Last Spring I purchased a membership to the Brookfield Zoo. I thought it was a brilliant idea - for one low price we could go whenever we wanted. Free parking. Free admission. Free children's zoo. We would recover that money quickly in the course of one summer.

Um, okay. This was a good plan until I realized that I had absolutely no idea how to fold my brand new double stroller to get it in the trunk. And for those who don't know - I drive a Toyota Camry and Dave drives a Pontiac Sunfire. We have 3 carseats smashed into the back seat of the Camry - so the idea of leaving the stroller unfolded and just standing it in the back of the minivan was a good one if we had one:)

I tried to figure out how to fold the stroller. I even got out the owners manual, but the diagram did not help me at all. I just could not figure it out.

I am so smart! I am so smart! I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T! I mean, S-M-A-R-T...

On Sunday morning, though, I thought the zoo would be a nice afternoon trip for us. We had been busy all week, but not with each other. We'd barely seen eachother as a family since the previous weekend, so the zoo would be a nice afternoon. And if Dave could figure out that stroller, well, it would be even better.

Dave, because he's so smrt, read the directions in the owners manual rather than trying to go by the diagram and got the stroller folded and we were on our way.

We had a really nice afternoon and the girls loved it. This was the first trip to the zoo that Ryann really understood what the heck we were doing and she was fun to watch, although, true to form she would not face the camera at all:)


Here they are looking at the sleeping lion - you can see him to the left of Nora.













And here's Georgia in the double stroller. She had so much fun watching people and pulling Ryann's hair. (and I laughed my little evil laugh in my head about Ryann's hair getting pulled. She is sooooo getting a taste of her own medicine these days and is not liking it one.bit.)









This is the closest I got to a picture of Ryann's face. (and I have to tell you that they should really reconsider having an actual pig sty in the children's zoo. It smelled very bad and all the kids let everyone know about it).













And this is beyond cute - I love pictures from behind. I made them hold hands in the petting zoo so they wouldn't get separated while I was taking pictures (is that responsible? aren't pictures more important than holding your own kids' hands?)Nora was so helpful with Ryann and showed her all of the animals. They really do enjoy each other, even though they fight all the time:)





And the membership is definitely the way to go. We did not bring even a dime with us, which was really nice. We figured that we paid for half of our membership already, so 1 or 2 more trips will cover the cost entirely. And the best thing about it is we saw just the animals we wanted to see. We didn't feel a need to spend the entire day there or see EVERYTHING because we had paid an enormous amount of money to go. We went for a couple of hours and left. It was great!

And the best part... we did not go to the baboon exhibit. I HATE the baboon exhibit. They gross me out with their naked bums and I have seen some disgusting things go on in that little rocky mountain. Things that will forever be etched in my memory that I would prefer to forget. So no more baboons for me:)