The Zoo! And Date Night IN!

This morning I was up with the sun - literally - at 7am. Both of my alarms went off at the same time - Charis and my phone alarm. We tried to quickly get ready and leave the house so we could make it to the zoo fairly early. The drive was about an hour, we finally left at 9:30 (after a trip to Ian's store and then a trip back to the house to pick up the tickets that we left in the printer) so we made it to the zoo just before 10:30. The weather was perfect for a trip to the zoo! It was actually pretty warm - got up into the 80s. At one point, I did have a visit from my arch nemesis...BACK SWEAT. But the sun was out, and it was a gorgeous, warm, January Florida day!

Cayman walked almost the whole time. He tried a couple of times to get Mimi to carry him for a while (he is definitely getting a little spoiled with two whole weeks of grandparents visiting!) But he did awesome - I don't remember any major melt downs. Although while we were on the primate cruise (we rode a boat around a lake to view different kinds of monkeys living on these islands) Cayman realized it would be the perfect chance to sneak in some "Boo" time....ONLY Mom accidentally left Boo in the bottom of the stroller and the stroller had to stay on land during our cruise. So he had a minor meltdown when he realized his best bud was "far, far away." When we got back, I realized that some black birds had found the kids' snacks on the stroller trays and had helped themselves to the leftovers! They also narrowly missed Boo with a little squirt of their excrement. How horrible would that have been - Boo getting splattered with bird poo! Oh the horror. The torture!

Cayman's favorite animals were the tigers, the lions, and the alligators. We heard the lion roaring halfway around the park! It was incredibly loud. Equally as loud were some of the monkeys, playing on their island. Actually, I believe the monkeys were two of the loudest things I've ever heard in my life. I didn't know part of God's creation could be that loud. They sounded like sirens. They were so loud, in fact, that I videotaped them as we stood on the ground near their island. You definitely cannot see the monkeys in the video, but you sure can hear them!

Charis was such a trooper! She stayed in her stroller almost the whole time. I got her out one time to see the tiger prowling around. She loved it! She started jumping up and down in my arms, making her noises like she was trying to get the tiger's attention. It was cute! Towards the end of the day, I put a blanket over the stroller, thinking she might would try to take a nap (silly me...) Instead, she started playing peek-a-boo with me! For the first time, she actually played a little game with me! It was so cute. I videotaped that too, of course. And I refrained from shedding a tear in the middle of the path beside the alligator pond (everyone else was watching the "alligator feeding show").

I think we all enjoyed our picnic lunch too! Cayman and Charis got a yummy treat - bites from Mommy's chocolate pudding (Charis' first real treat ever). Cayman's favorite was his clementine orange. If I'd let him, I believe he'd eat 3-4 at a time! He loves those things. Other than clementines and pudding, we had turkey sandwiches, chips and pickles...your typical picnic lunch!

To top off a wonderful day, Dwight and Debbie planned a special anniversary celebration for us! A date night IN! They cooked a wonderful, yummy steak dinner for us, set the table outside on the lanai (complete with a candle!), and then took the kids and LEFT! It was fun to enjoy our wonderful house for a little while - not to mention a nice, quiet dinner alone. Then we were going to go sit in the hot tub, but once we got up there, the pool was closed for the night! (We had no idea they closed at dusk...) So we decided to go downtown and walk around for a while. It was nice! They decided to go out to eat to Chili's (I believe it was the first time my kids have been out to eat at a restaurant without us), and then they went to this place called Escape Zone - brave, brave, souls. They said Cayman behaved himself, and Charis ate everybody's food! The child seriously ate her body weight in food tonight (ok, maybe not seriously, but it had to have been close.) A great day and night was had by all!!

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