a spontaneous trip to the zoo.

There are days when the kids will wake up and ask, "what are we going to do today" as if I'm supposed to have a summer agenda. It's mostly Chelsea who'll ask me that, and being the mom I guess I should have a direct answer. 

On this day I didn't. When you have no clue what your plans are going to be you tend to become spontaneous, and I think a text from one of Sierra's friends made all the difference on this day.

Sierra had received a text earlier in the morning from a friend about getting together and "hanging out" for the day. Although I'm fond of this boy, I don't allow Sierra to go over a boy's house unless there are multiple friends there. Kind of like her graduation party. 

All of a sudden a thought popped into my head. The zoo. I then had Sierra ask him if he wanted to come to the zoo with us. He sounded excited and he did. 

And so did Chelsea.

We love the zoo, and you know the best part of this particular zoo is that it's free! Love it, love it, love it! I mean...who doesn't like going to a place that's free. 

We have started a tradition now when every time we go to the zoo we have lunch at Johnny Rockets. We all had delicious food, and Noah enjoyed the company of having another male to our mix. 

The kids love the carousel particularly Noah & Chelsea, and they always make sure that they ride it. Noah just smiles all the way through the ride...he's such a doll! 

Noah gets filled with so much excitement when we tell him we're going to the zoo. He squeals, and just has a big grin on his face.

We rode the train which was a little relaxing ride for all of us, especially for Noah. You can tell in this vine how much he loves the choo choo train! 

 

It felt so nice to have another teen with us. He blends in really well with our family, and it's nice to know that Sierra has good friends. 

The park is a big deal for the kids here, and after the zoo closed we let Noah release some energy!

This day was so nice, and I love inviting friends to come with us. I know how summers can be, and when it gets close to the end it can get a little boring...especially for teenagers. 

I also want to thank JC for taking a lovely photo of our family. So...inviting friends is an advantage because you don't have to hound some stranger in asking them to take a photo of us!