Going to the Zoo

Life with teenagers is busier than I'd expected. In the last few weeks, we've had piano guild festival, a Tae Kwon Do belt test, an Eagle Scout board of review, many hours of driver's training, a birthday party, studying for AP tests, much drama over a broken-down car, and preparation for the prom. On top of that, I'm going through the final edits for Emma: A Latter-day Tale. I took a break on Saturday to take the kids to the zoo. I'm glad I did, because I realized I hadn't been spending very much time with the younger kids. They were the only ones who had time to go.

 Our zoo has been changing a lot in the last few years. This is the new seal and sea lion exhibit.
My ten-year-old kept saying things like "Wow! I've never seen a polar bear before." Or "I can't remember ever seeing a crocodile" It'd only been two years since I'd taken him to the zoo! Sometimes I forget that two years is a long time from a child's perspective. My kids wrote down every single animal they saw--78 in total. Elementary-age kids are so cool!  Back in 7th grade my friend told me I was so much taller than the other kids
that I looked like a giraffe walking down the hall. Maybe that's why I like giraffes so much.  One weird thing about me that my kids find amusing is that the bird show always makes me cry. Yep. It started out that it was just the white doves flying in a pretty little flock that made me cry. Now, even the birds of prey get me going. Sigh.  My son got the stomach flu that night. The next day, he told me. "Mom, I'm pretty sure I got sick from going to the zoo, but it was totally worth it."