Columbus Weekend Away - 6/5/2009

We decided to do a weekend away and Cbus was the winner. We drove down Friday night and stay 2 nights. We had originally planned to leave around 1pm on Friday, allow Olivia to nap on the way down and then get to the hotel around 3... eat with Sean, Elan & Baby Scarlett. Well Aaron had to drop off the dogs, my parents came out because they were showing their hosue at 12:30 and tthen Olivia laid down around 1:00pm.... so we had to wait for her to wake up before we left. Once you wake her there is no getting her back down, especially in a car seat. She didn't wake up until around 3:00 pm and then by the time we left it was close to 4:30 pm. So needless to say we were off to a way late start. We had to cancel with Sean & Elan as we didn't get to the hotel until close to 7:15 pm...we ate at Ruby Tuesdays on the way...once again Olivia's eating schedule was a lil off too. So we ate on the way down around 6 pm. We got checked in, unloaded and then got our swimsuits on it was close to 8pm. Olivia wanted nothing to do with the pool. We were shocked... we were the only ones other than 3 other high school kids (there was a HS Track competition going on in the area). So we called it a night. Olivia fell asleep right in between us in the HUGE king size bed by 9:30 and we stayed up til maybe 11:00. She woke up Saturday around 8:00 am. We got cleaned up, ate the continental breakfast and to the zoo we went by 10:30 we were walking in the gates. Very easy to get to from our hotel. Only 8 miles. First we got into line to see the new baby elephant... SO CUTE!!! We only waited maybe 20 minutes. I guess later in the day ppl wait close to an hour!! It was hard to talk Olivia into being still for 20 minutes, I couldn't imagine an hour. From there we made it through the zoo... she loved them all. Her favorite was the fish aquarium....and the Carousol (spelling?). I rode it with her first, I started to cry...tears of joy. I just loved seeing her face and excitement in riding something new...when done, I told Aaron "YOu gotta ride with her, it is a joyful experience"... so he did and gave me a hug afterwards. It was just awesome. She fell asleep around 1pm...slept through the gorillas, lions and bears. But woke up just in time for the North America section with a small petting zoo. She wasn't too thrilled as she just woke up from her nap. But out of scale of 1-10, 10 being the best I'd have to give the zoo an 8. I would have liked to see more animals in each section. But the zoo was clean, well organized and very afordable. Only $1. to ride the carosoul, train and boats and $4. for a pony ride (we didn't do). So I think it was a very nice experience. That night we tried the pool again, and it was a HUGE SUCCESS!! She came out of her shell and just loved the water, I think we laughed so much it was great. She kicked her feet, splashed us and even tried to blow bubbles in the water. Sunday we ate breakfast at Bob Evans and then hit Polaris and then home we came. Got home around 3:30 pm. It was a great, fantastic get-a-way and loved every minute with the 2 most important ppl in the world to me with me!!!