Out and About in Jacksonville

Bob and I recently purchased a membership to the zoo, so the boys and I have made a few forays into the wild.  Our first trip, we went as a family and had a great time.  Then the boys and I went on our own and Daddy met us on his lunch break.  It's so nice to live close to civilization.  After so many years of living in the middle of nowhere, we are really taking advantage of being right in the middle of the action.

One of the challenges of going out with the kids is finding time to go to the restroom with three little helpers.  Sometimes it must be done, and I am very fond of large stalls and seat belts.

My helper pushing the stroller.  The boys all took turns pushing the stroller with me.  I've found that the double stroller works very well for an outing because someone is always willing to walk, and oftentimes, they all walk while I push.  The monkey/dog backpacks work great for keeping everyone together except for at the end of an outing because the kids tend to weave back and forth and get all tangled and it takes a huge amount of time to move just a few steps.

Checking out the silverback gorilla.  The kids were really impressed that he was eating lettuce and carrots.  Now, when you serve carrots, Michael will say he's eating them like a monkey.

Ryan working the sink.  He is always willing to mix it up.

James turns Daddy's trombone stand into a microphone.

The boys are absolutely in love with airplanes, so it just made sense to take them to the air show.  They held it on the NAS Jax base, and I was shocked at how huge it is.  We drove forever to get to the parking lot.  It was a rare cold day in Jacksonville, and we should have dressed the kids much warmer (and Daddy).

In spite of the chill, the boys were so excited to run around and under the planes.  We wanted to take them inside a couple, but the lines were crazy long and our attention span just isn't that great.

We tried to check out the kids area, but it was very, very busy, and Bob and I didn't think that our boys would grasp the concept of waiting in line then only being able to jump for a few minutes before getting back out.  So, we headed over to watch the planes.

It was very loud and cold.  The boys were not so impressed by the noise.  We had some earplugs, but their tiny ears made it almost impossible for us to keep them in place.  The cold combined with the loud planes made us decide to pack up and head to the car before the Blue Angels.

We were able to make it to the car, warm up, get out of the wind, and listen to the announcer on the radio.  We were far enough away that the boys just enjoyed watching the planes and weren't so freaked out by the noise.  Sadly, we waited just a few minutes too long and it took us over an hour to get out of the parking lot.  We forget how much time it takes to get three little men into car seats when they are not ready to sit in them.