Grand Opening Week

Whooooo! I did it! I somehow managed to make it through seven straight days of work and survived to tell. Grand Opening week has been amazing. I have never seen such long lines or experienced such crowds at the zoo. Visitors have been very positive despite the lines and lack of parking. Yesterday was crazy and we were staffed for a "normal" day so the Director of the Park District Herself was doing crowd control at the front entrance. At 3:30pm I was hungry and wanted to stop at the Lodge (snack restaurant) for a cookie. The line was halfway through the rather large building. At 3:30! Even my kids (at day camp in front of the zoo) have been commenting at the lines every day.

The piglets are still doing great. They are now tearing around the entire day room exhibit, chasing each other and wrestling. I tried to shift them to a normal stall to clean yesterday. Mama Pig happily shifted and had a happy reunion (through a gate) with her other piggy friends. The piglets were confused and wouldn't follow. Eventually I had to have my boss "guard" me with a push board (just a board with handles, in this case used as a barrier shield from a potentially dangerous mama pig.) Mama Pig laid calmly with her piglets the entire time I scooped, scrubbed, hosed and squeegeed. She's smart and realizes we're only there to clean, not to threaten her babies. It was a fun week watching baby pigs!

The kids started Camp Zone this week. I was a little nervous about Logan because it's his first year and he was SCARED. He quickly made friends and loves playing outside all day. The only negative is that he's completely exhausted at the end of the day but then still wants to play with the neighbor kids or has to go to tee ball practice. He's been a leeetle grumpy at night. Eh, me too. Kaylin was very disappointed that several of the kids from the past few years aren't there this year. A lot of people have moved. Others have gotten too old for the program. I think Kaylin always loved being one of the younger kids and now has to adjust to being one of the older kids. This week they went swimming, to a movie and to other park district facilities. They use city buses to get around so Logan is very happy :)

I have to take the kitten to the vet this morning for his final round of shots. Then I get to go to Logan's first tee ball game! (Last year I worked Saturdays so only got to go to one Saturday game.) After that, I'm relaxing and resting my poor feet and my aching "scrubbin' arm." I also have Sunday off this week. Maybe I'll just sit on my butt the rest of the weekend :) Maybe I'll go out and buy myself a foot massager.