Bringing the Cubs to the Zoo...

When my sister called yesterday morning and said she was going to the zoo, I decided that would be the perfect place to go to get out of the house and let the kids run off some pent-up energy. She and her sister-in-law, Marisa, were meeting there and were happy to have me so off we went. It took all of an hour to pack everything up, eat breakfast, feed the baby and herd the family into the van and we were off. The kids were so excited and, as we "disembarked" to enter the land of the wild animals (even though I would argue that sometimes that sounds like my house), I wondered if this was really something I wanted to tackle in my exhausted state.

The Los Angeles Zoo. Once we got here, there was no turning back.

The kids were so excited they could hardly wait to see the elephants and the komodo dragons (one of Mikayla's favorites).
The tiger looked so cuddly...and it looked like he wanted to take a swim. It was a beautiful day...not too hot, not too cold, perfect for herding 7 kids around the zoo. This meerkat was absolutely adorable. First of all, wouldn't you love to have a life of sitting back on your haunches and watching people adore you? You can just tell he's basking in the limelight. Cara told me that he's the only one in the exhibit due to the fact that if they add another family, they'll kill him off and make it their place. A little territorial, I must say. It would be a little lonely to be the only meerkat on the mound but I think it might be nice to have a little peace and quiet once in a while.
Mikayla manned the map. Incredibly, and not like her mother, she has excellent navigational skills and knows how to read maps, for the most part. Left to Marisa and me, we would have seen the same turtle 30 times before we realized we were walking in circles. I've always been amazed at Mikayla's memory and ability to recognize where we are when we're driving. When she was about 2 1/2, she was able to tell how to get to Grammie's house. Let me share a little bit about myself in that arena...even when I was a TEENAGER, I could hardly navigate myself to Marshall's. Some of us aren't born with a built-in compass.

The kangaroo before she went completely horizontal. All of the animals were kind of lazy that day.

Here is the gang of kids at the end of the day. We had so much fun, minus hearing the question, "can we get the rainbow drink now?" at least 100 times. The rainbow drink was some shaved ice that Mikayla wanted. Unfortunately, at the LA Zoo, they have more refreshments for the animals than the humans and, once we passed the shaved ice, that was the last time we saw it the rest of the trip. Even after telling her this all 100 times, my daughter didn't accept that answer

until it was the one she wanted to hear and that one never came. Therefore, I had to hear the question all day... "The moms" at the end of the day. I have an extra being strapped to me just for the fun of it (ya, right) but the Moby Wrap makes it surprisingly comfortable to carry kids for long periods of time. I would highly recommend it compared to the baby Bjorn. All in all, thanks Cara and Marisa for letting me join in the fun. We should do it again sometime.