December 22

Yes, I am a few days behind. The last three days have gone by in a whirlwind! Thursday, the kids were super excited to open their calendar and see "Zoo Lights with Aunt Nicki and Uncle Nicholas!" It ended up being a long day as we waited for Papa to get home so we could leave. We left by 3:30, figuring that at worst, it would take an hour and a half to get downtown. Almost 3 hours and two pit stops later, we arrived.

This is where I be honest with you all on how sometimes I have great intentions of teaching my children valuable lessons, but then decide to take the easy way out. We have had two DVD players for the car. Both have broken in the last year or two. Bill and I decided we were NOT going to replace them this time. We both grew up without DVD players in the car. Every year, my parents drove us to Florida--that's way more hours than my kids have ever spent in a car. We read books, slept, played games. We survived. Alas, Bill and I got to listen to, "She's touching me!" "He's singing and it's my turn!" "Can I have a pretzel?" I had to turn around and pick up Brendan's books a bajillion times, until I got nauseous and decided I'd rather listen to him cry than turn around again. It got to the point where, I'm pretty sure if we had passed a Target on the way, Bill would've ran in and bought whatever DVD player they had in stock. A sad reality. So, alas, Santa bought my kids a DVD player, along with the extended warranty. Pathetic, I know.

Anywhoo, I digress. We got to Aunt Nicki and Uncle Nicholas' house. The kids were super excited for a tour because they have only been there once, but didn't get to see the third floor and Liam desperately needed to see all 4 bathrooms. Don't as me why, he was fascinated. Maybe he'll be a plumber. They fed us dinner and we rushed out the door to see the Zoo Lights because we only had about two hours left before they closed.

Honestly, the lights were pretty amazing! We were all awestruck by how beautiful it looked. God was good and it stopped raining right as we got there, so it wasn't crowded, and the weather was perfect--just a little chilly. We got so see several of the animals--the gorillas were all sleeping right up against the glass spread eagle. I felt a bit voyeuristic, but it was super cool! I was surprised we were even able to see the lions--they were half asleep, but the kids didn't care. We got to see the entire zoo--there was even one section where the lights were timed to music. Brendan especially thought that was amazing! The kids had a great time--the two big kids fell asleep on the way home, Brendan on the other hand, told us he pooped every five minutes. We  didn't get home until about 10:00, which is why it took a few days to get this up! All in all, it was a great day, hopefully we can make this a tradition--we will just do better planning of the day we choose to drive downtown!