Zoo on the cheap

A friend of ours knows a gal that homeschools her kids.  They were planning a big trip to the zoo for all their homeschooling buddies.  Because they were basically a school, they could get in for $2.50 a person instead of the usual fee of $7.50 for adults and $5 something for kids over 4.  That means our whole family was able to go for the price of one adult!

But first up that day was Annalee's 5 year wellness check.  I had been preparing her for it for a few weeks because I knew she would be unhappy about the shots.  I just pointed out that it was part of getting ready to go to Kindergarten--she really wants to go to Kindergarten!  So, while she still wasn't happy about shots she didn't throw a fit.  When the nurse came in with two shots Annalee tried to negotiate it down to one.  Then I pointed out that she actually needed four shots but that they'd combined them into two.  She decided two were not so bad.  She flinched, but for the first time she didn't cry!  That's my big girl!

We had a friend of hers with us for the zoo, so she was also tagging along for everything else we had to do in Boise.

It was a VERY hot day for this early in the year--up in the 90s--so we prepared everyone with hats, sunscreen, sunglasses, etc.  We brought an umbrella stroller solely so we could set our backpack in it.  It was full of 8 bottles of water.  We used them all.

Despite the heat, the kids did a lot of running around.  I fared better than I expected to, being so pregnant and all.  I chalk it all up to starting out this pregnancy at such a lower weight.

We knew a lot of people at the zoo that day but the ones we stuck with were my friend Laura and her sons.  I was glad to get one last fun day with them before they exiled themselves to Jackson for another summer.

Annalee and C. decided that they are best friends forever.  On the way home they tried to convince me that C. needed to come home with us and play at the house for a few hours.  I pointed out that she'd already been with us for 6 hours and it was almost dinnertime.  Ha ha, I remember not wanting my friends to ever go home either!

We had had to meet at the zoo right at Vander's nap time.  He held up so well, despite missing his sleep two days in a row.  (Sundays are hit and miss because of Church.)  I fully expected him to zonk on the 40 minute drive home but the excitement of three in the backseat kept him awake.  Then he took a little nap before dinner.  (The pillow was where I was sitting as he fell asleep.  I replaced myself with a pillow so he wouldn't fall over while I made dinner.)

Whew!  Fun day!