A day at the zoo causes me to burst into song.

Each spring there comes a day when the yellow inversion lifts, the sun shines, and I feel full to bursting with AWESOME. I am tempted all day to strap on an apron and spin around like Maria soon-to-be-von-Trapp on that mountain side singing at the top of my lungs, and at some point I acknowledge the awesome and think, huh, I don't remember snorting 8 lines of cocaine this morning. I wonder why I feel so fantastic?

And then it hits me. What I really feel is NORMAL, but after months of trudging along in the snow with my head down and my heart encased in ice, I nearly forgot what it felt like to not feel gross. Maybe this sounds a little overly dramatic. 

IT'S NOT. Hello, Vitamin D. It's nice to see you again.

Anyway, yesterday was one of those days. The sun was sparkling and the weather was perfect and then Stacey said, "hey, want to go to the zoo for free?" and I was like, "THE HILLS ARE ALIVE!"

And that's how we spent a perfectly perfect day at the zoo. Proof:

 I ended up pushing my giant Cadillac stroller all over that darn zoo and Bug never climbed in it once.

 Can you even stand how cute these two girls are in their pea coats?

Mister Baggins didn't have any shoes on, mostly because due to a recent growth spurt we don't own shoes that fit him. It wasn't really a big deal since he's mostly content to chill out in the the stroller and was bundled in blankets, too. At one point when I was letting him check out that orangutan close up, though, I thought to myself, "Huh. My kid is standing on the floor of the gorilla house in only his socks." And then I got distracted by the fact that my hair was in a side ponytail (is that only for high schoolers? I'm undecided) and figured I'd wash the socks when we got home and chalk the whole episode up to strengthening immune systems.

Have I ever mentioned that my kids are wildly intolerant of having the sun in their eyes? Clearly, Bug wasn't willing to sacrifice retinas for a family photo op by the elephants.

The thing we love very most about our dear friends the Ortons (besides their free zoo pass, obviously) is the way they love our kids. Stacey even kept loving Bug when she asked eighty six times in a row if we could stop for lunch and then, as soon as we sat down to eat, started asking when we could see more animals. We are lucky to have such patient friends. We had a wonderful time, and the time outside was just what the doctor ordered for the severe case of the Februaries that's been floating around our house.

I'm starting to believe that maybe, just maybe, it won't be icy forever.