Washington, DC Day TWO

On Friday, day two of our trip to DC, we went to The National Zoo to check out the fun animals.

The zoo, well... honestly I wasn't all that impressed. hahaa. The animals were great and had wonderful "homes" or whatever, but the layout of the whole place was poorly designed, I thought. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't so packed, but wow there were way too many people there. We had fun though, and the kids got to see some pretty neat things.

Our first fun experience was when we were at the panda exhibit. We first showed up and there was this huge crowed blocking the entrance to the pandas and the elephants. We fought our way through only to find out that the panda and the elephant exhibits were both empty. LAME. So instead we decided to sit down and take a break and eat our lunch. WELL, while we were eating the panda came out and walked right. by. us. We had the best view in the place! It was pretty rad and the kids were so excited. I think we stayed there for a half hour just watching the panda walk around and eating bamboo.

After that we had to fight the crowd again to get out of there and then we were off to check out the tigers and lions. When we got to the lions one of the lions actually roared a couple times for us and that was cool.

So there we were, at the end of the day, tired, sick of crowds, but happy of our awesome experience with the animals, when we realized that to get back to the metro it was going to brutal. haha.

See, The zoo is downhill. You start at the front entrance, which is by the metros AND the parking, but for our case it was the metro, and then you walk through the zoo, always going downhill to see all the animals. There is an entrance at the end, and we thought this was a sweet layout of the zoo because we wouldn't have to go back up the hill, but once out of the zoo, and after talking to some cops and traffic directors, we found out that the shortest route back to the metro was to walk back. up. that. HILL. UGH, with 7 kids, three strollers, and the busy, crowded zoo. Almost all the zoo's I've been too have kind of a circle layout, but the National Zoo's layout was pretty much just a one way thing.

Going back up that hill with my stroller, loaded with 4! kids, was so hard and exhausting. By the end of the day my legs were shaking. Bo had offered to push the stroller (he was holding Derrick), but I'd honestly rather push then hold a squirming tired baby.

My cousin Rachel joined up with us at the end of our zoo day, and the poor girl walked all the way through the zoo to meet us at the bottom, only to turn around and walk back up with us. I had fun catching up with her and seeing how she was though.

So after the zoo we headed back to the hotel, took a break, and then headed off to Cafe Rio for dinner. YUM. We were so excited when we realized there was one close by. Funny side note, while we were there you could pretty much tell that at least 75% of the costumers were LDS. haha. My cousin Ty and his very pregnant wife (it was her due date), Michelle, joined us for dinner and it was fun socializing with them and Rachel. It was great seeing some family. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture. DARN.

When dinner was over everyone headed back to the hotel and Jana and I jumped into her car to go to Georgetown. Jana needed to pick up a desk at a store there, and we both were excited to get some cupcakes at Georgetown Cupcakes. While she got the desk, I waited in line at the cupcake place. That's right, I waited in line to eat a cupcake. It was worth it too! We got pictures with Jana's phone, but I don't have them yet. Later. Anyways I think I finally got into bed at about 11, which doesn't seem so late, but man was I exhausted. The kids and Bo were already asleep too, so I saved the cupcakes and we had them for breakfast. Mother of the year award right there.

Here's some pictures of the day!

Jaime, Carter, Serena, some random people, and Bo

Elie and Megan watching the panda

Awesome shots of the panda.

The kids were so excited.

Carter, me and Megan watching the Tiger