It's a zoo in here! Pun intended.

A few weeks ago I asked Tom what we should do with the day and then rattled off a few options: Gravelly Point, swimming at The Cove, the zoo, the mall by the monuments. He suggested we take the kids to the zoo and then to dad's house for dinner and a movie. We quickly showered, got everyone dressed, packed snacks and lunches, sunscreened everyone up, packed up the car and an hour later were on our way to the Metro. Yes, going from unshowered and in pajamas to fully dressed and packed in an hour is defined as quick for a family of five. LOL

The girls absolutely love the Metro. We brought our double stroller and the umbrella stroller because we knew at some point all three were likely to be exhausted, but at the start of the trip we only had Tommy and a bunch of cooler bags in the strollers and the girls stood on the train holding the pole. After switching lines, we finally arrived to Woodley Park and began our walk to the zoo. Somehow I forgot that the walk from the Metro to the zoo was all uphill. And then the zoo is basically one giant hill. Not a problem until you're tired and hot and ready to leave and you're stuck pushing 60-70 pounds of kid and stroller up a giant hill in the heat and humidity.

Anyway. We got to the entrance and snapped a pic of the family with the zoo sign. Since it took us so long to get ready and then get to the zoo everyone was hungry the minute we walked in. We stopped in the shade and had a quick quick snack and water break and then headed on to see the animals. It was a somewhat hot day and we got there right at lunchtime so most of the animals were either indoors or curled up high in a tree or in the shade.

The girls really got a kick out of seeing the elephants and I'm pretty sure they could have stood there all day watching them drink and eat and walk around. We let them stay for a bit and then moved on to the panda exhibit.

The pandas. My GOD. Honestly I don't get why everyone is OMGOSH SO EXCITED about seeing the pandas, but they are. We walked by the outdoor exhibit and caught the tail end of one of the pandas. I figured that was enough and we started walking on, but then I realized that we were walking straight into the indoor panda exhibit. It was crowded and hot and loud and obnoxious and at one point I caught myself complaining to Tom, "It's a zoo in here!" And then we both laughed at the ridiculousness of that statement. The girls LOVED the pandas, especially the baby panda. As soon as they saw them we hightailed it out and grabbed a spot of shade to have lunch. Of course the moment we moved on away from the bathrooms was the moment Lexi decided she had to go RIGHT NOW. I ran both girls to the bathroom, both girls crying the whole way about how they didn't want to go potty, forced them both to sit and try and sure enough guess who ended up going potty. Mommy is always right.

After the potty break we went over to see the Great Cats, but ended up only seeing a lion and a few tigers. The poor lion was just relaxing in the shade, probably thinking "THIS is supposed to be my kingdom?!" The girls loved the tigers, especially this one who walked by and growled a few times.

We watched the tiger clean itself for awhile and then headed over to see the gorillas and orangutans. One of the gorillas walked right up to the glass to eat, which really thrilled the girls (and the other kids there). Once we finished up at the ape house we decided to call it a day. We were all hot, tired, and getting cranky. Luckily on the way out Stasa spotted the zebras, an animal she really wanted to see, but we didn't have time to go find.

So back to the Metro we went. This time the walk was all downhill, a nice treat after hauling three kids, two strollers and gear uphill. We finally get on the orange line to get back to our car only to have the train stop halfway in a tunnel at Foggy Bottom. We stood in the (unairconditioned) train for about 45 minutes before they finally opened the emergency door. Without any announcements made we just all walked off the train onto the platform and watched as Metro workers ran to and fro flipping seats up. They finally made an announcement that there were technical difficulties and since they were already single tracking due to scheduled maintenance they had no ETA on when it would be fixed. I suggested we just cab it back home and at one point convinced Tom to leave to get a drink, but the minute we walked away the train doors opened and closed, so we went back to the platform to wait. And about 30 minutes later the train finally moved. Empty. Then we watched like six other trains come through, none of which were the train we wanted. When our train came through we got on, only to have standing room only the whole way home.

Thankfully we got back to our car in one piece, with some of our sanity still intact. To reward the kids (and myself) for being somewhat patient during the train incident we stopped at 7-Eleven and got Slurpees.

Summer memories

This summer is flying by already and it feels like it just started. My goal has been to spend as much time as we can outside with the kids and so far we've managed to do just that. We've had a couple of busy weeks with family visits, Tommy's baptism, and the patio being finished. My brother, his wife, and stepson came for a long weekend and we spent a couple of days downtown visiting Arlington, the monuments, and one or two museums. We took the kids with us one day and then put them in daycare for the second so we could get around a bit faster. It was great to see him again and to meet my sister-in-law for the first time. They had been stationed in Hawaii for the past few years and recently were moved to upstate New York - talk about a climate change. I kept joking that I didn't want to be in any pictures with Tracy because she made me look like the whitest ghost. Hopefully now that they're on the east coast we can visit more often. After Ryan's visit, we had the Chicago Merkels come to town for Tommallama's baptism. And in keeping with the Merklet tradition, he was the loudest child during the service. Way to keep the tradition strong, little man.

As our kids have gotten older I've started thinking about my own childhood more and all of the things I loved doing as a kid. My childhood was filled with climbing trees, practicing gymnastics in our side yard, and chugging Kool-Aid. We used to play outside from sun-up until the street lights came on (and even then begged to stay out later). We'd only come in to eat meals and even those were gulped down as fast as possible. I distinctly remember chugging my huge glass of milk at dinner in one gulp just so I could get back outside right away.

There have been so many small things that have happened over the past couple of weeks that have made me smile.

Drinking water straight from the hose or sprinkler.

Running barefoot in the grass while waiting for fireworks to start.

Playing catch with cousins.

Watching backyard fireworks.

Practicing cartwheels again and again.

Splashing around in an inflatable pool.

Riding bikes around the neighborhood until it's dark.

Here's to a summer full of more memories.