…Friday was a day my whole Kindergarten class has been waiting for since we found out about it a month ago – field trip to the Dallas Zoo. We were all so stoked to get out of school for a day and spend it seeing all kinds of animals. For some of us, the day was even better because our parents got to come along as chaperons. I was super lucky because mommy and daddy both got to come along. The only downside was I had to keep listening to my dad say we were going to visit my mommy’s family – he thinks he’s so clever.
My parents were kind of nervous about chaperoning the trip. They weren’t sure how many kids they were going to get or whether the kids were going to be rowdy – the last thing they wanted was to be on the evening news because one of the kids they were watching jumped 12 fences and a moat to pet a lion or something. To their pleasant surprise, for the 18 students in my class, 11 parents volunteered to be chaperons. Even better, my parents were only responsible for 1 kid – me! So it turns out it was more like a take your parents to school and then the zoo kind of day for us which was awesome. Side note: I think it is important to say that having so many chaperons is a great display of how engaged the parents of my class are – kudos to them.
We got to ride a school bus to the zoo. I was so excited because I’d never been on a school bus before – it was kind of cool. I mean, I still expect my parents to drive me to school through college and all, but it wasn’t bad to “rough it” for a day. On the way there, I rode with mommy – keep reading to see whom I rode with on the way home.
When we got to the zoo, we were able to split up in our groups and do our own thing. It seems like everyone headed to the Giants of the Savanna to see the lions, elephants, etc. After eating our lunch and doing our own thing for a while, we ended up in the Chimpanzee Forest and ran into my buddy, Andrew – he wasn’t one of the chimpanzees – oh my, my humor is getting like daddy’s.
Andrew has always been nice to me – he tries to talk to me and play with me, but I’ve always kept to myself. The cool thing about kids my age is that they don’t tend to give up on trying to talk to you so he is always talking to me. His mommy was his chaperon and they had Micah in his group so we starting sticking with them. I slowly started opening up to them and saying things. The more I spoke and played the more I realized nothing bad was happening so I did it more. The result was me having a blast with Andrew and Micah. We were acting silly and laughing non-stop. There was one play area in the zoo where we could climb on stuff and jump over little “rivers” and this where I really started opening up. Once we started to play, it was like I had been waiting 8 months to play with some of the kids from school and now was the time to do it so I didn’t want it to end.
Of course, we eventually had to leave the zoo, but we had the bus ride back to be silly so we totally were. I sat next to Andrew and Micah on the way back and I think we did some things that I wasn’t suppose to do like talking real loud and being kind of rowdy, but I think everyone gave me a pass because they were just happy I was opening up.
I was having so much fun that even though I was allowed to leave school when we got back, I elected to stay for the extra hour since Andrew was staying. Hopefully, I continue to play with Andrew for the remainder of the year, but our parents exchanged numbers so we can hang out over the summer and catch up at the beach club – so pretentious. I can’t wait to get Andrew and Greyson together – I’m building my crew.
Note: It is worth saying that the changes/upgrades the Dallas Zoo has implemented have been well worth it from a guest experience perspective. The park is clean and very open which makes viewing more enjoyable. My parents and I were pleasantly surprised about the quality of the zoo and plan on going back soon to see the whle thing.
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