The Zoo. The Child. And The Run

They well say there is a first for everything, and Friday was my first time going to the zoo, in the middle of a work day, wearing my work clothes, and running all the way across from the parking lot to pick up my sick child who of course made a miraculous recovery right before I got to her. 

I was in the office when I got a phone call from the school saying that Bella was at her field trip to the zoo, but was coughing a lot and did not look so good. The teacher asked me to please meet them at 1:25 by the picnic area, as they needed to board the buses at 1:30. So as soon as my meeting ended at 1:00 pm I packed my stuff and quickly left the office to go pick her up. Unfortunately the parking lot was all the way across from the picnic area, so once I parked I had to sprint because otherwise there was no way I would make it there on time. I ended up beating them there because they were running late, but when they arrived a few minutes later Bella did not look sick at all. She did look extremely excited to see me there though. She was so happy, with a smile from ear to ear, that I couldn't possibly be annoyed about all the stress of having to rush out of work to meet them there. I was just happy that she was Ok.

The teacher felt bad and told me she wasn't sure what happened, because one minute Bella was coughing like crazy, with sad eyes, but by the time I got there she was perfectly Ok. Maybe it was just allergies, or maybe Bella was just sad that I wasn't there with her. Either way, we ended up walking around for a little bit, she went on the carousel a couple of times, and we went to the insect house. After a final stop by the gift shop, where I took a picture of her with a stuffed monkey, we finally headed back. On our way out Bella offered to take a picture by the flowers, since she remembered I was bummed that this year we missed the tulips - my favorite time to go to the zoo. 

I hadn't had any lunch yet, so we went to Rusty Bucket and had a late lunch. We then intended to pick Sofia up to go get some ice cream right before Piano class, but we ran out of time. So we ended up doing that right after piano, even though I knew that might ruin dinner for them. It had been such a hectic day, all over the place, that I no longer had energy to try to stick to the regular routine. 

After piano and ice cream we ended up going out for dinner, which was nice because we got to sit outside and decompress a little from the day.