I Need a Nap.

The only problem that I have yet to identify with going on a road trip adventure is that I'm tired!

And of course, my achilles tendon issues have chosen this week to act up big time so I'm limping and hobbling around everywhere.

But...we're all having so much fun, visiting and doing stuff.  The kids are loving the time playing with new (and old) friends.

On Sunday afternoon, we were invited to a bbq at my friend J's house and between the three families represented there, we had seven kids between the ages of three and twelve running around like crazy people while we adults sat at a table in the midst of all of the chaos and caught up on life a bit and ate salmon.  What's not to like about that?  Maybe the biggest laughs came from watching Lizzie with a new little friend, O, who is three and very verbal and who seemed to believe that Lizzie and he were meant to be together.  He stalked her around the house and literally paced back and forth on the deck, watching her, while she jumped on the trampoline with one of her brothers; he loved to order her to follow him about and demanded that she play cars with him or he would have to kill her...likely by kissing her!  It was hilarious.  And through it all, Lizzie just laughed her usual light-hearted self and had fun playing with him.

Yesterday, the kids and I spent the day at the Calgary Zoo and I feel pretty confident that we visited every. single. exhibit.  The boys told me which their priority animals were (Matthew - hippos, big cats, bears, and Seth - penguins) but we saw everything there was to see, other than the gorillas, who were away somewhere.  We saw the new penguin enclosure (which was really cool, pardon the pun), three of the four big cats that we've been learning bits about (sadly, no jaguar), animals that can be found in Africa, South America, Eurasia, Canada, and so on.  A highlight for the kids, no doubt, was being allowed to choose one of those fancy, twirly, multi-coloured lollipops for an afternoon snack...given how much the kids raved about this treat, they must have been finger-licking good.  By the time we staggered to the parking lot at closing time (well, Lizzie and I were staggering - I don't know who was worse off - Lizzie with her short tired legs or me with my achilles feeling like it was on fire), we felt pretty done for the day.  But we made it through and had a great time.

What a life!