A zoo, a phone, and a burger.....good times!

Today I was determined to get us all out of the house and doing something fun. We invited a few friends along, but everyone was busy so we ventured off alone anyway. That was great though, because it has been a while since I have done an activity with just the kids and we had a great time. It makes me laugh about how going to the grocery or anywhere with two was at once a nightmare, now it is the norm.

Anyway we all got dressed and off we went. Our first stop on our big adventure was the cell phone store to get a car charger. I left my phone in the car overnight again and decided that we could not wander into the great wild with a dead cellphone so to the cell phone store we went. Now with power to my cellular device we headed in the direction of the zoo. Our next stop was the money machine. Cash is not something I ever have on hand, but I was pretty sure our zoo only takes cash so to the bank we went. I drove through the drive up looking for the ATM like a bat out of hell in a mini-van, all of the tellers were staring at me wide eyed. But there wasn't one...seriously. So I threw the loser cruiser in reverse and went back to the teller.

"hi do you an ATM?"

"No, mam we don't, do you need cash?"

"Um who doesn't"

Seriously a bank without and ATM machine, people can't even go to the zoo without a cell phone, but there are banks out there without ATM machines? Can you tell we live in the sticks, wait until you hear about the zoo?

So we got the money and a sucker and off we went to chase the animals in the wild. We saw lemurs and llamas, parrots and peacocks, the jaguar was sleeping and we couldn't find him. But while Meredith was face against the glass searching and Noah in his stroller eating goldfish, I ventured to the fence to search myself. Right about then a squirrel jumped out of the bushes by my feet, I screamed and jumped out of my skin....I was pretty sure that we were all about to be eaten by a jaguar. Can you tell we really needed to get out?

So after the jaguar we saw a tiger and a monkey and 2 crocodiles. We then saw a few zebras and at that point we had did the zoo. Meredith asked why we didn't see the elephants and giraffe...."does are my favorwite mom!".....I tried to explain our zoo is pretty little, I don't think she got it. No we don't have all the animals or very many at all, but $7 did get us all into the zoo and to ride the train and carousel, so really why complain? It is just big enough for a mommy with two small children.

After the animals we rode on the train and went through the tunnel, then we all rode on bulls-eye, well Meredith did, Noah just rode a horse I was told. And me well I just tried to tame my bucking bronco who was on his own horse for the very first time!

Then we ran to the playground to just slide one time. We had to pass the green picnic area to get to and from the playground from the zoo. And on the way to the playground it was an empty open field, but on the way back it was packed. The schools were off today for fall break so there were tons of picnickers. And the private schools that weren't off were there picnicking on a field trip. So it was really packed. Apparently my daughter has learned the word picnic recently, because she asked if we could picnic with everyone we saw.

"Momma we can pit-nic there?"

"No baby, mommy didn't bring a picnic lunch"

"But momma can we pit-nic those burgers with the people"

"No mommy isn't that smart, she didn't think of bringing a picnic lunch!"

"But mommy dey have burgers....can we pit-nic there?"

"no, I am pretty sure they don't have enough for us either"

"Momma look at da kids eatin LU-N-CH....WE CAN PIT-NIC WIT DA KIDS!"

"No sweetheart even all those kids don't have enough for us."

Luckily for me, McDonald's was bribe enough to get her away from all the picnickers and their lunches. It was a mere seconds before she snatched a burger or sandwich from some poor unsuspecting family.

Once we were in the car, the Donalds chant began. Yes, a little drive-thru and we will be home bound....two tired kiddo's, one happy momma.

We pulled in and Meredith started with "Momma we go in, no window.....go in!" I wanted this to be a fun day with the kids so in we went. Which led to a new experience....how to navigate one child, hold another, fill 3 cups, carry my tray of food and keep my sanity in a very busy campus McDonald's. I sat Meredith down first with the food and then told her if anyone approached her to yell "LEAVE ME ALONE ASSHOLE!" I figured with her screaming obscenities in McDonald's everyone would have been starring at her due to her language and that would give me enough time to run over an punch the punk. I figured that was really the best way to handle that situation, another young mother looked at my flabbergasted when she realized my method....look lady don't judge until you have two, it's a whole new world.

I filled up 3 drinks and then we had a great lunch. Meredith ate, Noah nibbled and flirted with college girls and I was called mam 3 times by college students. Hello......I am not that old! I was there myself about 7 years ago thank you very much!

We survived, we did it, we did the zoo, we did the train, we did the carousel, we did Mackie D's. See kids you are so not deprived. Remember that! Now I am making a mental note to bring a picnic lunch on our next trip....Rome wasn't built in a day remember....baby steps.