This past Tuesday morning, our neighborhood playgroup (most of us anyway) went on an outing to the local zoo. It was a really fun trip...I think all the kids had a great time! There was, however, one very panic-stricken experience for me when Aiden wandered away and was lost for about 3 minutes. I was crying, shaking and imagining the worst as Susan, Anna and I ran around looking for him (good thing he was in his red shirt that day!) Basically, he and I were heading to the bathroom, but he got there first since I had to strap Bray into the stroller and then pry a stick out of Logan's hand before he hurt anyone with it (I also had to convince him to come with us to the bathroom). By the time I got to the bathroom, Aiden had walked in and then OUT an opposite door, up some stairs, across the zoo cafeteria, down the big front stairs and over to the giant fountain. I had run that way immediately after I didn't see him in the bathroom, but I couldn't locate his red shirt. I ran back around and told the girls that he was missing and a few of us RAN. Anna found him wandering back around towards the front of the fountain. It was horrible! I felt like, knowing him, he wouldn't even realize that he was lost and would just keep on going. I was running as fast as I could and scanning groups as fast as I could in an effort to track him down before he got too far away. When we found him, I hugged and hugged him. Phew!! Funny story though, all the kids knew that he was lost and that we were looking for him. After he had been found, we re-grouped and moved on to the sea lions. Once we got to the sea lion viewing "cave", Ryan saw Aiden walk by and proudly shouted "There's Aiden! I found him!"

Apart from that whole ordeal, which happened near the end of the day, we had a fantastic time. The kids played "musical strollers" all day. I always had Brady in the back of my double, but I also pushed Maddie, AJ, Logan, Aiden and Ashley. Logan rode around with Ryan in Susan's stroller for most of the day. I guess strollers are especially fun when they aren't yours and you can ride with someone who isn't your sibling :)

We saw a ton of animals...most of them were out and active (except the lions...they were all being quite lazy). Nothing, however, compared in pure entertainment value to Mackenzie and her milk cup! While leaning over to check out the hippos, she dropped her cup into a deep, dry ravine area. Poor sweetie was just beside herself! Susan looked around for some help and finally found a man who said he could get a grabber from the pachyderm house. Here is the cup:
When the man returned, all our kids were chanting something like "save the cup! save the cup!"
Animals-shmaminals - this guy has a huge grabber!!!!

Anna retrieves the cup from the end of the claw. The kids all clapped and cheered!! Can't beat that for fun at the zoo ;)