Noah's Ark

In an effort to have one last family day before I went back to work, we ventured out to Noah's Ark, an animal rehabilitation center that is donation-only and has lots of cool animals. I thought the day would be a perfect opportunity to enjoy the sunshine, get great pictures with my new camera (early birthday present from Davey!), and make some memories. Now, going out with two kids is no small feat, but the morning started well with a very bubbly and happy two-year-old.  We went out to breakfast at The Waffle House and had a serendipitous visit with some friends of ours, Dustin (also the WH manager), his wife Meredith, and Zadee, their daughter and Lailey's play-buddy. The day would be perfect, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, it spiraled from there. Noah's Ark is only open from 12-3 pm, and Lailey usually is ready for a nap at 1 to 1:30. I was hoping to get there right at noon so as not to push our fun time into naptime. Yeah, not so much. I missed a turn on the way there and put us late. Blunder number one. Then when we got there, Maddox was ready to eat and letting me know about it. Davey unloaded Lailey and was going to take her to see the emus while I got my now rather noisy baby out of the car and into the double stroller. In my haste to get stuff out of the car, I grabbed the strap to my camera bag, but I had forgotten to zip it, and...yes, my brand new camera tumbled onto the ground. I just stood there in shock, feeling sick to my stomach. Davey, already several paces away, turned around and said "what was that?" I couldn't even speak. So now, Maddox is screaming, I'm getting teary-eyed thinking my awesome-new-birthday-present-that-I've-wanted-forever is probably broken, and Lailey? Oh, she gets bit by an ant. Perfect. Then while we're mildly freaking about the camera (baby still crying!), she starts to walk away. I see an oncoming truck backing up, and we yell our heads off in panic. Thankfully he saw her and really didn't get that close. But still. Enough already! We finally get rolling to find a place for me to feed the baby, and at this point, Lailey is either getting really tired or sensing our tension (probably both) and starts whining about everything.  Maddox, though fed and changed, was uncharacteristically fussy and didn't want the stroller to stop moving. Makes it a tad difficult to enjoy the scenery. This continues for pretty much the next hour or so until finally we put up our white flag, surrendered, and headed home. Hmmm. So much for a perfect day! Oh well. Despite the drama, we did get to see the animals and I got some decent pictures. Praise the Lord, the camera only had a couple tiny, almost unnoticeable scratches and still works fine. Phew!

Lailey pursuing a peacock

Two tigers playing

Is it wrong to caption this photo "E.T.?"

On Daddy's shoulders, checking out the frog in the box

This hilarious bird kept mimicking Lailey's whining and crying!

A briefly happy moment

The goat who wouldn't come to the fence to be petted, much to Lailey's dismay.

Lailey's friend for the day

I think this will be one of those days we just laugh about for awhile. At least we tried!