Has it been a year already?!??!!?!? My sweet little Sare Bear is ONE YEAR OLD!!!!!

We were supposed to go to the Wild Animal Park, but sadly, Sera woke up sick this morning :( She's pretty miserable. We're hoping it's a 24 hour thing and she'll be better tomorrow so we can take her then.

It really doesn't feel like it was a year ago that my sweet little Serapia entered this world. Then again, I can't remember life without her, so I guess there are two sides to every coin. This sweet girl has brought such an immense amount of joy and love to our lives.

On a different note, we went to the zoo yesterday! Emma's Kindergarten class went on a field trip to the zoo. Drake was a chaperone. He called me up and suggested I meet them at the zoo so we could spend the day there instead of just the hour that the kindergarten class was going to be there. So, I checked Caitlin out of school (BAD mommy!!!) and we all went to the zoo. We got there [i]just[/i] as the Kindergarteners were leaving, so the timing couldn't be more perfect. Emma got to spend her entire field trip with her class, then got to spend the rest of the day at the zoo with her family. Six hours later, we were exhausted, so we went home. We had an incredible time. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better day. I wish I had brought my camera :(

I have mixed feelings about the zoo. On one hand, my kids LOVE it and I know the San Diego zoo does some amazing things when it comes to breeding endangered animals and releasing them into the wild. Many of the comebacks of endangered species can be directly traced back to the efforts at the San Diego zoo, which is awesome. On the other hand, it makes me sad to see these animals in these small enclosures, inhibiting their ability to move around freely and their ability to interact with animals of their own kind like they would in the wild. We went and watched a show (which are one of the things I loathe the most) and they were talking about one of the animals they brought out and said that in the wild, they traveled in herds of up to 2000. Yet, they only had a few at the zoo. I feel just horrible for that poor creature, who's very nature is to be with thousands of it's own kind. It makes me sad to see the lions just laying there lazily, not being able to hunt, not being able to play like they normally would. They have a whole section for birds of prey. Granted, it's a HUGE aviary, but nowhere near big enough to sustain such large creatures who are used to being able to fly wherever they want.

I feel MUCH better visiting the wild animal park. (See above link) There, they have a TON of space, open enclosures, the animals that can live peacefully together, that would normally live together in the wild, are allowed to do so. It just seems like a much better environment for them, and endangered animals can breed without the worry of predators, but without being stuck in a cage. I'm not some PETA freak, that's for sure (I happily chow down on steak and am grateful for many of the things that animal testing has brought about) but I really do hate zoos. I refuse to visit one that is there purely for the purpose of making money off of people seeing animals in little tiny cages. :( I justify visiting the San Diego zoo because they really do some wonderful things for animals.