DreamNight at the Zoo

We were a few of the lucky ones that got invited to DreamNight at the Zoo! It is a night filled with fun for children with disabilities, handicaps or special diseases. We were invited because of Oakley's Type 1 diabetes. It is a free event for the immediate family to attend. You go in for free and then they do a free family photo and free Farr's ice cream and free cute water bottles full of yummy pink lemonade and a free stuffed animal for each child on the way out of the zoo. They have random music stands around the zoo and animals to touch and animal skins to pet. The kids loved it. I had a hard time not crying sometimes seeing all these precious children with everything from diabetes like Oakley to MS, autism, down syndrome, etc. It was a touching night watching their excitement and smiles.

The night started off really well. It was a little chilly so I had them all wear pants. (Of course I am the dumby that stayed in my shorts.) After we had been there about 45 minutes it started to sprinkle and then the sprinkle turned into a full fledged hard rain.

We didn't get to leave the zoo until it was pouring on us - mostly because WE HAD TO SEE THE DUCKS! Rhett was insistent!! Of course on the way out we had to stop and pick-up our family photo they had taken and we were there at the same time all the other families were trying to pick-up theirs. I left my kids out in the pouring rain - because the building was PACKED and ran in to get our picture. Luckily ours was one that was already printed. By the time we ran to the car it was hailing HARD! I got the kids into the car making it so they missed the worst of the storm...but you know how it goes when you are the mom and have to load the car with all the stuff from the zoo, fold up the stroller and stand in the hail buckling in the 2 year old. I was DRENCHED by the time I got in. My hair was caked with hail. It was awful. We then came home to a power outage at home. We were freezing because of being wet and the house was dark and cold. We came in and snuggled into our warm pj's.
So...was it a dreamnight at the zoo?? It was definitely the kind of night that memories are made from!!