On Thursday we started the day by heading over to the San Diego Safari Zoo. For the first hour I carried Ammon on my back in the carrier through the zoo while Clarissa sat in the stroller. I can not overstate how delightful it was to have his sweet little commentary running in my ear as we walked.
I was of the mind that we should just skip eating in the zoo and eat afterward, but Abe realized that eating, while it seems optional for me, is not an option for the kids. So we ate lunch at a restaurant in front of a stage where people danced a lot of different global dances. After that we did some more exploring. Right about when we got to the lemur walk I started to feel done. I was on my period, the sun was really hot, and all of the walking with my plantar fasciitis was doing me in. So Abe and the kids headed to the zoo tram while I took Clarissa to the car. On the way to the car I stopped at the duck pond. Clarissa was asleep, and I had a wonderful prayer by that peaceful, almost deserted corner of the zoo. I sat there basking in good feelings until Clarissa woke up, and then I headed to the car to change her diaper, feed her, and tidy the car until Abe and the kids showed up.
Then we headed over to Solana Beach to meet up with Vince and Kamiyah, who had driven down from San Diego. I thought Solana Beach would have tide pools for the kids to play in, but it didn’t. Instead, we just ate at a so-so Mexican restaurant right next to a highway-esque road, and then we headed back to the KOA. I felt bad about such a disappointing detour.
At the KOA the kids all played in the playground until it was time to swim.
The actual swimming was a disaster. I was, as stated earlier, on my period, and my tampon was, how shall I say this, er, not working. So it was very uncomfortable for starters. Also, we did not have enough floaties. Kamiyah did not know how to swim and was terrified of the water, but she was also wearing one of our two floaties. Since Kamiyah would not let go of either Abe or me, we gave her floatie to Mary, who was on the verge of drowning. This upset Kamiyah. Also, it was dark, so we were trying to keep track of Lydia, who firmly believes she can swim…but she can’t. And Ammon is two, and so we have to keep our eyes on him, not to mention Mary–who, as we said before, had swallowed a lot of water while we were taking care of Kamiyah–and anyway, it was just out of control.
I hadn’t had time to get enough towels and clothes together because I didn’t realize Vince wasn’t swimming until the last minute, and as soon as I realized he wasn’t swimming I threw as much stuff together as I could as fast as possible so I could get in the pool and help Abe deal with five kids. The result was that when we got out of the pool, our situation went from perilous to abjectly miserable. We had one towel for all five, cold kids. Also, Abe and Kamiyah had no clothes to change into. Also, Clarissa was shaking from cold. Also, Vince got confused about how to help Kamiyah change, and so Abe ended up running around the camp trying to find him for 40 minutes while I stood aching and streaming blood while holding Clarissa in the shower. Thankfully, Mary and Lydia were awesome and helped by getting showered and dressed themselves, but after my 40 minute, bloody shower with my poor, sad baby, I was beside myself.
Finally everyone got dressed and Abe came to get Clarissa, at which point I could finally take care of my situation. Once we were all changed, we put the kids in the car and intended to take them to dinner, but they all fell asleep except for Kamiyah. Vince got lost on the way to McDonald’s, and so we ended up just heading home to camp and transferring our sleeping kids while he found McDonald’s and fed Kamiyah.
It was an eventful day, for sure.