This is what it's all about!

One of my favorite things about the weekends is that Gerry lets me sleep in a little and he gets up with both of the kids. I love it! Even if it's just for 30 minutes or an hour. I love the fact that I don't have to hop up and get both girls out of bed, change diapers, give Maria her milk and Naomi her bottle all right away on Saturdays. Sometimes, I sleep until Gerry brings Maria back to our room shouting "Week up, Mommy! Week up!" Other times, I just lay there and listen to the monitor. Hearing Gerry talk to Naomi when he goes in her room is so sweet. It sometimes bring tears to my eyes. Whatever the scenario, I realize I am a lucky woman. I know not every mother has this luxury, and for that I am truly grateful to God for giving me such an amazing husband.

This past weekend was no different. Gerry and I had been having some rough nights with the girls waking up. Maria kept falling out of her bed and Naomi just wakes up fussing throughout the night. Needless to say, I was totally looking forward to sleeping in. After I heard Gerry crawl out of bed to get the girls, I pulled the covers over my head and relished in the fact that I was going to close my eyes and drift back off to sleepy land! But that quickly changed when I heard Gerry and Maria come into the room. He said "Babe, I hate to wake you up, but it's going to be 75 degrees today. Let's do something!" As much as I needed sleep, I knew we owed it to the kids to do something fun as a family.

Again, realizing how lucky I was to have a husband who actually wanted to spend time with his family, I hopped out of bed and said "Let's go to the Zoo!"

We were actually all packed up and out the door by 9:15. Gerry even packed a picnic lunch, complete with sandwiches, raisins, pretzels, cookies and juice for everyone. Naomi drank her entire bottle (with no problems) right before we left. So the morning couldn't have started out better. When we first got to the Zoo, we decided to ride the train. Gerry and Maria sat together and I sat with Naomi, who was able to stay bundled up in her car seat. We rode the whole way around the park. It was so neat to see Maria's face as we passed by the fountains and went through the tunnels. Naomi seemed to be having a great time, as well.

After the train, we saw the bears, went to the Insectarium, and walked through River's Edge. The elephants and rhinos we were out and we were able to get a good look at them for a while. Maria actually wanted to get back in her stroller, which has never happened before. So we didn't really get many pictures b/c we didn't want to keep taking her in and out. She was being so good looking at things she could see from the stroller. She loved the spiders and beetles at the Insectarium.

We decided to go eat our lunch around 11:30. We drove through Forest Park and found a secluded little picnic table close to a huge soccer field. After we ate, we let Maria run around in the field. She played in the leaves and rolled all around. After lunch, we headed over to watch out niece, Hailey, play volleyball. It was one of her last games of the season and we hadn't made it to one yet. We were only able to stay for the first 2 matches because Maria was exhausted. But we were able to see Hailey's team score a a lot of points...and a huge part of that was due to Hailey's awesome serving. Her team was great and it was a lot of fun to watch!

Driving home from this awesome day, I looked at Gerry and my 2 sleepy children in the back seat and realized that this moment was what it was all about. I realized, again, how lucky I am to have such an amazing, loving, healthy and wonderful family.

I am truly blessed.