Friday, December 23, 2011

Zoo Lights

Brian's parents got us a zoo membership last Christmas and purchased the upgraded version, which comes with tickets to ZooLights.  We hadn't been to ZooLights since the kids were really tiny.  I remember strollers and babies, so it was a really long time ago.  Now that we had free tickets I thought it was time to visited again.

I did my research and visited the zoo website for information.  The website said that the parking lot usually fills up by 5:30pm on busy nights.  We were going a Thursday night, so I wasn't worried about it being too busy.  We left the house at 4:15, figuring we'd be at the zoo by 5:00.  Well, by the time we reached the zoo at 5:09, the parking lot was closed and full.  Oh joy.  We looked for a spot anyways, but it was 20 minutes wasted wandering around those lots.  We finally went to the alternate parking a mile away and found a spot, then waited in line for the bus.  By the time we finally got to the gate of the zoo it was 6:00. 

The one bright spot of the whole endeavor is that our upgraded zoo membership gave us a super short line and we didn't have to wait in the really, really, really long line at the ticket counters. 

The first thing we enountered was this big penguin.  Carissa saw it and wanted a photo with it, so here she is....

We then walked down into the zoo, where I made the kids pose for more photos...


We then just wandered the zoo, looking at all the lights and the beautiful displays.  Here's a few of my favorites...






It was a pretty cold night, so we stopped and got hot cocoas to share.  We saw almost all the lights, though had to skip the train ride around the zoo, as the line was 1 1/2 hour long!

We spent about an hour at the zoo and then left, snapping a photo of the sign on our way out.

The shuttle bus driver informed us that it is this busy every night of ZooLights, so I think that may mean it's out for us for a while.  It's definitely not Brian's cup of tea, but I'm happy that we were able to go and enjoy a festive evening together.

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Absent

Yes, I've been absent from my blog for some time now.  There are many excuses but it really comes down to life getting in the way.  The blog just isn't my priority when I've got all those other things going on, but I'm going to keep plugging away at it, even if it's more sporadic than I'd like.

The big news, for me at least, is that I got a new computer!  My old one kept crashing on me and one day it just ceased to work.  Thank goodness for my good friend Melinda and her husband, who suggested getting a hard drive with a daily backup.  I am so thankful for that backup!  The only thing I lost in the crash was my email contacts, and that I can live with.

Here's the other big news...

That is Chase with his new drivers permit!  He's pretty excited about it.  I, on the other hand, drove with him yesterday for the first time and am less excited about it.  Teaching a kid to drive is scary!  Here's hoping I love through it all! LOL