SF Zoo with the Family

Family is by far the #1 most important thing in the world to me. I realize that may seem like a no brainier, but I grew up with a false sense of "family" for various reasons and I'm determined to end that cycle with my children. To that end over the past couple years I have been taught a very hard lesson, that you can only do your best to instill the importance of family in others, but that won't always be enough. Lesson learned, and so we take every day and attempt to focus our energies on building a solid foundation of love, joy, acceptance, and overall growth. Sometimes that focus results in snuggle time on the couch, sometimes it's a trip to Disneyland, other times it's just a meal together at the table, today it was a trip to the zoo. 

We took the kids to the San Francisco Zoo today. As Jeff noted it was 5 hours of driving for 4 hours of zoo time. The car ride was made fairly miserable by Milo's determination to scream through most of it. Really the whole day was slightly blemished by Milo's absolute refusal to be anything but Mr. Grumpy Pants all day long! But, that's to be expected sometimes when you are attempting to reason with a 1 year old. He clearly wanted to be home, could not care less about the animals at this stage, and was frankly really pissed off that he was being served cold bottles as opposed to the warm ones he gets at home! 

Not to be deterred though the day was still one for the memory books. Emmie got to ride on Papa's shoulders for hours, Logan was very impressed with the "benches at the zoo," Joey had fun rolling around on his Heelys, and we spent quality time together with their aunt and grandpa. Will the kids remember the Insect Room or the Koalas years from now? Maybe, maybe not. But every day is a building block. And this day was full of smiles and soft pretzels and excitement and ice cream! While the day also had screaming baby, car seat soaked in pee from over filled diaper, complete exhaustion, horrid traffic, and a few unexpected sunburns - what is the point of dwelling on any of that?! (Easy for me to say right now because Hubby made my favorite iced tea and drew me a bubble bath!) 

Anyway this blog isn't to wax poetic and only paint the rosiest of pictures. But it's also not supposed to be a venting outlet. So tonight I reflect on a tiring day making memories, and remind myself to live in gratitude. 

Traffic! 

Logan loved the benches. So silly that benches were the highlight of his day! 

Emmie's preferred method of transportation. 

I love that they fell asleep holding hands! 

Emmie clipped that hair bow to her lip then fell asleep. My little wild child. 

We came home to an unexpected rainbow. 

Spoiled by the hubby. Best possible way to end a very long day!