Festive Chaos

I'm a planner.  I plan things months in advance for my family.  I got this crazy idea in my head that we should go to Zoo Lights on a weekday so it wouldn't be as crowded.  It sounded like a great idea to me, but I should have known better.

I packed up all of our stuff the night before because Rob and I had to be up at 4 am to get ready for work.  We both worked a 10 hour day, the big kids went to school, and the little kids went to the babysitter.  After work we picked up the kids and because we weren't going home before Zoo Lights I got them dressed at Grandma's house.  She lives close to the sitter and she had picked Jordan up from school.  The little girls are always dirty after their day at the babysitter so they needed clean clothes, etc.

Before we got to the zoo we stopped at Subway so we could eat on the way.  The zoo is about 30 minutes away, but this was rush hour.  So it should have been more like a 45 minute drive.  Rob decided to get a hot dog from the place next to Subway.  We aren't even out of the parking lot and I take a sharp turn and dump his hot dog (covered in all sorts of yummy goodness) right into his lap.  All over the seat of my new truck too!  UGH!!  Needless to say he was not very happy with me.  Once we were finally on our way Delaney asks every 2 minutes where the lights are at.  This girl is not happy that we've got a long drive ahead of us.  Harper was crying because she was tired and no one could find her dang blanket.  Then on top of all that I miss my exit and end up lost on the wrong freeway!  Rob at that point became the navigator so that we'd get to the zoo before it closed.  Oh yeah and I only got 3 hours of sleep the night before.  Awesome.

We did however finally get to the zoo.  Thankfully we were still able to have a good time and guess what?!  There weren't many people there and the weather was gorgeous!  Got to love Arizona winters!    

My Leo found the lion.

The girls loved all of the lights! 

Just some of the lights we saw.

Me and the Hubs. 

Jordan and Kierstin. 

All Delaney talked about while we were there was riding the horsey aka Carousel.  She rode on a panther the first time and a lion the second time.  They had all kinds of zoo animals to ride on.

And sweet baby Harper just chilled and took in everything around her.  I'm shocked that she didn't want to get out and crawl around in the dirt.  She also stayed awake for the whole experience.

Until we meet again Zoo Lights....

I'll come up with a smoother plan next time.