The plan was to get up early and get out of the house by 8 a.m. on Saturday morning to head to Indy. We had about a 3 hour drive (and we had to stop and drop off the dog in Urbana). We got up and got the kids ready, loaded the car (I had packed everything on Friday night), threw the kids and the dog in, and we were off by 8:30. Thirty minutes late is not bad in my book considering all the factors that go into getting out of the house these days. We got to Urbana to drop off the dog at my sisters house and we did a quick little driveway party so mom and dad, Kate, Kyle and the twins could tell Matt happy birthday. Then we were off to Walmart because we realized we forgot to bring Cole's swim floaties for the pool and we really wanted to swim with him. And here is where the real fun of the weekend starts...
I ran into Walmart to get the floaties and when I came out and opened the car I thought it smelled like poo. :) I smelled Clay and was like, yep, he needs a diaper change. We really didn't have any space to change him in the car, so I laid out a mat in the front seat and started in. However, what I didn't plan for was a diaper blowout. Poop was everywhere! I not only had to change his diaper, but his clothes too. It was a laughable moment and I distinctly remember saying that he probably wouldn't poop again all weekend. So we were back on the road...
We got to Indianapolis and got to the zoo with no more issues and were super excited to get into the zoo and start the exploring. I should probably also mention that Cole had no nap, so we knew what we were up against as far as a 2.5 year old attitude. The Indy Zoo is ridiculous in the fact that their price for admission changes based on how busy they think they might be. So when I booked our trip, it was going to cost us about $40 to go for the day, but since they anticipated it to be a busy weekend, when we got there it cost us $75 to get in. Side note: Dave Ramsey has completely warped my thinking and I was ticked we had to pay so much for one day of fun... Anyway, I pay the $75 and decide to get over the fact it was that much and move on with our fun day.
For those who do not know, Cole has a major obsession with giraffes, so we were super excited to go see the giraffe exhibit. On the way to the exhibit Cole saw this fake giraffe sticking out of some tall grass. He freaked out and was screaming hi to the giraffe. It was so cute! However, when we got to the actual giraffes, he could have cared less. He looked at them for about 2.2 seconds and was ready to leave. Haha. It probably didn't help that one of the giraffes was drinking the other ones pee at the moment we stopped...disgusting! Every time for the rest of the day that Cole would see a painted or fake statue giraffe he would get so excited, I guess he just didn't care for the real ones.
While we were at the giraffe exhibit, Cole spotted the train. We couldn't tell him no, so we "happily" spent another $9 on train tickets...you know, because paying $75 for the day couldn't get you a free train ride. Anyways, we thought the train would be good b/c we could see all kinds of animals a lot faster than if we were walking. Oh no, that would have made too much sense. The train took us on a "behind the scenes" tour of the back of all of the exhibits. We literally rode on the train to see about 47 tractors. And for those of you who know Cole, you will understand how incredibly excited he was to see tractors. It was probably the highlight of his day. Ha. He cried when we had to get off the train and wanted to ride again.
We decided to walk all the way to the other side of the zoo after the train ride to go see the Ocean animals. Cole has been really into sharks lately, so we thought it would be so fun to take him to pet the dogfish sharks that are in a big open pool. He did actually really like that part of the trip. Before we went to the sharks, we stopped by the dolphins. When we got inside, I decided I should probably check the boys diapers and change them. So I took Cole into the bathroom (I hate using public restrooms to change them, but there was no other option) and changed him. Then I came back out to get Clay and when I picked him up, the back of his shorts were all wet. Oh yeah, the kid who wasn't supposed to poop again all weekend, pooped allll over. So back into the bathroom I went to clean him up and change his clothes again. After that was all said and done I came back out and Cole tells me he pooped. I was like SERIOUSLY?! So back into the bathroom for a third time...to change him. In case you lost count, that's 3 diapers in like 10 minutes! While we were in there, there was a mom and her two small kids too. When Cole and I were leaving the bathroom he leaned over and turned off the lights...so there were two kids screaming loudly and the mom was panicked. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get the lights back on. I felt terrible and after apologizing 10 times tried to quickly leave the premises. Cole and Matt went to the dolphin show and loved it while Clay and I sat in the shade while he napped.
