Good weather sparks spontaneity

On Halloween this year, the northeast coast experienced a freak snow storm. Not just a few flakes, but nearly 6 inches of snow. Trees tumbled under the pressure and we were snowed in at Grandma and Grandpa's with no power.

So, it's safe to say we're not taking fair weather days for granted this fall. And this weekend delivered a boat load of fair weather.

The kids dove right in. Literally.

We can finally appreciate the joy of the millions (swear) of leaves that blanket our backyard every year. They make for an AWESOME leaf jumping pile.  Another bonus? You can start exercising your snowball-throwing arm with a good leaf battle.

And that was just Saturday. Sunday, I was itching to get out of the house and do something exciting. So we decided on a spontaneous adventure that served as a first for both kids! Road trip to the Philadelphia Zoo.

The plan was to go in the morning for a few hours and head back around lunch/nap time. But as with most bouts of spontaneity, things didn't go as "planned." The kids were troopers and hung on for four hours, with no major meltdowns.

Lindsey had a standoff with some roaming ducks, though. I think she was excited there were animals that weren't behind glass or fences.

There were spontaneous bouts of spending, like when both kids got their faces painted. At first, we were only going to let Ryan do it. We didn't think Lindsey would tolerate such nonsense. But, not to be outdone by her big brother, she too sat there while the artist worked her magic. Grumpy cheeks and all.

Can you tell who was more excited by this?

Ryan didn't get grumpy until about 90 minutes into our self-guided tour. He was dead-set on seeing gorillas. But to get to the gorillas, we had to pass by bald eagles, reptiles, farm animals and (mommy's personal favorite) giraffe's. 

At each exhibit, there was whining and pouting and arm crossing. "But I wanna see gorILLas!" (emphasis on the "ill."). Finally, we made it to the primate exhibit and fast-tracked it past orangutans and  spider monkeys to the main attraction. Two huge, albeit adorable, gorillas who were thisclose to the glass and put on quite a show. I'll admit it, it was somewhat worth the whining.

After the gorilla show, we managed to get a family picture that proved everyone was in a good mood!

Until Ryan decided he didn't want to see zebras next. He wanted to see "flaMINGos."

Regardless, a four hour spontaneous trip into Philadelphia could have ended a lot worse. Family membership to the zoo? Check. Bring on more fair weather days.

A Painting in the Sky

Today's sunrise was beautiful.

So beautiful, it prompted a very poignant question by Ryan. "Who made the sky so pretty?"

I thought of taking the "easy road" and answering simply with "God." But there are a couple problems with this. First, I'm personally not sure where I stand on that theory. Second, while it's an "easy answer" it would clearly open up a whole carton of new questions from Ryan that I'm not prepared to answer yet.

Religion is a tricky subject. I've waned in and out of varying degrees of religious faith over the years. So while I believe there is a higher power and I believe that higher power has an impact on how our lives are intertwined, I certainly don't take the bible as a true account of how we came to be.

But that doesn't mean we, as a family, disregard Jesus and God and the stories we learned in bible school. I think many of those stories provide the basis for healthy discussion and are lessons on how to love others and be loved. We have received books from friends that speak about God and read those to the kids. Lindsey even sleeps with the fuzzy bible board book she received as a gift from her baptism (yep...both kids were baptised too).

Some may take my stance and actions as hypocritical or inconsistent. That's OK. They are. As I stated before, I'm still not sold on where I stand on that theory. To me, the important thing is to keep options open. To explore religion and faith and spirituality in a healthy way in order to find inner peace and be comfortable with ones place in the world. I want my kids to go to church, if they want to go. I want them to read the bible when they're old enough to understand what it is (or what it's meant to be). But I also want them to consider other religions, other beliefs. To be informed and make a decision that works for them.

So today we left God out of the equation. I posed the question back to Ryan. "Who do you think made the sky so pretty?" And his reply was as good as any other.

"There are guys who get ladders and take paintbrushes and go up the ladders and dip the paint brush into the buckets and color in the clouds."

"Those must be some tall ladders to make it all the way up to the clouds," I said.

"Yep. And they're really big brushes too."