Or, if it was a Friends episode, this would be called “The One Where Amanda Tries Not To Murder Ian”. 🙂
I took the Friday before Dale and Allison’s wedding off to spend some time with the kids. I had a lull in projects at work and I figured it would be fun if we went to the zoo. I asked Mom if she wanted to come along and she was game.
Before I explain our trip to the zoo, I feel that I should explain that every single time we go to the zoo, it doesn’t go well or as planned:
2006 – Ian slept the entire time.
2007 – Ian throws a colossal fit the entire time we’re there.
2008 – Ian throws a colossal fit the entire time we’re there.
In 2009, we didn’t even bother going. We figured it would be a disaster. LOL
This year, I thought that Ian was old enough to be interested in the animals. Matthew is learning animal sounds and might get a kick out of seeing them in person. WELL.I.FIGURED.WRONG!
It all started off innocently…
Happy to be going to the zoo:
We went inside and planned to see the elephants first. But the elephants weren’t ready. (What the heck?!?!) Ian starts mumbling about an animal playground. I suggest we go see the sea lions.
The boys LOVE the sea lions and we watch them above ground for a while before heading to the underground viewing room.
Ian and Matthew at the left of the window, Mom in the pink shirt with a visor on the right:
I pretty much forcibly drag Ian and Matthew away from the sea lion exhibit and it all starts falling apart there. Ian gets pushier about this animal playground that he wants to see. I insist on going to see the elephants. I win this one…but it all goes down hill from there.
Outside of the Elephant house:
Elephants hanging out in their outdoor area:
Before heading off to the next thing. Notice Ian is looking at the map trying to find the dang animal playground.
Polar bear (Ian was full blown wigging out at this point):
We grabbed food for lunch but Ian did little except talk about the animal playground:
I just noticed that his fly is halfway down. LOL
We eventually found a playground. Unfortunately, it was NOT toddler-friendly and I couldn’t let the boys play on it. You can imagine how that went over with Ian.
We went to see the one giraffe that was hanging outside, a few more animals, a toddler-friendly petting zoo/climbing activity area but each activity was just one unpleasant scene after another.
We ended up staying roughly 2 hours and by the end, Ian was lucky to be alive. Mark this day down in history, folks. As God is my witness, WE ARE NEVER GOING BACK TO THE BUFFALO ZOO!!!
Please still love me – but I am totally LOLing. 😉