Holiday 2013 ~ Part 6 ~ Colchester Zoo

For me (and mine) there is only one zoo that I consider worth the expense of visiting and that is Colchester. It really is THE best zoo :D But Thursday's excursion was made all the better by the very fact of it being FREE!!! Yes, my wonderful friends are Platinum members, and with that they get one complementary pass per membership ~ in total they had 9 & Chip goes free anyway ~ AWESOME!!

So we met them all there and trooped 23 children around the zoo (Chip, Bugs & J are not in the picture)!

[Just for posterity, here's a couple of pictures from the previous times we've had this crowd together, some of whom weren't even born or just aren't in these pictures!!

2009

2006

(The younger baby here is DD)

It amazes me how, despite the years and the miles, these children & mine remain firm friends. The internet may have it's downsides, but this is truly on of it's greatest positives :D. I wish we could get them together more often, but it's hard... 
For most of the day I handed my camera to Bugs, so I'll link to his pictures when he publishes them. Suffice to say, the zoo has changed massively since last time we were there, but is brilliant as ever. 

We finished the day back at Lizzie's with hotdogs and chips! The children played for hours, while we laughed and chatted together. A couple of the children (not mine) were feeling the effects of the sun, but thankfully recovered as the evening wore on. It had been a VERY hot day!

A brilliant, brilliant day, with too many goodbye tears :(

& here's today's slideshow of a few animals and lots of kids!