Annual Fall Trip to the Zoo (Attempt #1)

Travis hates weathermen. In no other profession is being wrong so acceptable. Take Saturday, for example. Yes, the weathermen predicted rain, but it wasn't supposed to roll in until around 6 p.m. Perfect. We planned our trip to the Fort Worth Zoo for early afternoon, in time to get in and out before the rain. Not so much.

We left here around 11. The girls were so excited because Chachi decided to come with us. Travis and I were grateful for the extra set of hands. First stop: the Railhead BBQ. Delicious food. Happy kids (who just don't know what to do with themselves when we let them feast on chips). Grace even made a game out of it, which she called, "Chips. Chicken. Water." Sounds like fun, right? She'd take a bite of chips, then chicken; finally, a drink of water. I didn't have to say, "Just please take a bite" even one time!

Ella tore up the Cheetos. It took innumerable wipees to get the orange goo off her face and hands, but it was totally worth it.

Sweet Sutton eyed all the food, which apparently made him so hungry, he tried to eat my face.

Next stop: the zoo. Lots of other families trusted the weathermen, too, because the parking lots were full. We all had such high hopes...Anyway, we busted out the double Maclarlan and the Buggy Board--yep, all three kids on one stroller. Very cool. This was Sutton's first time outside his infant carrier/stroller thing. He obviously enjoyed being about to stretch out. Check out his baby jeans. First time, and too cute.

Ella would much rather have walked or ridden on the Buggy Board, but we made her endure the first 10 minutes in this thing.

$46 dollars in tickets (yikes) and we were off. We saw the gorillas (which Chachi thought were just disgusting), the monkeys, other monkey-like creatures (baboons, etc.), the cheetahs, the warthog, the rhinos, and the flamingos.

Sutton was pretty much not interested and quickly fell asleep. You should have heard everyone "oohing" and "ahhing" over how cute he looked like this:

Ella was very excited the whole time. She'd talk to the animals and try to repeat their names, like "Hi, cheeto (cheetah)!" and, "Hi, stinky flingos (flamingos; stinky ones, almost enough to make you gag)!" When it was time to move to the next exhibit, she'd yell, "Bye, that one!" "That one" is code for "I can't remember what you're called" and she uses the phrase a lot these days.

After about thirty minutes of animal fun, it started sprinkling. We sat around while Travis checked various weather sources and decided what to do. Then, it started raining, even though the forecast was not predicting rain until the evening. The radar, however, showed a big storm that probably wasn't going to let up. So, Travis went to get the car in the pouring rain, and Chachi and I entertained the kids under a thatched roof hut. Grace and Ella enjoyed playing in the rain and didn't want to leave. We were so disappointed that out trip was cut short. Darn weathermen.

Ella had lots of energy in the car, at first. She went from this...

to this...

in about 20 minutes. Aside from the rain, it was a pleasant ride home :) Hopefully, we can make it back to the zoo before it gets too cold. Otherwise, we'll have to wait for the Annual Spring Trip to the Zoo.