Its called Zoo lights

Here in our fair city we have a zoo. Our zoo is cool and full of animals. We like our zoo and I think our zoo likes us. Every year at Christmas our lovely zoo puts up an ungodly amount of Christmas lights. They don't put them on the animals, as much as I would love to see the penguins with little santa hats, but their display is impressive nonetheless. We went before we had Lorelai and the kids just loved it so it would stand to reason that Lorelai would love it too. I would come to realize about 5 minutes after exiting the van that Lorelai has her own ideas about what constitutes entertainment and it ain't walking around in the cold looking at lights.



It was 40 degrees. Now I know some of you live in places where this is akin to springtime weather, but for me and my house its butt cold. We bundled up the kids, which I believe was the first crack in Lorelai's delicate psyche. Kids just hate being bundled up. Its better than being cold, but you can explain that to a 1 year old. We decided to go on opening night. Maybe not the best choice as far as crowds go, but we wanted to go early so we wouldn't be stressed about missing it. I must mention that whatever jackwagon designed the parking lot at the zoo is lucky he is currently anonymous. When and if I ever get his info he is in trouble. We have the stupidest smallest parking lot for a huge zoo. Really, really dumb. It takes 15 or more minutes to find a spot because you have to stalk pedestrians and then race other cars to get a spot. Really, really dumb.



We finally get a spot, get through the enormous line and start our journey through the magical display of lights. I need to mention, as it will become important soon, that we invited my neighbor and her three kids to come along. We are so festive. One of my sweet sweet neighbor kids is obsessed with riding the train.

"Are we gonna ride the train?"

no.

Whiiiiiiiine.

no.

"Tickets are only 3.50".

no.

" but I really wanna ride the train".

NOOOOO YOU CAN'T RIDE THE TRAIN!!!!!! STOP ASKING!!!! GAH!"

This was only the first of many parental meltdowns that night. It was contagious.



Dan the man decided in his genius to buy the kids cotton candy. Why, I do not know. It seemed like a horrible idea to me. He came to his senses when he saw the girls eating it off of their cotton gloves. The little darlings decided it would be smarter to eat it with their gloves on because it was so cold. This idea preceded the whining about cold hands and of course led to more yelling about not eating sticky sugar with gloves on. Strike one for Dan.

We spent the rest of the night trying to convince our neighbors that there were no animals to look at, but their persistence paid off in the form of some groggy monkeys and a few snakes. Some of the monkeys were sleeping so they actually asked us to whisper when walking past their habitats. Apparently there is nothing worse than a monkey who hasn't had his full eight hours. Of course there is no way that the kind zoo lady that informed us of this little known fact has any children. Human or otherwise.

That said the lights were very pretty. We all gazed in awe at the detailed light arrangements and moving displays. We also laughed as the we listened to other exasperated parents scolding their hyper active children. It was a good time and the company was nice. It was nothing less than entertaining. I don't know if I will go next year though. It was a lot of work herding those kids around with their whining and sticky fingers. Ahhhh memories.......