National Zoo

Our ward had a youth temple trip at the Washington DC temple (our current temple district) on June 20th.  Since we had a free night stay at a Hilton hotel, we decided to go to make a whole weekend of it and see some new sights in DC.  Neither Bruce nor I were particularly excited about chasing the kids around any of the Smithsonian museums.  Since we had never been to the National Zoo, we thought this activity would be more suitable for the children.  That's exactly what we did.  Unfortunately we spent more time in the van navigating the narrow, crowded streets of DC than we expected.  It took us nearly 5 hours to drive the 3 hours we were expecting.  After being rear-ended by a very impatient driver, we finally made it to our hotel.  Feeling adventurous, we decided to walk the nearly 1 mile jaunt over to the zoo - a double stroller just didn't have enough seats for 3 young children. 

By the time we finally got to the zoo, mom and dad were already tired from pushing and carrying the young ones.  A mile is far for a 3 almost 4 year old girl to walk.  We posed for this family photo right outside the zoo.  We kind of look like we belong in the zoo. 

We saw some pretty cool animals inside.  I was most excited to see the panda bears, Zabien the elephants, and Eliza the giraffes.  Although they had plenty of elephants (I counted at least 10), sadly, this zoo didn't have any giraffes. 

I think this picture of Eliza standing like a flamingo is just so fun.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a brick oven pizza place and got Stromboli to go.  The kids were fascinated with this mini-chef right outside the restaurant.  Honestly, that's one reason why we decided to order from the place, the kids spent so much time hugging this little statue we kind of felt obligated.  The pizza was delicious and well worth the 15 minute late. 

Eliza also enjoyed the table decorations - the pink lamps were adorable. 

It was a fun weekend if you take out the part where I spent the entire night sleeping at the foot of the bed.  Hazel didn't like the pack n play, so she spent the night in bed kicking Zaby in the head.  Zaby was all over the place, and the only space for me was at the foot of the bed.  I woke up a dozen times; one of those times was to snuggle with Zaby so he didn't roll over on top of Hazel.  Even with all the shuffling, there wasn't enough room for me to sleep in a normal custom on the nice, comfy bed - not my best night of sleep, but a fun weekend nonetheless.