lights before christmas

The weather this Winter has been extremely mild. Mild is putting it lightly; this past week I don't think we had one day that dropped below 50°F. The past two Winters were so horrible that they made me wretched to the point where I'd be happy to never experience snow again. So needless to say this one is sort of refreshing, especially being from The Mitten. But you know it's due to global warming, right? Yeah, and at this point I honestly don't think there's much that the current inhabitants of Earth can do, so we might as well enjoy activities that in past years would have frozen our asses off!

We debated between The Detroit Zoo 'Wild Lights' and The Toledo Zoo 'Lights Before Christmas' (but they go until January so I'm sort of lost on the name) since they are both within the same proximity but we ultimately decided to head south to Ohio. It's our zoo of choice during the summer so why not visit during Christmastime? 

I swear to you the construction at the Michigan/Ohio border has been going on for three years with no noticeable progress; this along with everyone and their mother taking advantage of the 60°F weather made for bumper to bumper traffic for the one mile to the zoo as soon as we got off the freeway. This was made complicated due to a four year old that needed to use the bathroom RIGHT NOW. Up to the right I could see a Burger King, but our lane was only moving an inch every five minutes. Murphy's Law, right? As soon as I got over to the left lane it came to a stand still and the right lane started chuggin' right along. Shoot me. Now no chance of me getting over to the Burger King or back into the queue of zoo traffic.

After speeding in the left lane for what seemed like hours, there were absolutely no gas stations or restaurants in sight and I started debating about pulling over and letting her pee on the side of the road. I was so dumbfounded; here we are on a main road with no where to stop! We finally cut through a neighborhood to find another main road and SUCCESS. Ironically it ended up being a Burger King. Thanks, Universe. But hey! No accident and I couldn't have been more proud of her.

Knowing it would take us more than an hour to get through the line of zoo traffic that we had quickly passed in the left lane, I decided to check out the zoo website to see if there were any other entrances. Wouldn't you know it, there is! We ended up just across the street on the edge of an off site lot which was a little sketchy but I figured, "When's the next time I'll be Ohio.. let them ticket me!" I'm positive we saved at least 45 minutes by going this way and finding a different lot than going back through to the main entrance.

And hooray, zoo lights!

December 13, 2015: This is one of the few times where they were both smiling/looking at the camera.

Honestly, to have them both in light sweaters in December was a nice treat. We were able to walk through the zoo and not have to worry about getting frost bite or having to scramble to the indoor cafe for something warm to drink. Piper was confined to the stroller for most of the trip but she had fun with the lights that were at her level. And hey, they aren't my lights to mess up muhahhahaahaha. Really, she did no damage though. 

I haven't done much with the girls this Christmas season so I hoped this would be a special trip for them. Next on our list is a trip to see Santa. Kennedy is not so excited and I think she would rather die than tell him her Christmas wish. Take 2014 for example:

IF LOOKS COULD KILL.

Naughty or nice?

Leia