adventure day

On Monday, I got to hang out with two of my very favorite people, filling up my love tank with quality time for my birthday! The hubs took the day off work and our 5-year-old asked if she could miss preschool to go on a birthday adventure day.
We were planning to spend the day outside, enjoying the amazing spring weather we’ve been having and yes, doing what I love to do — shooting photos! But our crazy Illinois weather didn’t cooperate and we had to come up with a quick change of plans to deal with 50 degrees, strong winds and rain on and off throughout the day.
We started our adventure with a quick stop at Starbucks and then headed to the zoo. We figured we could at least see the dolphin show and go to some of the indoor exhibits, even if it was chilly.

I’m not normally a huge fan of the zoo, but we had THE best time together! We have taken our Little Person to the zoo many times before, but I guess she was too young to remember. So in her mind, this was her first trip to the zoo, and she absolutely loved it.
We pretty much had the place to ourselves — other than a couple of bus loads of school kids — we got to see our favorite animals in action, and I got to practice using my new camera lens. YAY!






So, one funny story from the zoo. I was standing there with a bunch of school kids, watching the lion as he slept. Suddenly, he woke up! We were all so excited and everyone grabbed their camera or phone or ipad to start shooting photos and video. The lion gets up and yawns and all the people are oohing and ahhing. Then, the lion goes over to the lioness and starts getting primal!
All the kids are screaming. “No! Stop! I can’t look!” Everyone puts down their camera and jaws are dropping. It was awkward and hilarious. I guess we all assumed the zoo gave them a private room somewhere!



After the zoo, we needed to warm up, so we headed to one of my favorite spots, the Garfield Conservatory. The beautiful flowers and warm greenhouses were such a treat on a chilly day!





Our fun day of adventure ended with the girls in the family heading out to the movies.
I was completely filled up by such a fun day with people I love. Hard to believe it STILL wasn’t even my birthday yet!