Halloween at the Zoo

We went to the Tucson Zoo for their annual Halloween event. Our little family dressed up as Oregon Duck fans, which elicited plenty of comments from all around us. :) At the time we bought our costumes we had no idea that the Ducks would be ranked #1 in college football when Halloween came around. So it was fun.


The zoo had people dressed up in all sorts of great costumes. My favorites were the Star Wars crew and the Ghostbusters. The Darth Vader costume was so realistic that Aria would not get near him for a picture. See her crying below (and my amusement).


Here's Aria giving Zade a bear hug.


MESA TEMPLE
The next day we headed to Mesa to visit the temple. Aria and Zade didn't get their regular afternoon naps in, so when we went out to Soup & Salad for dinner afterwards, they both began breaking down. Aria refused to eat anything except fishy crackers and ice cream and Zade kept letting out these ear piercing screeches if he didn't have something he could put in his mouth. So we began crushing peas and macaroni for him to eat, which he used to create a gigantic mess, and when we gave him oranges slices, he'd accidentally push them off his tray as he attempted to put them in his mouth, which would make him so mad, that he'd start screeching again. I could hardly eat anything cause I was constantly fishing those stupid orange slices off the lower deck of his tray. Then Aria would scream when he'd scream, to get him to stop screaming, and a vicious cycle ensued. Worst meal of my life. I lack the words to describe how awful it was. So bad. So very very bad. (Tara somehow found humor in my suffering, which didn't help.)

ARIA & NURSERY
The following day, we went to church, and Aria continued her recent trend of protesting going to nursery by screaming. Tara decided to use the "love and logic" approach and offered Aria 2 choices: she could either go to nursery or be locked in the car in the parking lot. Aria consistently chose to be locked in the car. What made it worse, is that she actually likes being locked in the car, so the punishment backfired. Parenting, oh parenting....