mother’s day, the zoo, and the ‘joys’ of immodest dressing…

so yesterday was mother’s day. my family was very nice to me. shane had plotted to get me an angel food cake pan, apparently ever since easter when we discovered i didn’t have one. so he used his own money and bought me one, along with a cake mix. then he asked if we had any strawberries and informed layla that she DID NOT get to help me make the angel food cake, he did. layla (and presumably dave and micah as well) got me a new willow tree statue to replace the one she broke a few weeks ago when she climbed up on the wood stove and tried to pull some pictures down off the mantle to look at. so that was nice.

dave had a soccer game at 2:45 in greenlake, so i had the BRILLIANT idea that we should all go with him and i would take the kids to the zoo, which is right up the road. well, by the time we woke up micah, changed his diaper, discovered that layla was wearing too-big rain boots instead of regular shoes and then located a pair of regular shoes, grabbed a snack for shane who had neglected to eat any lunch, and finally got in the car, we were, of course, running late. so i had dave park near the soccer fields and we would just ‘walk up the hill’ to the zoo.  HA! that hill doesn’t seem too bad when you’re driving it, but it’s a HUFF when you’re walking and pushing a stroller.  but we got there and the kids wanted to see the new penguin exhibit and layla wanted to see giraffes. that was our agenda.

i can’t say i was too impressed with the penguins. everything seemed too high for kids to see… or short parents.  there were some cool spots to look underwater and see them swim by, but overall, i didn’t get to see much. of course it was PACKED with people and maybe i just wasn’t able to navigate around all of them to get to a good spot. at any rate, that was kind of frustrating. after that, we went to see the day and night exhibit. layla loves the nocturnal animals. she also informed me that she wants to live with the turtles. she had thought deeply about this because she, very seriously added that she would have to wear her swimsuit so she could swim with them. but turtles don’t need to wear swimsuits because their shells are their swimsuits… don’t you love it? then dave called and said he was finished with the game so it was time to head for the exit. there is NO direct route to the exit, so we meandered around and managed to pass the giraffe barn on the way, and they happened to be outside the barn, so layla was happy to check that off her list.

bill and marie were kind enough to bring dave up the hill to the zoo to get his keys from me (yeah, good thinking!) and then back down the hill to the car so he could pick us up. they won their game and dave scored a goal so all was good on that end.

my experience at the zoo was highlighted by the astounding abundance of BAD TASTE in people’s wardrobes. now this isn’t just me being the fashion police here, because i really could care less if people’s clothes are trendy or not. i was totally flabbergasted by the serious lack of any sort of modesty that way too many women exhibited. i saw more boob yesterday than i really ever need to. what is it that causes women to feel the need to show the world almost their entire chests? i realize that often times women who are well-endowed have trouble finding shirts that fit well, but that’s not an excuse to wear a shirt that is 4 sizes too small for them and would not cover them up even if it was in their size! and then there was the teenage girls who were wearing “shorts”, if you dare to call them that. “a tiny piece of fabric that barely covers the butt” might be a more accurate name for them. and actually, if it weren’t for how tight they were, i think there might have been some cheek hanging out. 

is this just me being old? do other people find this sort of thing inappropriate? or is it just me. maybe i’m just hyper-aware of this sort of stuff because i have an almost 10 year old son with me and i am starting think about the stuff he looks at and whether or not it’s appropriate. but it’s the zoo! it’s not a night club. this is supposed to be a family venue, is it not? so if you can’t take your family to the zoo without being accosted by partial nudity, where can you go?  i don’t know… maybe we need to move to alaska where people will at least be wearing coats! sheesh!