Look at us! ANOTHER VACATION!?
Partly because we have a year to make up for, and partly because we won’t be traveling this fall once the baby is here, so we’ve got a lot of vacation days to take this summer! And why not? It’s gorgeous out, we’re feeling a bit more comfortable, let’s do it!
So this time, we traveled about an hour from home to visit a zoo! No real reason, Tom and I both don’t really like zoos but apparently kids do, we were just looking for an excuse to get away. We’re also trying to get the kids used to riding in the car again, since about 2 minutes down the road the “Are we there yet?” starts. Seriously, who teaches that to a kid? Or does it come pre-programmed?
We survived the trip, and ordered both pizza and ice cream to be delivered to our room once we got there, so we hit a peak pretty early. Both E & G were excited to watch movies in bed again too. It’s so weird, because we can’t get them to sit still and watch a movie at home, but on vacation they will lie in bed with me and happily watch movies. I seriously like the way they vacation.
The next morning we checked out a playground (they liked it but said watching movies was more fun), rented the pool for an hour to go swimming (G loved it, E not so much), and then finally headed to the zoo after nap time. A friend had gone recently and warned me we’d need at least 2-3 hours to enjoy everything, and that they had to drag their kids from each animal just to keep moving. About 30 seconds in I had a feeling our kids were going to be different.
“Look kangaroos! Do you see them?” I pointed so E could take a look, he watched them for about .2 seconds and then kept walking. Both kids would peek in at an animal, point at it, and move on to the next one. Some of them I couldn’t even get them to stop at! At one point I was trying to show G some monkeys, and he pointed beyond their cage and screamed “EXCAVATOR!” He wasn’t wrong, the amusement park part of the zoo was undergoing renovation and there was some construction equipment working nearby. Both kids decided that they’d rather watch machinery than the animals.
We made it about 30 minutes before they found a playground, and after that they had no interest in looking at any more animals. Instead they wanted food, drink, and to go home. Hey, at least we tried! That’s the things with kids, you never know how they’ll react, and all you can do is go with the flow. Forcing them to look at more animals wasn’t going to make anyone happy, so we headed back to the hotel, picking up happy meals on the way back.
That night both kids just wanted to go HOME, and I briefly thought about packing the car, but we did survive one more night in the hotel before heading home. It’s nice to have a change of scenery for a bit, and I’m also glad that we seem to know our limits - we don’t need big fancy trips or entertainment, we could easily walk around a petting zoo and be just as happy. (Seriously, the most excitement I got out of them was when they saw a turkey. I’m not even sure if it was an official zoo animal, or just passing through).
