Zoo

We took the girls to the zoo which sounded like a fun family outing and somewhere we could easily manage all four girls. We saw all sorts of impressive animals: lions, tigers, bears, elephants, etc. When I asked Sophia and Ella what their favorite part of the day was they said "we saw a BOY horse go pee-pee". Which they did. It was actually a little frightening. Next on their list was the the amount of poo poo in the llama enclosure and finally the Carousel.

Katie and Ceci were most excited about the ducks. I think they could have stood there saying "quack quack" and giggling all day.

The day was going pretty smoothly until we decided to take the train ride. We took Sophia and Ella to the zoo last year and she kept begging to go on the train, but we had a large stroller and told her we couldn't do it. As soon as we were in the car she reminded us that we had promised last year that next time we'd go on the train. I couldn't tell her that that was one of those promises parents make to get out of a place and they assume the child will forget about it. Sophia really had her heart set on a train ride so we finally relented and decided to just park the stroller in the stroller corral at the train stop and take the train around the zoo. After the first 5 minutes it was clear that Katie and Ceci were not going to sit quietly. They devoured the remaining snacks after dumping a bag of goldfish crackers all over the floor and kept trying to launch themselves off the train. Needless to say we became "that family" that everyone was trying to move seats to get away from. I'm more than used to being "that family" but usually it's in a place where we can exit easily that isn't moving. How long could this ride possibly take? The answer I got from the operator..."an hour". Are you kidding me??? We got off at the next stop and had to walk 30 min to get back to our stroller. Rick and I each trying to carry a 20lb squirming 1 yr old.

When I'd lost feeling in my arm I put Katie down to try to walk along with us but each time she'd break into a wild chase. It looked like she was demonstrating the crazy zig zag run you're supposed to do when chased by an alligator.

Notice Rick's crooked glasses on the carousel. This is post the great toddler race across the 216 acre Brookfield Zoo.

This was my attempt at a photo of all four girls standing against the fence. Only Sophia would stand still for more than one second. Katie and Ceci were making a mad dash for the duck pond and Ella wanted to wait to see the horse poop.

Minus the train fiasco it was a fun day however.