A trip to the zoo, and a swim

One of the advantages to being in Florida was that the weather was good enough to allow us to swim in the parent's pool. Or not. On Christmas Eve it was so muggy I wanted to go to church minimally dressed. But the rest of the time it wasn't necessarily warm, and it certainly wasn't swim weather, heated pool or not. But did that stop Michael from keeping his promise to Kindred and himself that they would go in the pool while in Florida? Certainly not!

If you look closely, Kindred is trying to keep his teeth from chattering, and Michael is trying to stop himself from bolting out of the water, but they persevered, both desperately wanting to swim and have fun in the pool.

It wouldn't have been too bad if the wind hadn't been blowing. But after about 10 minutes in the water, they gave up the quest for a fun pool afternoon, satisfied with their brief and chilly aquatic adventure.

Michael had been excited to hit up the local county zoo, which has a pretty diverse range of animals despite it's small size. So we went with Grandma and Great Grandpa (or Ga-Ga and Biiig Popop, as Kindred would say) and Michael's sister's family.

Elias was especially excited about seeing all the animals.

Elizabeth and Darren's oldest son, Caden, couldn't wait to get on the train, apparently a requisite for any zoo trip according to him. We gladly obliged and all hopped on the very slow moving train for a zip around the zoo, narrated by the pleasant, faithful, ancient train conductor.

Elias was very bored, and could hardly stay awake.

Kindred blissfully let the wind blow through his hair while we passed close by the animals in the wild. A choo-choo and live animals right up close. A dream come true.