of the 10 booths set up around the zoo. We had a great evening together and it is always a delight to watch them be delighted.

Why is cotton candy still amazing even as an adult?  I was fascinated with it as a child.  They each were able to pick out a flavor.

It was well worth the long line to get their faces painted by the incredible face artists.  

I was amazed she let the nice lady touch her.  She even answered her questions.

We let the kids ride the horses once a year so it was an extra treat to be able to ride them this night over and over.

She was convinced that the horse would bite her, but after a trip around the arena, she loved it.

We closed out the evening with a train ride around the zoo.  I was thrilled to capture this sweet picture of Clairvaux's hand on Dominic's leg.  It was sweet to me that neither of them noticed and just sat in the train enjoying the breeze about their faces, content to just be sitting for the ride.
I don't know why I didn't capture many pictures of Dominic this evening.  He had his face painted with a Batman mask and also rode the horses.  They put him on the smallest horse which looked more like a pony.  He said he felt like a hobbit.

11 year old Dominic.  2 (almost 3) year old Clairvaux.