Family Trip to the Zoo

On Tuesday, Jackson was able to take the day off and we took the girls to the zoo. Overall we had a GREAT time, but it was a little bit of a rocky start. The night before I carefully packed the diaper bag with snacks, extra outfits, sunscreen, bug spray, etc. and loaded the strollers in the car. Jackson was going to go to work for a couple hours and be home a little after 7am and said we would leave as soon as he changed. Raelyn has been sleeping in until 8am most days for over a year now, so I was a little worried about how well she would tolerate getting up early. It took a couple attempts, but once we woke up she was super excited to go to the zoo!

It takes just over 2 hours to get to the zoo, and about 20 minutes into the drive Raelyn started saying that her tummy hurt. I thought that maybe she just needed to go #2, so we said we would pull off in Terre Haute (about 1/2 way) and take her potty. Right before we got to our exit Raelyn started vomiting!!! She stopped by the time we exited. I changed her clothes while Jackson went and bought her a drink and we got back on the road. She mentioned her tummy hurting a couple more times, but once we arrived she never said another word about it thankfully. We are thinking it was car sickness, but I really hope she didn't inherit that from me!!! It's NO fun!

This first picture is just pretty.... Reghan is all ready to go to the zoo! Of course in all my careful packing I forgot her hat so we paid $10 for a cute little hat for her to wear within 1 minute of walking through the gate!

Cute picture of daddy and Raelyn look at the animals!
She wasn't thrilled with me taking pictures at every animal.... I was a little shutter happy at the beginning, but didn't take her picture with EVERY animal, I Promise!
Raelyn was more excited about the playground than the animals!! She had a little meltdown when we left the playground to look at more animals.
Reghan watching big sister play.
She LOVED this slide!
Waiting on the dolphin show to start!! Reghan was sacked out all cozied up in my wrap! Raelyn really liked the dolphins. Her eyes lit up when they jumped out of the water or came close to us!
I think this was one of the highlights of the day....getting to feed a giraffe!!
It was getting hot, can you tell??!!
Family pic. Apparently I thought it was a good idea to wait until the hottest part of the day after we had been walking around for an hour nonstop to ask someone to take our picture!! We all look so sweaty!
Right after the family picture we headed towards the splash park. I think this was another highlight.... I'm glad I looked at the website and saw that they had this splash park so I could pack her swimsuit. She absolutely LOVED this!
Getting ready for a train ride! Reghan did a GREAT job, especially for how hot it was. She's such an easy going baby!
In order to cool off a little, we went inside the afternoon dolphin show and watched the show from underneath the tank. I think seeing the show from underneath was just as neat as watching from above.
This is Raelyn petting a baby shark!! They had a small pool inside with about 20 baby sharks that they let you pet. Raelyn really enjoyed this and had no fear reaching in and petting them as they swam by!
I love this!
and this!
This was at the very end of the day before heading to the car. Overall Raelyn did a great job. She got a little grumpy at the end of the day, but it was hot and she missed her nap! She and Reghan were both asleep within 5 minutes of pulling out of the parking lot. :) They both slept until we stopped at Lowe's to buy paint before heading home.

The beginning of the trip was a little rough because of tummy troubles, but the end of the trip was a little rough because of the terrible twos! While we were at Lowe's Raelyn said she needed to potty, so I went out to the car and got the potty seat (can't go anywhere without it!) and took her into the restroom. Reghan was starting to get hungry, so I was hoping that Raelyn would hurry up and potty so that we could go back to the car so I could feed Reghan. Well, of course, Raelyn decided this was the time to go #2 and take her sweet time. So we are shoved into a public bathroom stall (the wheelchair accessible stall, but still a tight squeeze) with Reghan's stroller, me, a trash can, toilet, and a two year old talking about pooping. I swear I have never seen Raelyn poop more or take longer to go in my life! Reghan was crying, I was trying to push her stroller back and forth to soothe her and Raelyn was starting to get on my nerves because I wanted her to hurry up!!!! We FINALLY got done pottying and washing our hands and it was time to dry them. Raelyn loves using the hand dryers in public restrooms, so she kept wanting me to turn it on. Finally, after about the 5th time of turning the dryer on, I said that we needed to go to the car so Reghan could eat (she had been fussing this whole time!). We went got to the door but Raelyn kept saying she needed the dryer on and wouldn't walk out the door. I finally just took her arm and pulled her out the door and down the hallway back into the store. She was fighting me and then turned and ran back down the bathroom hallway. I turned the stroller around and went to find her. Raelyn had ran into the employee lounge and would not come out! I gave her my best "mommy" look - you know, the one that says you are in BIG trouble and better listen to me - and she came back, but crying the whole way....... Eventually we made it back to the car and Reghan got to eat. :)