it had been a while since we had been able to do something fun as a family. my mom had offered to have a bonding day with jack (a sacrifice for her) so we decided to make it a “ben and sam” day. we drove to columbia to the riverbanks zoo. this is a relatively small zoo, but so great. it doesn’t take you 2 days to see everything and the animals are really up close and personal. our old friend, jonathon rhodes is a zoo keeper there. he is part of the aviary team. 
he got us in to the park for free (which the price is not bad even if we had to pay) and he took us back to see a few baby flamingos and we got to meet some rock hopper penguins! the boys weren’t too thrilled about this because they were quite loud. but i loved it!!
it was great to spend the day with ben and sam without little jack jack…although we missed him my mom got to spend some time with him and ben and sam got to have all of our attention. they love animals so much. and they are getting more brave. last november when we went to the zoo with my mom, aunt joyce and uncle russell they wanted nothing to do with the giraffes. but this time they were calling to them and wanting to get close to them. i think that was my highlight of the zoo experience too! how many people can say, “i fed a giraffe today”? they are pretty amazing creatures! it’s awesome to be that close to some of God’s creation.
Oak and Pines 
Looks like so much fun…you’ll have to tell the boys Austin wants to take care of giraffes one day (or be an ice cream taster-tester)
i can’t believe that giraffe got that close! so fun!!!! and i think you are an amazing blogger. look at all those graphic and layout skills! i’m impressed.
Hi Jessica! It’s Kimberly (Freeman). I came across your page from Jen’s page and bookmarked it on mine, so I can see how you are all doing from time to time!! Your boys are so cute!! *Congratulations on your beautiful family* 🙂 Hope you are all doing well!!