Mother of three: Day two with the gang

Here is the story of our day at the zoo.....brace yourselves.....Back in April, I bought a season pass for the zoo so that we could go ANYTIME we wanted to. So, when my neice and nephews had never been to the zoo, I had to take them. We had to drop our SUV off at the shop on our way, so we went with the mustang and mini van...quite a sight....by the time we got to the zoo, we realized that neither one of us had our camera, so we had to use Rick's camera phone, which took some pretty good pictures, for a phone....strike one. As we are pulling up to the zoo, there are cops directing traffic.....hmmmm, why would cops be directing traffic on a Thursday for the zoo????? well, it was dollar day.....strike two - everyone was there, we parked as far away from the entrance as possible - not by choice. We get out of the car and start putting sunscreen on the kids. Caleb decides that sunscreen hurts if you put it on outside and I should have put in on in the house so it wouldn't hurt....this starts about an hours worth of crying and whining which spreads to Chloe who doesn't even know why she is whining.....strike three. The temperature was over 100 by the time we got there and it was completely crowded....now you may be asking why on earth did we stay? Well, how can you tell the kids that they get to go to the zoo (where they have never been and are completely thrilled to be at) that it is too crowded and too hot???? So, we decided to fight the crowd and the heat. I had bought some water bottles so they could squirt themselves and keep themselves cool. The zoo is very well shaded, so if you stayed in the shade, it wasn't too hot. We went to the kids area hoping to get Caleb and Chloe to perk up and not be grumpy, but there were so many kids there, all we could do was get our feet wet. Keira seemed to like it (she, by the way, was absolutely fabulous). Oh yeah, forgot, I wiped the sunscreen off of Caleb's face and bought him a hat, which seemed to help out some. So, Rick's kids wanted to go see the animals, so we split up for a little while and I sat in the shade with my kids trying to cheer them up. I can't say that I blame them for being in a bad mood, I wasn't too thrilled to be at the zoo on dollar day either, but I wanted Rick and his family to have a good time so we decided that we would have a good time too. By the time it was lunch time, the kids were all very hot, and Matthias was getting hungry. Kristi found a table in the air conditioned restaurant and we ate our lunch in there. I think the cooler air made everyone much happier, Caleb included. Kristi also found that she had actually had her camera after all. After lunch, we went to see the giraffes and elephants....they weren't very interested in coming out in the heat, so they were inside, we didn't get a great look at them except through the glass window. Everyone was getting happier, until Caleb said to me, "mom, where is my hat?" well, somehow it got lost and that upset Caleb cuz his head was no longer covered. On our way out, he got another hat (thank goodness they were only $5). The kids stopped at the butterfly house and checked them out on our way out. It was a crazy day at the zoo, but I think most everyone had fun. I did learn a lesson though....be sure to check the zoo calendar before you go to the zoo.

Keira enjoyed the water, she was pretty happy most of the day, the kids took turns spraying her with water.

This smile is completely fake.....hot, tired, and I was cranky.....to say the least.

The kids were worn out from the heat and all the walking we did. Julean and Matthias relaxed in the stroller most of the time - oh yeah, we didn't have shoes for Julean either, so he couldn't get out much because the ground was so hot.