We Bought A Zoo (No, Not Really, But I Wish)

We bought a zoo.

All the kids minus the three 'big' kids and a sleeping baby.

No, not really.

But a girl can dream, right?!

Instead of buying a zoo, I actually went to the Tulsa Zoo with our church's home-schooled group.

I teach them Creative Writing.

And they're good.

Like scary good writers.

They're intimidating.

And so creative.

It's probably good for me to share my love of writing with these kids.

They make me work twice as hard because I know they will tell me if it's bad.

They're honest--brutally honest.

But it's O.K.

I really do value their honesty.

Driving to the Tulsa Zoo

So, all 14 of us loaded up in the church van and headed to Tulsa.

Sweet little Asher hollered from the back of the van as I was getting in, "Miss Jessi! Sit by me!"

Naturally, I had to climb over all the rows to get back there.

Who could resist this little face?! 

 As we were driving through Chouteau (population: like less than 2,000 people), we ended up sitting in traffic.

For a while.

You know you live in a small town when the entire van is groaning about the traffic.

In Chouteau.

We had to sit still for 10 minutes.

That's a long time for small town folks.

Honestly.

But, eventually, we were on the go again.

Oklahoma traffic.

 We sang songs on the way to the zoo, played games and giggled.

I totally giggled.

How can you not giggle when you're hanging out with a bunch of kids?

Especially when they're telling good jokes.

Seriously, the jokes when I was young were not this funny.

I think I reverted back like 16 years.

I totally felt 8 years-old again.

It was a blast.

We finally arrived at the zoo and headed inside.

Aaron had a small accident with a Go Gurt.

It was pretty funny.

Go Gurt gone wrong.

We explored and explored and explored.

When we were at the Rainforest exhibit, poor little A.J. saw a crocodile, starting screaming, ran backwards and tripped over the stroller.

I picked him up and asked him if he was O.K.

He then proceeded to run, screaming at the top of his lungs, down the exhibit.

We are still laughing about it.

Asher and AJ in the Rainforest Exhibit.

The kids had a blast.

And Andrew made up a new word: shark-a-tarium. 

It's the place where the sharks live.

Lunchtime shenanigans.

Our day was awesome.

We headed home and stopped by Quik-Trip for gas and drinks.

Hey, who can pass up a 69 cent drink?

I'm already looking forward to our next field trip.

And the chance to be 8 years-old again.