A Fun, Fabulous, & Unexpected Day

This morning, I was looking forward to a day of laundry catch-up and finishing up my grocery list for the month. Then, before we even had breakfast, Eric asked if we should go to the zoo. This trip has been on our summer to-do list and it was something we were all looking forward. We knew Isabelle was going to the zoo in Chicago with her cousins today, so what better day for us to go as well?

We sped up our morning so that we could get out the door fairly early. A spur-of-the-moment trip like this, with 3 young children, requires some time to get ready. But we managed to pull everything together and were out the by 10:30. Since Isabelle was not with us, we decided to all pile into Eric's Aveo to save on gas. The three carseats fit perfectly in the backseat, even if we do look like we're climbing out of a clown car when we all get out. Driving in "dada's work car" is a thrill in and of itself for the kids.

We had so much fun at the zoo. This was the first zoo trip for all 3. We go fairly often to a local petting farm, but the two just don't compare. Alex and Olivia couldn't wait to see the animals. I think they expected to be surrounded by them the second we walked through the gate. The walk into the main part of the zoo, where all of the animals actually are, was too long for them. (Not to mention that by the time we were almost in the main area we had to turn back around so we could make another potty stop!)

Alex's favorite animal was the penguins and Olivia's favorite was the zebras. I'm not sure what Gracie's favorite was, but she was absolutely enthralled by everything. She had the best time in her stroller watching and pointing at all the animals. She was such a trooper the whole day. In fact, all of the kids were. The day ended with a frozen fruit treat for everyone on our way out.



For a day that was meant to be all about hard work and catching up, it sure was fun! And all the catching up will just have to be pushed back one more day. That's fine by me! We don't do spur-of-the-moment outings like this very often. In fact, they usually stress me out. But not today. For whatever reason, I was able to let go of the stress and worries about the work that was not getting done and just enjoy my family. I didn't even give the mountains of laundry a second thought until right now.

I have a feeling that the Face Time With The Kids Challenge is really going to be encouraging for me and push me to put my kids before my work all the time. I am looking forward to this shift in perspective, and to putting plans in place now to make it permanent.