We started to talk to Cole about swimming at the hotel because he was hot and tired and we decided it was time to leave the zoo and head to the hotel to check in. When we were walking out to our car, we couldn't really see it because this huge van was blocking it. We joked about our car being gone...haha, if we had only known. We get to our car and are trying to get the kids in their car seats and this guy comes up to us and starts telling us how someone hit our car but they left a note on our windshield. Sure enough, the guy parked next to us had hit our car so hard while parking that it moved into the car in front of us too. So the back end was scratched up and the front end had some damage too. Lovely thing to top off our crazy day. So we spent the next hour and a half filing a claim. And we still don't know if this guy actually had insurance...he said he did, with a company called "Patriot", but he could not prove it to us. Guess we'll find out this week once we talk to our Claim Rep.
At this point, all we wanted to do was get to the hotel! We could literally see the hotel from the zoo parking lot. We get out of the zoo parking lot and we sat. We sat for an hour. There was traffic because of a baseball game, a concert and a car accident. We crawled along. It would have been faster to get out of the car and walk to the hotel. The boys were restless and hungry and just wanting to get out of the car. It was really annoying. We finally got to the hotel and got checked in and up to our room, which was on the 11th floor. It was a nice room and we were glad to just be there for the rest of the night. Funny thing was that when we looked out of our window once we got up there, all the traffic we sat in was completely gone. There were hardly any cars on the road at that point.
All day long we had been talking with Cole about going swimming at the hotel. As soon as we got to the room he was begging to swim. So we all got suited up and ready to head downstairs. He was pumped because we even brought him a new beach ball to blow up and play with. Once we got down to the pool he was squealing with excitement. We got into the pool - me holding Cole and Matt had Clay. The boys were LOVING it. Clay was splashing around and laughing. Cole was pushing his ball around and floating. Finally, we were having a good time. We had been in the pool no more than 3 minutes (this is not an exaggeration) and I saw something float by me. I thought it was a leaf (even though we were indoors). I ignored it, but then a few seconds later saw another one. I don't know what possessed me to think to check Cole's swim diaper, but yep, the kid crapped in it and that was what was floating by me. I could not believe it!!! Who has this much bad luck in one freakin' day? So we climbed out of the pool as quickly as we'd gotten in. We then had to tell about 6 other people they should probably evacuate too and we called the front desk to let them know. Cole was sad we had to get out and I didn't have the heart to tell him it was b/c of him. Poor baby! So we went back up to the 11th floor, showered with the boys and got their jammies on. It was late anyway, so we were ready for them to settle down and go to sleep.
About the time we were laying them in bed, our windows started shaking from the bass at the concert right across the street. This concert was so loud that we could hear every word being sung and every note that was being played. Matt and I just looked at each other and cracked up laughing. I mean it couldn't have been more perfect timing. The music did not stop until at least 11:30 p.m. I sent Matt down to the bar to have a birthday beer alone...and told him that if he came back completely drunk I wouldn't blame him at all.
It was quite the birthday/Father's Day weekend for Matt. All of this was so out of my control, but I still felt bad. I am so glad we had each other to laugh with all weekend about the crazy stuff that was happening. I wouldn't have wanted to wipe butts all weekend, sit in traffic, and wrangle kids with anyone but him. He is a special guy to put up with all of our "crap" on a daily basis. We love him dearly and hope to celebrate many more birthdays and Father's Day's with him! Oh, and we have never been so happy to get home! And if I even mention planning another fun weekend long outing, someone slap some sense into me!
And also, I wouldn't trade these two poop monsters for the world!
