The kids and I attended the Morris family reunion last Sunday, and it was quite the turnout! My cousin Kelly and her husband made it to this reunion, and it was great seeing them again. They live in Canada, so the opportunities for them to come home are few and far between. My cousin Robin arranged for the reunion to take place at a shelter house in Community Park, and it seemed to work out for us really well. Even the weather cooperated! Robin said there were about 60 of us there (and that wasn't the entire family!).
The kids were a little overwhelmed by all the people there, but as usual, that eventually didn't seem to matter. They were so good. They sat at the picnic tables with everyone else and ate pretty well (as well as you can expect a 3 year old to eat!), and they were really good about staying within my eyesight or with Mimi, Jon or Pop Pop. There really wasn't much there for them to do in terms of play (we were in a shelter house that wasn't near a play area), but they kept themselves occupied. Eventually, they began playing with Robin's granddaughter, Callie, who is around 1 1/2 years. They were so good with her. I received several compliments on how well behaved the kids were and how well they played with Callie.
Today we packed a picnic lunch and went to the zoo. I was a little apprehensive about taking them by myself since they've outgrown their wagon, which meant we'd all be on foot, but it all worked out okay. The zoo was extremely busy today. We arrived at 11:00 and ended up parking closer to the road than to the zoo. After I saw how far out we had to park, I set some ground rules with the kids before getting out of the car. I told them that there were a lot of people at the zoo today, so they needed to either stick really close to me or hold my hand or each other's hand. I also told them that if they got too far ahead of me and I told them to wait up, that they had to do just that. The best part about that pep talk is that they followed those rules for the most part -- at least until they started getting tired and grumpy and realized they had to walk themselves back out of the park and to the car!
Since we've been letting the kids play at the playground next to Lorikeet Landing, that's all Zach talked about doing. It was hard getting him to be patient and enjoy seeing the animals until we got to that playground! We rode the carousel twice, once at the beginning of our day and then again before we left, and the girls sat on their own horses (the ones that moved up and down) and did very well! Zach, the cautious one, stood with me between the girls and held on to me -- both times.
Since Zach was on a playground mission, it was a struggle to stop and see any of the animal exhibits today. We managed to see the baby giraffe, the rhinos, the gazelles, the attax, the bongos, and Scotty the elephant before having our picnic lunch. We shared some of our cheetos with a squirrel, and he seemed to like them as much as the kids do!
After lunch, we hit the restroom (it's so nice having at least the girls potty trained!), and then we stopped by to see the pygmy hippo and the gorillas. The water in the hippo exhibit had been recently changed, so it was very clear and we were able to get a good view of the hippo down in the water. The last time we were there, the water was so cloudy that the hippo was barely visible. We got a nice surprise at the gorilla exhibit. As soon as we walked indoors, one of the silver backs was sitting in his enclosure right next to the glass eating his lunch. The kids went eye to eye with him -- the best view of the gorillas they've had yet!
From there, we went straight to the playground. It was a long walk, but the kids didn't complain since they knew what was coming up next. Before turning them loose, I gave them another rule talk. That is a very busy playground, so I told them they needed to try to stick together so that I could keep an eye on them. They did pretty good about sticking together, and when one would get out of another's sight, they'd call for each other or ask me if I knew where the other was. I let them play for about 45 minutes, and then we made our way over to the Islands so we could see the penguins and the orangutan. Again, we had some really good viewing opportunities.
All three kids were absolutely exhausted by the time we got back home. They had no trouble laying down for a short nap! I wish I could've!!!!!
