The Zoo Trip That Maybe Shouldn't Have Been

The trip had been planned for weeks.  Maybe a month or more.  We were going to take someones mind off something.  And we planned it a long time ago.

It was rainy this morning.  And kind of chilly but not really chilly.

But, we packed our lunches and forged ahead.

And as we drove, the misty rain started to mist more.

We got there and met Kelli and Annalee in the parking lot.  Kelli was wearing shorts and had no rain jackets (it wasn't raining on her side of town- that is how huge our city is).  We decided to dart from inside thing to inside thing. 

We went to two inside things and when we bravely walked out to go to the meercats, the rain had stopped.

It left us some new friends.  The puddle.  Lots of new friends.

Sage and Kolby had already ran through one huge one on our way from inside thing number one to inside thing number two.

I told them no more puddles.  And called after them to walk around that rather large puddle.

A mom behind me commented that they are just kids and kids should be able to run through puddles.  Her comment hit me the wrong way.  I was so irritated that she would devalue my parenting in front of my kids.  And really, I had many good reasons as to why I didn't want them to run through puddles.  I could go on and on with reasons as to why I was irritated by her comment but I won't.

After we saw the elephants, do you know what I saw?!  She pulled her kid out of a puddle and scolded him for running and splashing in it.  Seriously.

We continued on our merry way looking at the jaguar and tiger.

And it was lunchtime.  We went to a covered area to eat.  And proceeded to switch lunches with everyone.

Then, we decided that the kids probably needed a diaper change.  They sweetly change their little girls.  And I pull Levi out of the stroller.

And discover the worst diaper.  Up the front and back of him.  No clothes could be salvaged.  Did I mention it was slightly chilly?  And guess which award winning mom pulled his extra clothes out of the diaper bag before leaving?

Right as I get his shirt off.  Kelli says, "Where's Kolby?"  We yell his name, he pops out from behind these pretend buildings, where he shouldn't have gone without someone knowing.

As he walks toward us, his face right under his nose is bringt red and it's smeared on his cheek.

Levi is running around the eating area with no shirt on and visible poo coming out the back.  And then Kolby runs off and then comes back with a bloody nose.

I herd Levi back.  Ask Kelli to hold his arms and not let him run off, wipe off Kolby's face.  And it appears to have stopped bleeding.

I get a plastic diaper sack out and lay that down for Levi to lay on the cold, hard table.  And he cries the whole time I'm changing him.  As if we needed more attention drawn to our situation.  But, really, he was probably freezing.  He was laying on a hard, cold table naked and I was wiping him with cold wipes.

I finished cleaning him up, put his jacket back on.  And told the boys we couldn't see anymore animals today.  Sage pouted.  And came up with the grand idea that Levi and I could go sit in the van and Annalee and Kelli could finish taking my boys around the zoo.

We left.

Levi and Kolby both fell asleep on the way home.

No naps were taken in our house this afternoon.

But, on the way home, we saw a reallly bad accident.  I prayed for the people in the accident and thanked God for keeping us safe.  Maybe that diaper change and nose bleed was just what we needed to keep us out of harms way.

I'll take a poopy diaper, a naked baby home and a bloody nose over a car accident any day.