The Zoo. In July.

Wowsa it's hot outside.



The kids have been asking daily to go back to the zoo since we had a few fun trips there during the spring.
 

I finally relented and planned a trip there for this morning, and one solid friend braved the heat to come with us.



Jennifer was my roommate most of the time I was at A&M and remains one of my best friends.
 

Her daughter Evie is just a couple months younger than Oliver.




We crammed a lot of fun into the two hours we were at the zoo.  We rode the kid train, saw the snakes, saw the monkeys, koalas, and kangaroos...







...fed the goats in the children's zoo (and played in the egg statues and the water nearby)...






...and finally we saw the elephants and giraffes and rode the merry-go-round.



The car was a thousand degrees when we got back to it, but the important thing is that we did get back to it.  The zoo feels like a precarious outing with three little kids, especially in the heat.



But it's fun to go with a friend.  Lucy loved holding Miss Jennifer's hand, and all my kids love Evie to pieces.



Mostly I felt relieved when we were back in the car.  I'm hoping that the kids will be satisfied with this zoo outing until it gets a little cooler in the fall. 

Family Zoo Outing

Yesterday held a pleasant surprise.  I thought I was scheduled to work, but I found out just before leaving for work that I wasn't! 


So instead we had a nice quiet morning and then took the kids to the zoo for lunch and a quick tour of the "giants of the safari."  



Elliot couldn't wait to see the lions (said, "Yi-ons!").  Our view of them left something to be desired... they were far away (well, it wouldn't be far if there were no gates between us, but you know what I mean).  Maybe we'll see them better next time.



When I think of our walk through the zoo, I think of little hands holding my index finger as we walk, and of potty stops along the way. 



The exhaustion of lifting little bodies onto adult sized toilets, and the arduous task of propping them up at the sink so they can wash their little hands. 



I think of fights over who flushed whose pee-pee and who has to go first, and the resounding, ever-present chorus of, "is it loud?" whenever we go to a public restroom.


I don't want to forget how they looked, scrambling up on the bench to get a better look at the elephants and giraffes.  Pointing to them and saying, "Yook, Mommy--big, BIG eh-fants!"


Elliot badly wanted to see the owls next, but we had actually spent all the time we had, and it was time to go home.  The only thing left on our list to do was the carousel.  Lucy had begged to do it the last time I took the kids, but without Daniel there I had said no.  This time we established at the beginning that we would do the carousel, and Lucy was so, so excited.



Elliot was losing his marbles in the car and on the way home.  That happens whenever we sail through his nap time.  We had a really nice time at the zoo. Over dinner, we asked the kids what their favorite part of the day was. 


They both responded--as they have every single night for the past few weeks--that their favorite part of the day was, "when we bought yucky babies from the store and bought yucky babies from the store and bought yucky babies from the store!"


We are doing our very best to not make a big deal of this.  We listen politely and then go on to ask each other about our days.  Sometimes... like yesterday when we spent so much energy making the Zoo happen... it is a teensy bit annoying not to hear about any of it from the kids and to hear instead about "yucky babies." 


But it's a phase, and it will pass.  And there are much more annoying phases ahead.  And in the grand scheme of things, "yucky babies" are not the worst topic of dinner conversation you could have with your kids. 


But for Daniel's and my parts, we enjoyed the zoo.  So we talked about that.