Life is a Zoo!

Hi! It's Rindi again. Yesterday I turned 32 years old! I know, I know...I'm getting older. It was a great birthday spent with my family at the San Diego Zoo! We saw lots of animals, all of which seemed a whole lot calmer than the kids I brought with me. Here are some of the highlights:
-The baby hippo! So cute. The wrestling, playful gorillas. The turtles swimming all around...some had really long necks! The big elephant splashing in the water...so fun to see!
-Watching Miles be mesmerized by the reptiles!
-Holding hands and skipping along with Emma and Julia!
-Wrestling with Austin during a bus tour of the zoo. (The weather was absolutely glorious, and it was such a beautiful way to see the zoo...when I wasn't busy holding onto my own little monkey!)
-Pushing our stroller (which I'm sure was loaded way beyond its factory specifications) up and down the rolling hills of the largest zoo ever! I'm sure I looked like a vision pushing that thing straight up a hill...putting my back into it and pushing with all my might. What would we do without a double stroller with bags hanging from the handles, jackets and lunches shoved in the basket, kids crammed in the seats all the while trying to weave through the crowds of oblivious people? Oh, it's so fun!
-Watching Greg push the stroller! To be completely fair, he did a whole lot of the pushing. And yes, he was a vision while putting his back into it! Good job, honey.
-Eating ice cream cones in the shade with a nice breeze keeping us cool. Ice cream cones make any family moment magical right? Until they all start dripping and you have to help lick as fast as your tongue will go! Luckily we had very little dripping and a whole lot of fun.
-Chasing Austin around and around the snake house. Boy, that kid can run tirelessly. Good thing I've been training!
-Carrying Austin on our shoulders because he refused to stay in the stroller!
-Forcing Austin to sit in the stroller because our shoulders were tired.
-Finally getting Austin to fall asleep in the stroller....ahhhh...
-Ending the day on the Skyfari overhead tram ride. The views were incredible, the kids loved it and I could have stayed there all day soaring above the treetops. (Until I thought about getting stuck on that thing with Austin...wow, that would be some intense wrestling!) I was so happy to make it safely to the end.
-And since it was my birthday, they all took me out to dinner to celebrate.

It wasn't the relaxing birthday that I might think about in my dreams, but I wouldn't change a thing! My life may be a zoo full of wild animals, but who doesn't love the zoo?