Zooin' it up!

On Friday we decided to take our little monster (and bear too, of course) on a surprise trip to the zoo.  After we picked the girls up from their mom on Saturday we had a birthday dinner with their nanny and papaw where they gave her some surprise gifts.  I think the gifts were somewhat overshadowed by the awesome birthday song that the servers sang to her - she talked about it all weekend.  They let me bring out the big slice of cake to give to her so that made it a little extra special for me.  She was all red cheeks and smiles as she leaned against her daddy.  "I love this day," I remember her saying.  And little sister later declaring in the restroom, "I love your birthday, Cloey."

After dinner we left for Knoxville and the girls kept asking over the next couple of hours how much longer it would be until we got home.  They had no idea - they just knew that they had been in the car seemingly longer than usual.  Cloey finally figured it out when we pulled up in front of our hotel.  This was her second surprise - child had dreamed of staying in a hotel.

The zoo, the third surprise, was a hit all around.  

The bear in front of the bear cave.  Of course!

 

Pure determination.

Pit stop.

Who forgot her makeup at home?  This lady.  It would have probably melted off anyway.

Emma kept talking about seeing the "ungrellas" and once we finally did she told me that she was scared.  I think it was the fact that they were so big and human-looking.  Oh, and this was MY first trip to the zoo along with the girls!

We ended up adding a day and turning our little excursion into a mini-vacation.  We kept it simple and just swam, ate, and lounged around the hotel.  Much needed time away.  Birthday girl even made sure she got sang to one more time at dinner by constantly reminding our waitress that she was turning seven.  

Bear made sure to keep the Bible close by in the hotel.  "It has the plans in it," she said.
She also said the same thing about the phone book.

How was your 3-day weekend?