not the day I had planned

Saturday, April 12, 2008

So, today was predicted to be warm and sunny, around 65 degrees. I made a decision last night to forego our usual stay at home all weekend routine and venture out into the sun.
I was going to take the kids here:


We haven't been for about a year and thought it would be a good family time together. So, I awoke this morning and started getting ready for the day. We had a few errands to run before we made our way, but I knew the zoo was open till 4 pm today and figured 3 hours would be good enough to explore and play and then head here:

Hard to tell from the picture, but it is one of my favorite local restaurants. A favorite I haven't been to in many years, but I don't venture down to Seattle much. I checked online last night and found their website and all seemed well.

We were on the road and made our exist off the freeway on our way to the zoo around 1pm. Once we were on the arterial roads it was a traffic nightmare. What should be a 5 minute drive or less, took almost 40 minutes with the traffic. It was ridiculous. Everyone in the King county area was in the Greenlake area this afternoon.

Jill is getting crabby because she is hungry and just wants to get to the zoo. Jack is pretty laid back as he works on assembling and transforming his new Optimus Prime we had to pick up at the post office on the way to the zoo. I'm hot and antsy and a bit crabby as well as I have had no caffeine in 2 days and didnt eat breakfast.

Anyways, we FINALLY near the South Entrance and parking lot... hmmm sign says "Lot full". But I'm optimistic and try the lot anyway. Turns out the sign was right. But never fear, there are at least 3 more lots to try. 2nd lot has the same sign... no parking spots available.
At this point I begin to warn the kids that we may not be able to go to the zoo today, because if we can't find a spot to park the car, we can't go to the zoo.


This was not met with happy reactions from the backseat.


Jill immediately begins sobbing in true drama fashion, and Jack is tearing up saying how disappointed he is. I tell them I am going to keep trying, we will check all the parking lots but if we can't go today, then we will get up early tomorrow and got to 1st service at church and then head right down to the zoo. I promised.
We continued on to the other 2 lots and nary a parking spot was found. I had to let the kids know the zoo just wasn't going to happen today. Crying ensued again.

But I had another trick up my sleeve... we are going to go out to lunch to Mommy's favorite restaurant! And you can get whatever you want, chicken, a burger, hot dog, breakfast food... a milkshake... it's gonna be great!! Kids get all excited. We make our way to the place I've been hyping the whole car ride...

and wouldn't' you know it... it's closed. Not like, oh they aren't open todays. As in a "for lease" sign on the building and chains locking the front doors. Yeah... this was going to go over great!

So, more crying in the car. At this point I just want to do something fun together. I also want to eat cause we are all starving. I ask them what they want to do today and Jack mentions it would be fun to go to a movie. Sure! Ok! Let's do that!

I venture north back to our neck of the woods and stop at one of the kid's favorite places to eat... Denney's. I don't why its a favorite, maybe because they can pick rainbow colored goldfish crackers as a side dish with their chicken nuggets. Not really sure, but I did know this would help to lift them out of the post- no zoo depression.

Denney's delivered as I expected and a good and happy meal was had by all three of us.


We talked over lunch about seeing a movie, if they really wanted to do that and if they thought they could stay awake for the movie given they had no nap yet. They promised they would stay awake and not waste the $6.75 admission price on a nap in a dark theater.

So we were off to the local mall and the newish movie theater for a showing of Horton Hears a Who. It was a cute movie, and the kids loved it and as promised stayed awake the whole time.

Afterwards I asked if they wanted to go get some ice cream ( which translates to Mom wants ice cream and a good excuse to eat it). Of course they said yes. I asked if they wanted to drive there or walk. Coldstone is all the way on the other side of the mall and I wasn't sure they would be willing to walk all that way. But, they surprised me by wanting to walk. We made our way into the mall and on our way we stopped at the Disney store. I told them if we found some cheap sunglasses there they could get them since we have misplaced theirs. As soon as we walked in the door there was a display of flip flops and sunglasses, with a sign "Mix and Match 2 for $8."

I told them they could both pick a pair of flips and glasses. They were ecstatic. Jack picked out Buzz glasses and flips (naturally) and Jilly got pink Belle glasses and Tink flips.

Then as we were making our way to the end of the mall near the Coldstone we ran into the kids play area. We've never tried it out because it's usually super packed, but not too bad today. We all went in and both of the kids were climbing on everything and having a blast within seconds of removing their shoes.




After a good half hour, I rounded them up and out we went to the courtyard where my beloved Coldstone is located. Jack has never had ice cream there so he was pretty excited. He and Jilly both picked chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips to mix in. We found a cute table for three outside in the sun to eat our treats and put on the new shades. On our way back in to the mall they thought they were Hilarious when they started to link arms and walk around. It was cute. So of course I took a few pictures.


Even after ice cream Momma needed her coffee fix so we headed in to starbucks for an iced skinny mocha and waters for the kids. We made our way back to our car and headed for home.

At this point it was near bedtime and after a half hour of playing and getting ready for bed, it was sleepy time. Both kids said it was such a fun family day and they liked just spending time with thier mom not at home. I had a great time. It was totally out of my normal routine and comfort zone to do stuff like this today with them, venturing out in public without a stroller, and especially when my "great plan" for the day ended up not working out, just going with the flow and figuring out something else to do.


I am still planning on that trip to the zoo in the morning, even though it might rain. Well, it will probably keep those insane crowds away at least.

Wow this was a long post. But, it was a long, but great day. Not what I expected, but it turned out awesome even still. I really really love just hanging out with my kids, and today was really fun. And, the weather people were wrong. It wasn't in the 60's today, we got up to the high 70's. It almost felt like summer. I was loving it!