A Day at the ZOO

What a wondeful day to visit the local zoo. As you may be awhere, two weekends a year Eric is guaranteed to live at Augie. That is Homecoming & Gradution weekends. So since this is Graduation weekend, I have taken it upon myself to try and win the Mother of theYear Award. The kids and I set out for Coal Valley where Niabi Zoo is located. We arrived around noon and visited each and every exhibit they had. At each exhibit Jude would go to the little poster and ask me "Mama what does he eat?" I would then read off the poster what that sepcific animal ate. Amazing? If one knows Jude you know he's not shy about eating, it's just interesting how he is also worried about what everybody else eats. Anna made sure to remind me that owls are nocturnal and that they only come out at night. After the Bald Eagles we decided it was time for a little lunch, we stopped at the nearest concession area and ate hot dogs and chips. What a yummy lunch if I do say so myself. We quickly moved on after lunch, after a stop at the port a potty where Jude keep telling Anna, that she had to go potty on the poop? He couldn't just tell her once or twice but continued to repeat himself until we arrived at the potty when Anna annouced she was not going in that nasty bathroom. Oh, I just love their conversations, they actually make me chuckle. After visiting all the animals our day was winding down with a train ride around the entire zoo. Judes face was lit up the entire time, he was so cute! They were both getting a little tired from all the walking but as I promised if they ate all their lunch they could have a sweet on the way out of the park. They both choose ice cream. We sat on the green grass and enjoyed a conversation about which animals were their favorites while they ate their ice cream, it was a rather peaceful moment just me bieng their mom and them bieng my kids. I loved it! On the car ride home Anna sat quietly reflecting on the animals she visited and Jude closed his eyes to rest his tired little body.

I had a great time today with my two sweethearts, I'm really trying to reflect on all the wonderful times we share. And today was one of those days.