Empty Promises

We learned that the St. Louis Zoo was free within the first week of living here.  In our foolishness, Will and I promptly PROMISED (we're such suckers) the kids that we would take them.  The first time we tried it rained cats and dogs.  Although the kids were disappointed, it was easy to point out the window at the gusting, pouring down rain and reluctantly say, "Gosh, kids, we really wanted to take you to the zoo today, but darn the weather, we just can't!"

As ones slow to learn from our mistakes, this past Saturday we again hyped the zoo to Everett and Juliana. "Who's wants to go to the zoo today?!?!?"was quickly followed by tumultuous shrieks of excitement.  If our kids are anything, it's that they excite easily and quickly.  And have the memory of a elephant - they NEVER forget.

*(As a side note - last August on the day of Everett's preschool orientation I was running late (shocking) and in my haste to get out of the grocery store parking lot I hit a police car.  Of course, I had all three kids with me.  It was tragic and even I, with my heart of stone, burst into tears.  It was ugly.  Be glad you weren't there.  Unfortunately, nary a week goes by when Everett isn't either reminding me of that incident or telling others about it.  Just a few weeks ago after church his Primary teacher told me that although the lesson was on being obedient, Everett felt the need to share the "my mom hit a police car" story yet again.)

So after a morning of yard work and lunch, off we went to the zoo.  We were really going!  And it was a gorgeous, sunny day!  I have to admit, I was feeling pretty darn spiffy.  My thoughts ran along these lines: "Gosh, we are SO fun!  We told them we'd take them to the zoo and here we go.  They're going to remember this forever!"

Unfortunately, everyone in the metro St. Louis area had the same brilliant idea to visit the zoo, and they had one up on us because they had gotten there earlier in the day.  By the time we got there, there was literally and honestly, not a parking spot to be had.  The line of cars backed up to get in was completely ridiculous.  With Giselle's screeching, Juliana's constant questioning, "Is that the zoo?  Where's the zoo?  How do we get into the zoo?" and Everett pointing out parking spots that even his bike couldn't fit into, Will and I quickly realized a visit to the zoo had eluded us once again.  In an effort to make amends, we went to the closest "attraction" we could find: the St. Louis Science Center.

If you promise the zoo and then deliver the science center, expect your children to be a bit...underwhelmed.  But like I said, they excite easily and quickly, so after a few minutes, they were having a good time.  Inside I was thinking, "Wow, we really dodged a bullet.  I can't believe they're not putting up more of a fuss about missing the zoo.  I have the greatest kids!"  Until we were walking back to the car after it was over and Everett said, "NOW can we go to the zoo?"

(This picture pretty much sums it up.)