"We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...How about you? You? You?..." Ah, the music of Peter, Paul, and Mommy (from the CD title). A childhood favorite. (I think that credit goes to Dad, the main CD purchaser in our family). This catchy little tune was running through my head the entirety of our trip to the National Zoo on Thursday. I am convinced I lead a charmed life. This dates back to an experience walking down the antiquated streets of Cambridge and exclaiming to my two roomies, "The only thing that could make this better is if there were bells ringing..." and then, on cue, the church bells began to "Bong! bong! bong!" This time around, we had been concerned about finding parking, so my mom pulled over to let the stroller brigade out at one of the first lots so she could scout out lots D, E, F... A parking attendant rushed up and said that a car had just pulled out, and we immediately took the offered spot. Our Cummings group was going to meet up with the Wride group who had made an earlier start somewhere in the zoo, and we were preparing to use cell phone locating techniques to perform said meet-up when who should appear walking along our entrance to the zoo than the very people we had intended to find! Like I said, a charmed life is mine.
Now for some favorites: Spencer loved the panda bears, the mating turtles (awkward, I know), the elephants, all the creepy snakes, the seals, and the fire engines that happened to be by the panda entrance. Emma loved sleeping in her Baby Bjorn (through nearly the entire day with the slight exception of the moment we took the picture at the top of this post), and she managed amazingly well in the late afternoon shower that drove the crowds away and cooled us off. I loved seeing my cute kids at the zoo and missed the giraffe (my favorite animal) who is down in Florida with friends while his home is reworked.
A cute little anecdote. I was asking Spencer yesterday who was in his family yesterday, having received a perfect answer earlier in the day ("Daddy, Mommy, Emma, Spencer!"). The afternoon's version was "Daddy is in my family, and fire trucks, and policemen..." Apparently seeing the fire engines and accompanying police cars at the zoo brought this boy's passion for emergency vehicles to the forefront of his little mind. What a family reunion we are going to have!
