Do You Measure Up?

It was a beautiful day on Saturday and I decided I wanted to go to the zoo. Thinking it would add a little legitimacy to our zoo trip, we invited Becky’s kids to come with us. Now, while I had great confidence in my ability to be just the coolest aunt ever, I was still a little doubtful as to whether the little ones would be able to handle a day at the zoo with just Uncle Matt and Aunt Amanda (or if we could handle a day at the zoo with them). I was a little relieved when Matt’s mom asked if she could come too. Suddenly the odds were better (3 of us for 3 of them) and I was getting more and more excited. We drove out and picked up Becky’s kids, because we needed to borrow their car to get the kids safely to the zoo (gone are the days of just throwing kids in the back of the station wagon). When we got to the house, the little one, Cameron, just broke out crying when he saw us. “This doesn’t bode well for the rest of the day” I thought, but kept a smile on my face as we loaded the kids in the car and set off to the zoo.

Apparently everyone in Northern Utah had the same idea to go to the zoo as we did. It was pretty crowded, and we happily found a parking place a mile down the road from the entrance and started our journey to the zoo. I quickly took the easy job, of pushing the stroller, and left Matt to be in charge of the two kids that were independently mobile. We made it to the gates of the zoo with no incident but we were greeted there by a 15 minute line to purchase tickets. I sent Matt to stand in line while I stood in the shade with the kids. While we waited the kids gave me a show of how they could act like animals. Carson did a wonderful impression of a snake (which – sorry Becky – did include a demonstration of how they slither along the ground). Cailey showed me her all too realistic impression of a monkey, and continued to be a monkey until we were ready to go in the zoo.

Now, the people who run the zoo are no fools. They make it a point to put the train ride right inside the entrance, so that the first thing a kid sees upon entering the gates is the train. I remember this from when I was a kid, and I also remember the answer I used to get when I would beg and plead to go on the train. Well, this time Carson was the kid and I was the adult. “Let’s go on the train!” was the first thing we heard when we got in. And in true grown up fashion, I answers “Later (hoping he would forget about it) let’s go see this first!”

[a short side note about the train: we never went on it when I was a kid. So finally, my sister Val and I went to the zoo with our own money, we were probably in Jr. High and we decided that it was time for us to experience what had been so long denied to us, and we were going to ride the train! So we put our hard earned money down, got on the train, and were soooo disappointed! I expected it to take us to some special part of the zoo only visible to those lucky people on the train, so when it just followed the path around and was only about 2 minutes long, I was disenchanted – and even worse, I had to admit that my parent’s were right in not taking us on it all those years. Ouch!]

So, we went and saw the white alligator, and the elephants, and the bears and the penguins and the zebras, and the monkeys and the giraffes. After about every other animal the question returned about the train, and it was answered in a variety of ways including “we will go later”, “after the next animal” and “it is on the other side of the park, when we get back we can ride it”. Now, my nephew Carson is not to be fooled, so at this last answer, he insisted on consulting a map. He plotted out our course from the giraffe house to the train – looking for the shortest and quickest route.

We followed his route, with a slight detour to see the gorillas. (Carson told me I could see one gorilla, but then it was off to the train!) After some gorilla gazing, we finally did what some of us had been dreaming about all day – we rode the train. Well, Carson, Cailey, and Matt’s mom rode the train. I took the opportunity to avoid standing in the long line and to sit in the shade with Cameron. He had been just the sweetest kid sitting in his stroller and just taking it all in that I thought I would give him a break. So while the others rode the amazing train around the zoo, Cameron and I relaxed in the shade and he got to experience some freedom from the stroller.

That was the end of the day. I had to get to a work function and Matt had some work to do at his mom’s house, so we were happy to call it a day and make the trek back out to the car. All of us were tired and the kids were all sound asleep before we got them home.

Thanks for letting us steal your kids for a day Becky, it was fun.


































Matt, Carson, Cailey, and Little Matt - 1985