In Over Our Heads

I am not really sure what we were thinking when we decided it was a good idea to take two two year olds and two babies to the zoo but we did. Jennifer and I thought we had a better grip on motherhood than we actually did. Both of us should have known by the mornings we had had just to stay home, lock all the doors, and wait for reinforcements. But, like I said earlier, we left the house and took all the boys to the zoo. The pictures are backwards. We ended with a train ride to remember that I will get to later. It all started off pretty routine. We went and saw the monkeys. Jennifer and I, I have to say, we being great moms by talking with the older boys about monkey sounds and discussing the actions they were doing. I was thinking..."this is going great..." Around the next turn we ran into a school group that was...well, full of energy. We were quickly surrounded and could not move the double strollers in any direction. This is where it all went down hill. We quickly realized that the Mommy time that we were looking forward to was not going to happen along with our big boys being content to stay in their strollers. A few minutes later after we let the boys walk for a minute (I know...this was our big mistake.) they took off and made it all the way from the orangutans through the inside of where the gorillas are. As Jennifer and I were running with the double strollers, people were kindly opening and holding the doors for us so we could try to keep up with our sons that were dodging in and out of everyone at the zoo. Jennifer let go of her stroller and took off, finally catching up with the two break aways. This is when we both wrestled with the boys to strap them back into the strollers. Things went well for a short time after this...but I am not done. We did some walking and said some, "obey Mommy"'s. At this time Cason suggested that we go see his favorite thing at the zoo which is the bird house where you can buy a stick of birdseed and feed the birds. I thought I would take the big boys in and monitor them while Jennifer sat with the strollers and the babies. Braden feel asleep and Jasper had some lunch while I sweated more than I have in a long time. I ran around and around chasing the two big boys and then lifted them up to feed the birds and then ran around a few more thousand times before I could talk them into leaving. At this point we were all getting a little hungry and Jennifer had snagged a bench so we thought why not have lunch right here. Right here next to these bees did not enter my mind, but the orange I brought did enter the bees minds. I know there was nothing to be scared of but I am a big baby when it comes to bees. Needless to say I was dancing all over the place trying to eat lunch. I am sure everyone there was laughing. I, myself, had a good laugh about it too. We finished up lunch and decided to strap everyone back in again and head to the train station where we would have a lovely ride back to the front. I say lovely because for some reason at this point we were still optimistic. The train ride consisted of...a lost ticket within seconds of buying it, needing help loading two double strollers with babies in hand and 2 year olds running like mad, loud creaking and whistling startling the babies, Bennet laying down to go to sleep, Cason jumping off the wrong side so a nice man jumped over to get him, Bennet running off so the same man chased him down, needing help from another man to unload two double strollers, forcing big boys back into stroller buckles, all while sweating profusely. Jennifer and I breathed a sigh of relief knowing the chaos was over and then I couldn't find my car. Awesome!!!!
We ended the whole adventure with..."We will have to do this again sometime. Next time will have to go better." There is just nothing like motherhood. It is so worth all you have to go through to get the fun in between