And as quickly as it began, it ends....

It's true, spring break is over and the girls are all back to school today.  The reactions were predictable, but amusing none the less!  Big S could hardly wait to get back and see her friends, she even had anxiety dreams that she was late!  Little S would rather cut off her left arm than go back - school is a constant source of anxiety for her.  And Little G - she goes back and forth about it all - she continues to campaign that school takes up too much of her time and is cutting into her play time, but she is so social that not going to school would seriously hamper her social life - tough decision when you're 7!!  I on the other hand am glad that we are back to school - I have tons to do to prepare for Little G's first communion in less that 2 weeks!  We will have an extra 10 people in from out of town - we are totally excited, but before the fun comes the work!!  Hubby has today off - as he puts it, they get Good Friday and Better Monday off for Easter!

And because I know that all of you want to hear all about our fabulous DC spring break, I have decided that I will give you the blow by blow - with pictures of course!!  We arrived Friday late afternoon to BWI and hubby (who was there the day before for business) picked us up and drive us the 50 miles/3 hour drive to DC!  The traffic is always crazy, but Friday afternoon is especially bad - oh well!  Saturday morning we met hubby's Sister G/Auntie G at the National Zoo!  We were so excited that both his sisters goes to school in DC so that we could spend some time with them since we are lucky to see them once a year usually!  Anyway,  she met us partway on the metro and led us to the zoo - it was a beautiful day and we had a blast!  It's good that they don't tell you ahead of time that it's downhill from the entrance to the back of the zoo - but you have to go out the way you came, so leaving is a serious hike uphill,not for the out of shape (meaning us!!).  Anyway, we spent most of the day there and got some great pix - here are a few - still unedited, so bear with me!!

 The gang (minus me - I'm always behind the camera!!) at one of the cool signs down the block from the main entrance - had to make them sit in the letters - way too cool a pix to pass up!!

 Little G, Big S and Little S diggin the groundhog sculpture!!  We were just starting to head downhill, so all was good at this point!!

 Had to take some pix of Little S's favorite animals!  They brought 3 of the elephants in just as we entered the building so we were very excited to see them!  We spent a lot of time hanging out with the elephants - they are so cool!

 This was probably our favorite animal that day!  The Capybara - a very odd looking animal that we were totally fascinated with!  He was a little on the ugly side, which made him that much better in our eye!  My grandmother used to sing me a song about one of these - I think - my memory of her singing to me is strong, but I may be mispronouncing the animal - will have to do some research!!

 These little dudes were hysterical!  They we fast as lightening running around and jumping from tree to tree and then when they were still they sat there with this totally serious expression on their faces that was too funny for words!

My personal favorite picture!  The orangutans just came out as we were leaving and we were really hoping that they would start climbing the tower and moving across the wires that stretched all around the zoo.  To no avail, this big guy just sat there with no sign of moving.  The best part was that the girls and I thought it looked just like hubby sitting on the couch watching tv and playing on the computer!!

By the time we were done with the zoo, we were DONE!  We had yet to acclimate to all the walking around the city - this was after all day one!  So we headed back to our hotel in Pentagon City via the metro with plans to see Auntie G again on tuesday!

More on DC trip day 2 tomorrow!!