November 11

By now, everyone knows how much I love bank holidays.

Since the past few days have been so lovely, Chris and I decided to spend this morning outside with the kids. After debating several options, we ended up choosing to go to the zoo. Quick, fun, cheap, easy. It's a win all around. But when we woke up this morning, it was cold and rainy. Boo. Luckily, our children don't melt, so after eating breakfast at a real restaurant, we headed out.

Just as we pulled into the park, Daisy announced that she had to poop.

 Really? 

So I dropped Chris and Daisy off at the zoo entrance, then parked the car and unloaded the stroller. 

Which had a flat tire.

Really?

So I grabbed our essentials, popped Lily in the Ergo, and grabbed Caleb's hand as I explained to him that he'd be walking today. Surprisingly, he didn't fuss at all about it. We met up with Chris and Daisy (who didn't, in fact, have to poop) and raced around construction obstacles to make it to the carousel before the free hour was over.

Only the carousel was closed.

Really?

Luckily, the kids didn't mind, and our zoo visit had reached its low point. Everything from there was better.

See? Hilarious! They were saying, "Choo choo!"

We managed to make it to the children's zoo during the free hour, so Caleb got to reconnect with his friend Goaty the Goat Who Loves All Goats.

He also made some new goat friends.

Daisy loves goats. LOVES them.

Then they released two male goats into the enclosure, and they were feeling a little feisty. That little white guy was making some pretty entertaining noises. Can you see that he's "maaa"-ing at Daisy?

Both kids thought it was funny/scary.

Look at that grin on Daisy's face!

Given the option to play at the indoor area or the outdoor one with slides and climbing apparati, Caleb chose inside so he "could be warm and cozy."

Captain Caleb, seriously steering his ship.

(He chose to wear his tiger shirt today in honor of the zoo visit. You can't see Daisy's shirt in these pics, but she chose to wear her gorilla shirt, too. Those kids are so funny!)

Caleb and Daisy both pet this king snake. Their auntie Jenny would be proud!

We left the children's zoo and headed to see the sea lions. Because we didn't have the stroller, we were able to explore a new-to-us area that's not stroller-accessible. Daisy liked it. Caleb didn't.

This is a terrible picture of me (with my gray hairs, dark eye circles, puffy arm, and man-hand!), but a sweet one of Lily, who slept happily in the Ergo the whole time. That thing is worth ten times its weight in gold. Best baby purchase ever.

Daisy chatted it up with the sea lion sculpture before we headed to the real ones.

She liked being "underwater". Caleb didn't. So it goes.

But they both liked the sea lions.

We headed home, met up with a lady who sold me a light-up turtle for Lily's room (I'm hoping the undulating waves it projects on the ceiling will help lull Lily to sleep - so far it seems to work pretty well!), picked up an old hockey goal that someone left on their driveway for free (it totally didn't fit in our car, but we were only a few blocks from home, so Chris sat in the passenger seat of the car with his arm out the window and we drove home with him carrying the thing. It was absurd and awesome at the same time.), and ate lunch. While the kids napped, Chris took the BOB's tire to a bike shop to be fixed. Hooray for quick fixes!

Chris and the kids played in the yard all afternoon, and then they refused to eat dinner, which was spaghetti squash and meatballs. Caleb finally took his thank-you bite, and declared that he didn't like the spaghetti squash and that the meatballs were "unpleasant". Ha! They were actually pretty delicious.

Now the big kids are finally asleep, and my husband is doing this: 

Yep. Wearing a wide-awake Lily in the Ergo while he washes dishes. He wins husband of the year, no question.