A Trip to the Zoo and a Trip Down Memory Lane

This weekend, on Matt's birthday no less, we decided to put our annual passes to the zoo to use. I haven't been since my last trip by myself with the girls, and Matt hadn't been since the 4th grade!

So, we pulled out our second double stroller for the occasion. Yes, we own two double strollers. Don't get Matt started on that point. I really believe we have very few strollers considering the number of children we have. (We have a grand total of three - our Inglesina Zippy single stroller, our Kolcraft double that I use all the time, and this second double - an Inglesina Twin Swift.) And, this second double stroller was bought way back when I was taking care of Joey during the day, and needed a way to get both Megan and Joey out for walks around the neighborhood. Seems like ancient history, but here is a cute shot of the two of them in their stroller:

And, since I had to search for that picture, I couldn't resist a couple more shots of the cousins together as babies. Joey is just 8 weeks older than Megan, and I think taking care of him prepared me a lot for having twins!

Incidentally, when out and about with Megan and Joey, people constantly asked me if they were twins, and in my foggy state of mind at the time, sometimes I believed they were. Foreshadowing?

Anyway, back to our zoo outing. We had a great time, and saw much more of the zoo than I've seen with the girls in the past. Going with another adult makes a huge difference! The girls were able to ride the train and the carousel (twice!), which isn't really possible when I've got everybody on my own.

Here's the birthday boy (is he still a boy at 35??) with his stroller of kids:

And, the girls with Daddy waiting for the train:

The best part about two strollers? We could walk slightly apart from each other, and people wouldn't necessarily think we were all together. It was a nice break to have people sweetly smiling at my stroller with just the twins, instead my usual: blatant staring at me while I'm struggling with my entourage of four crazy kids. As it was, we still spent as much time looking at animals as we did answering questions about the kids, how old they are, etc.

And, just to prove that Tessa and Annie came with us, here's Annie peeking from behind the sunshade on her car seat:

And, Tessa looking cute eating some zoo french fries. Super healthy!