Family Day

On Friday we had a rare treat -- my husband and I were both off of work, school is still out for our older daughter, and we had NO obligations to go anywhere or do anything for the whole day! We woke up somewhat leisurely (ok, well, the girls and I did -- my husband did have to run to work to drop off some employee reviews, but he was home before we woke up!), my husband vacuumed the pool, and then he and our older daughter made their famous omelettes for breakfast!

After breakfast we got ready and piled in the car to go to the zoo. We are fortunate to have a great zoo just minutes from our house, and each summer/fall we renew our zoo membership. It is such a great deal -- I think for a family it's about $55 for a year's membership and it's about $8 or $9 for an adult to enter without a membership. You really can't beat it! And with the close proximity to our house and having two kids of varying ages -- we can run to the zoo and not feel like we aren't getting our money's worth if someone gets cranky and wants to leave early. We got a late start on Friday, but we went and had lunch there and saw most of the animals -- we did skip a few things for the sake of time.

One of my daughter's favorite things at the zoo is the "creek" that they open up in the summer. It's man-made with all sorts of animal footprints in and around the creekbed. There are rocks to climb and deep and shallow spots to wade (or practically swim, if you want to) in and we bring our water shoes and a towel to dry our feet off with! This most recent visit was the first time that we took our littlest girlie in the water. She had her water shoes on and at first, she stood there, not knowing what to do, but she took my hand and we waded around and she got more adventurous.

Our zoo also has a great playground and the girls enjoyed playing there before we headed home for a swim. It was a really nice, relaxing day with the family - a much needed break from all the running around we usually do!