This past Friday, Arnold and I went with Brooke and Caleb and their school to the zoo. We were lucky that the 1st and 2nd grades both went, so we were able to spend time with both of them at the same time. The grandparents watched Rachel while we were gone. We had to get up at 4:30am so we could be at school at 5:30 to leave the school at 6am! I am not a morning person at all, so that was rough! We were out the door at the last minute! Thankfully we got to take nice charter buses, so the seats were comfortable. Most people slept some on the way down there, but of course Brooke was excited and kept talking the whole way. They also played some movies for the kids to watch. We made a stop on the way at a nice rest area to go to the bathroom and they handed out biscuits for breakfast.
We got down to the zoo around 9am. It was already hot when we got down there.. I think the high that day was around 90 degrees! We loaded down a backpack with waters, sunscreen, and everything else we might need while we were there. We went in with the school then split up to do our own thing. While we were down there, Arnold and I were responsible for another child in Caleb's class, named Silas. I think the kids enjoyed having another kid to hang out with. We ran off to see all the animals we could before lunch. We saw monkeys, flamingos, and lions. We then went indoors (it was so nice and cool in there!) to the aquarium to look at all the fish and other sea creatures. The kids got a kick out of a big shark swimming by them in the tank. A little while after that we realized that Silas' bag was missing. He had brought a bag with his camera and his wallet with money for the day. Of course we would be responsible and then lose his stuff! So we ran around to all the lost and found areas, and no one had seen it turned in. We finally went all the way back to the aquarium and someone had hung the bag on the door! And the money was still in there! We were soo lucky it was still there.. I wouldn't have wanted to tell his parents we lost all his stuff!
Around 11am we met up with the school to have lunch. We went to some picnic tables in the shade. We had packed lunches for us to eat.. although it was so hot out we didn't have much of an appetite! I downed a whole water bottle right when we sat down! By then I was so hot and sweaty I was miserable. And my feet were already hurting (I felt old!) After lunch we set off to explore again. We went to see the other animals we hadn't seen yet. Then we stopped by and saw a lady doing an educational thing on giraffes and ostriches, so we sat down and watched her. It was nice to rest! And she ended up using the kids to help her demonstrate some things, so they loved that. After we left there, we went to get the kids some ICEEs. Turns out that place took debit cards, but the Dippin Dots place didn't, so I didn't get any :( I don't know why we didn't think to bring any cash with us!
Before we left for the day we stopped by the Gift Shop. Silas had brought his own money and bought himself a big stuffed tiger. We wanted to get something for Rachel since she hadn't gotten to go on the trip, so we bought her a big stuffed monkey. It was originally $30 but on special for $18. Still crazy for a stuffed animal! Rachel had a little money she used to carry around EVERYWHERE when she was really little, but she lost it.. so we knew she would love getting a new monkey :) After the giftshop we still had time to kill so we took a walk on the bridge across the river. Brooke saw people ziplining across the river and kept begging us to let her do it. She also wanted to climb the rock wall. That kid is a daredevil! She is not scared of anything. And has been that way since she was a baby! ;) After that we went to one more indoor place to look at the koalas, and found a lot of the school there, sitting in the air conditioning (smart ;) Finally it was time for us to leave, around 3pm.
We drove a little ways down the road and stopped for dinner at Cicis pizza. yes, we had dinner that early!! It was nice because they brought pizzas and drinks to us and we didn't have to do much. I swear I drank 3 glasses of tea right away, I was sooo thirsty! When we got back on the bus around 4:30pm, we found out our bus' air had stopped working! We had taken 2 buses and of course our's was the one that stopped working! So we had a very miserable ride home! I ended up falling asleep for a little bit and woke up with sweat ALL over me. It was so gross! Two kids on the bus threw up... poor things. You can imagine a hot bus and tummies filled with pizza is not a good mix! I hope someone complained to the bus company about that ride home! I almost kissed the ground when we got back!
We all went to bed really early that night, and Arnold and I just about swore we would never do something like that again. Although I'm sure the next time the kids ask us to go somewhere.. we will.... ;)
Brooke was so excited that the bird sat on her arm :)
Pretty flamingos
The lizard was looking right at Caleb!
The kids with their friend, Silas
Taking a break. Arnold was pretty tired I think ;)
One of the giraffes came this close to Brooke! It was neat!
One of the lions was sleeping upside down! Hilarious!
Caleb lost a tooth while we were there!
The kids with their friend, Madison. She is in Caleb's class. They play together a lot :)
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