Remember how when I was on The Morning Blend (round two), I was all “we do a lot of foreshadowing and it helps our adventures to be successful”? Yeah well I didn’t do that before our trip to the zoo last week.
We met a group of friends (we were four moms with ten kids total) and joined every other child in the Milwaukee area at the zoo. None of my friends or I realized that it was the last day of school and every field trip would be to our same destination. It took one of my friends 30 minutes of sitting in line to enter the parking lot!
We explored the Learning Zone for the first time. It’s right behind the flamingos and is a small building where you can actually see veterinarians doing exams and procedures on animals. WOW!
That day, some bats were getting eye exams.
We saw monkeys, giraffes, elephants, a badger, polar bears and something that screeched really loudly.
The big kids talked us into letting them do the pony rides. Of course they had the time of their lives and wanted only to do other rides and get souvenirs and ride the carousel a million times. More on that later… But the two year olds of the bunch did a great job watching and not fussing about just watching.
Hello peacock!
We found a random picnic table somewhere near the farm section and unpacked lunches. I’d say 50% of us nibbled on food while the other 50% spent time running with sticks and having general foot races.
I got a snapshot with my oldest and youngest girls.
And then the exit. One of my friends bailed before we even got to the carousel because her kids were melting. I should have seen it as a sign.
I went back and forth about letting them take a ride because it was close to nap and I was hot and flustered and I knew they’d never want to stop. But as a personality test I recently took described me, I “never want to miss out on fun”, so I said “sure!”. I ushered all my kids on during the busy loading up process, and was too late. Every animal was taken except for one, and Little A threw the biggest stink so she got to ride on a horsey (yes I know that sucks for Little T and J who were easy going about it all). Little T and J were actually super happy to sit on the swan bench. I tried to manage spotting Little A while keeping an eye on the other two. Baby S was a champ as per usual, and did just find strapped to my sweating body.
The picture above show us all smilng, which was very representative of the ride. However, once it stopped and they realized we’d have to go, madness ensued. I calmly walked out with a parade of screaming children. It persisted the entire way until we got into the car. There were so many kind parents who looked at me with “I feel your pain, lady” eyes, and some who even encouraged me to stay strong.
We loaded ourselves into the car and this is what I got to look at, with cries of “but I wanted another ride!” and “waaaaaaahhhhh!”
But a minute later we were all calm and talking about how we’d try it again next time. And Little A was asleep before we even left the parking lot, J followed soon after.
I described the morning as awesome and terrible to my husband. And later that day while we were on a walk, I realized that that’s pretty much every adventure/trip out of the house. Parts are amazing and fun, and the kids surprise every person they encounter with their good behavior. And parts are awful and loud and ridiculous and incredibly frustrating (for us all). But that’s sort of the game, isn’t it? One trip is terrible/amazing. Others are straight up fun and successful. And others are overwhelming disasters. But it evens out.
A special shout out to my friends who I love, who help me with my kids on these adventures. You know who you are and I thank you for chasing after my kids and distracting them when my hands are full and not making me feel bad about it. I’ll do the same for you when I can.
A. Storm
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