day 8: day trip night trip

Tuesday, we drove down to the PGH zoo. The girls had a blast. I hadn't been there since they had done all those renovations. It's quite nice. I never realized how small that zoo is. But it's got a great design in that you walk in one way & loop all the way around to see everything & then head out. We can never see everything in one visit to the Denver zoo. It's not set up like that; we end up looking at the west end exhibits one day & then the east end on another day. Yeah, it's that big. Anyway. The zoo in PGH. Unfortunately it was freaking HUMID. and HOT. Maddie is by nature a hot kid so that day she was particularly miserable. "I'm too hot" "I want to go home to CO" "I'm not used to this humidity" "I want to go home now" sigh -whine -sigh -whine -drag feet -refuse to walk -complain -nearly hyperventilate -complain some more. OMG. MAKE_IT_ STOP. She is the kind of kid a good whooping was made for. But I'm not that kind of mom. My mom -AKA Oma- was concerned and fussed over her a bit when I stopped trying to pacify her (she was in no way in danger & she had everything she could need for calmly continuing our outing.) But then my sister very succinctly told her that Maddie is just the middle child trying to get whatever attention she can. After a good bit of ignoring, she got over it & actually enjoyed herself.

It was a good day.

Made even better by the fact the my sister & I were able to go to a Bucs game that evening. SWEET! I hadn't yet been to the the PNC ballpark so that was a treat. Icing on the cake was that the tickets were free. The cake was that we were 7 rows back from the 3rd base coach! Extremely sweet! The pics are on my cell, so again, as soon as I get the pics off there, I'll post them on here. Sad that the Bucs couldn't pull off a win for my visit, but the consolation prize was that it was the Rockies in town & they did win. And just my luck, we didn't get rained on. Apparently there was a massive storm in the area that skipped right over us. The super loud thunder & lightening bolt out towards the outfield just before the first pitch couldn't have been better timed. Excellent f/x!!!

Oh and my camera battery died, hence the lack of visuals for the day. Yeah & did you know there isn't a car charger for a camera battery? at least according to Best Buy. Bizarre, huh?

We were going to stop in at the old stompin' grounds Dee's in the South Side to have a drink w/ my friend Rick. But I was so tired after the game ended that we chose not to. Stopped in Blawnox to pick up Snick from you-know-who's house & drove the hour & a half back up to Strattanville. Yeah, good thing we didn't have those drinks. We wouldn't have gotten home until the 2 or 3 am range. Not that I haven't done that many a time before. But before was 11 years ago. Time does take it's toll on one's ability to party all night & then drive a couple hours to get home. Or rather on one's desire to do so. hmmmm, maybe wisdom does come with age?

So then another beautiful day in the neighborhood :)





OMG! WATER! Mine were the only 2 who had to be SOAKED b4 they would leave the misting area. You know, those land-locked girls from arid CO -can't get enough of the wet stuff. And what is with the hair in the mouth all the time lately???