Trip to the Zoo

My sister, Maggie, and I took the kids (Luke, Emry, Carley and Ismael [the little boy I watch]) down to the San Diego Zoo and had a great time. We saw the baby panda, so cute, just munching on a little bamboo. We also saw koala bears, which I've never seen before. They had like 12 of them too and a baby, so cuddly and adorable! The best part was seeing the polar bears (my personal fav). They were in a very playful mood and wrestled around in and out of the water for quite some time. Overall we were there at the wrong time b/c we didn't end up seeing much more.


I don't want to leave you this post without letting you know how we fared with 4 kids in tow. For those of you who know my little wondering wonder (does she really need to be named?) this will be a special treat. The kids were really well behaved all day long, we can't complain, but Emry did supply our trip with a couple of antics that kept the mood light, I'll share one.

After eating a nice picnic lunch we stopped in front of the restrooms for a potty break. The scene: picnic tables to the west, restrooms to the north, zoo gift shop down a gentle slope to the south, an information station to the east and us smack in the middle (on top of the hill). Maggie and I are ferrying children in between the bathrooms and strollers...OK.

We get everyone pottied and are looking at the map to plan our afternoon attack when I see Emry in the corner of my eye jetting towards a vacated stroller that is near by. In my mind I'm thinking "she's fine, it's just one of those zoo rental strollers, so she's not bothering anyone". Simultaneously, my eyes are watching the stroller move as she wiggles and plays inside and it slowly starts to turn and roll down the hill towards the open doors of the zoo gift shop! My sister and I must have made the connection at the same time...which was too late to do anything about. So after surveying the scene, registering in my mind that she's not going to really get hurt too bad and realizing that I can't make it to her in time, we just start laughing and are doubled over as I yell, "Emry, Hang On!" Down the slope she goes, missing the shop entrance by inches, bashing into the door. I get to her almost at the same moment and everyone was just staring at me with those "what kind of a mother are you eyes". I didn't even care. I was just laughing and thinking, "Oh, if you only knew what kind of kid she was, you'd be laughing too!"