Ahoy Christoforo Colombo!

I heard the sound of an old car alarm going off somewhere in the distance. I slightly opened my eyes, registered the amount of darkness outside and slammed my head back on the pillow. Surely, I have a solid three more hours of sleep. But that car alarm....it's just so annoying. Uh-oh. All of this thinking is beginning to wake me up. Stop thinking Gina. Stop. Go back to sleep. It must be 3AM.

And then, in a moment of hazy clarity it occurred to me that it's not a car alarm that I'm hearing, IT'S MY DAUGHTER.

Crapper.

Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom is all I could hear over the monitor. Then the fast foot steps down the hall. Before I had the chance to lock the door (j/k) she came barreling through

"Moooooom, I'm so excited for school. I'm so excited. SOOOOO EXCITED."

But child, I thought, it's dark. And really early. And why the hell are they giving you sugar cubes in your milk at snack time because this is clearly an unhealthy level of excitement.

Crap, crapper. I realized that I had to break the news that she didn't have school today because it was Christopher Columbus Day.

"Whaaaaaaat? No schoooool? But, I HAVE to go to school Mom. And who is Columbus?"

OH, FOR THE LOVE. IT'S TOO DAMN EARLY FOR A HISTORY LESSON. IN FACT NO TIME IS GOOD FOR A HISTORY LESSON, THAT'S WHY WE SEND YOU TO SCHOOL. BUT JACK NABBIT THERE'S NO SCHOOL TODAY!

I stretch. I yawn. "He discovered America. Well, sort of. He was an explorer from Italy or Spain, I dunno, one of the two, and came here with three boats, The Nina, The Pinta and The Santa Maria."

Bella thought for a moment then spoke very confidently, "I think you mean the Pinto."

Oh lord. Here we go.

Before I could even get a cup of coffee the argument over The Pinto vs. The Pinta went on for several minutes. My two other kids began to chime in and all of a sudden it was a history smackdown with a 5 year old, 3 year old and a 1 year old.

The only way I could make all the sound go away was to yell,


"Zoo? Who wants to go to the zoo?"


And there we were on our way to the Brookfield Zoo, along with every other parent in the Chicagoland area. But that's what I love about the zoo membership, I can go for two hours and leave a happy, tantrum free family. We usually pick about three different animals that we want to see and then leave for nap time, a perfect morning getaway. But on this particular day we accidentally spent all three hours in the Hamill Family Play Zoo. The weather was perfect!!!

We had our lunch on the bench

And played

I'm loving the bond that's growing between these two

Not kidding when I say we spent a good 25 minutes in this undiscovered corner

Face paint = make up to Mia!!!

And after some crafts and a little more exploring we, much like Christopher Columbus, packed up and headed west in our Santa Honda Mother Ship to rediscover our home territory. And nap. All of us. 

Happy Columbus Day!