Zoo, Animals and Road Trip

Yesterday Rachael, who is currently down to two kids while the other two are at Grandma's in NY, and I decided to take the kids to the zoo after church. For some crazy reason we decided to take my car, probably for the navigation system (which didn't help much, since we still managed to get lost) instead of her Durango which would have made for a much more comfortable ride allowing the 3 children to be spread out instead of squished into my backseat. Once we finally arrived Rachael's two kids were super cranky and Tony was cranky too because he missed his nap, but we pushed onward to the zoo hoping things would get better now that we were out of a cramped car and had food in our bellies (finding something to eat turned out to be a drawn out ordeal as well). Being lost AND hungry made me cranky too, I think Rachael was the only one not cranky, or at least she didn't show it if she was.

At the zoo, the animals were all hiding out napping in the shade. I guess it was just too hot a day to be up and around, even for the animals. Rachael and I both started thinking we should have just stayed home and either took naps or gone swimming. Tony wasn't too interested in the zoo either, but he stayed awake despite the fact that it was his nap time, and at every stop I got him out of the stroller and showed him the animals. We went into the little goat petting zoo and I let him pet the goat and he grabbed on tight to the fur and wouldn't let go. When the goat finally got away, Tony had a fist full of goat hair.

When we stopped at the river to feed the piggy fish with big open mouths that fight over the food when you throw it to them, Rachael half heatedly mentioned that she was thinking about getting the kids a little lap dog. I told her she was crazy, had too many animals already, and little dogs are much harder than big dogs to care for. She told me she wasn't really considering it, just sort of thinking about it.

Then this morning I got this picture emailed to me. So much for just thinking about it. I have to admit, she is so cute, half poodle half Chihuahua. I probably wouldn't be able to resist her either, except that I might find myself homeless. Let's just say Todd isn't as much a pushover as Rachael and Derrick are for a cute little irresistible puppy. I think they are going to name her Maribel and nickname her Bella. You can see more pictures of this cute little thing HERE on her blog.

Anyway, the whole point of this post was to mention that our little trip to the zoo, was just a little preview for both Rachael and I of what lies ahead for us in the next 2 weeks. She and I are taking a road trip with her 4 kids and my 1 to Oklahoma City to see our Grandma, Uncle, Aunt and nephew, and then to Muskogee, OK to see our Dad and his extended family. It will be a 10 day trip. The actual vacation is not what worries me, it's the getting there and getting back. It's a 13 hour trip not counting stops along the way. So for us, it will probably take at least 16 hours, because I'm sure we will be stopping frequently. The potential problem I see here is that Rachael has learned how to tune her kids out when they are bickering among themselves, and I can't do that so it will likely make me slightly irritable at times. Then there is Tony, who hasn't been on a road trip since he was a few weeks old when we went to NY to visit my mom and step dad. That wasn't exactly a merry trip, Tony wasn't happy about being in his car seat all day long, and there was a lot of crying and fussing. So I don't know how this trip will turn out, but I don't think either of us is looking forward to the drive. The trip however will be much fun, in OKC we are staying at a nice hotel with a pool and we went all out and got 2 rooms rather than craming into 1 and they are both poolside cabana rooms. I'm taking the baby monitor too so that while you know who is napping, I can sit by the pool. Ahh, it's going to be so nice to finally get some sun on my legs.