Triplets, Elephants, and a Koala

Last week, thanks to the unseasonably warm weather we've been having, I got the chance to take the kids to the zoo. I've been hesitant to take them by myself, but given that most other kids in the area were still in school last week, I decided it would probably not be too crowded and would be a good time to test the waters and see how the kids do.

They were Great! They only lasted about an hour, but they walked the whole time and stayed together for the most part. They listened when I called, and there was minimal crying & whining. They had a good time, although they were disappointed that the train was closed and we wouldn't be able to ride. I told them we'd go back later in the year and it should be open then, and they were okay with that.

Since I was constantly watching the kids, I didn't get many chances for pictures. I did get them to stand still long enough to get a couple of shots of them by the new Elephant area that was just recently completed.

 

We even got to see a Koala awake and eating! I think I was more excited about this than the kids. 

Juli and the Dress

For the past several weeks Juli has refused to wear anything but dresses. Although it's been a very mild winter here, it's still a bit too cold to go out without something covering your legs, so we convinced her to wear leggings. There are only so many dresses and pairs of leggings that match in her small wardrobe, so it's been a bit of a challenge.

A few days ago I made her wear pants. This was a mistake I would not soon forget. She carried on for so long that I was able to capture the video you see below. You may be able to make out that she's repeating "I want to wear a dress", and about mid-way through you can hear KJ say that she's being annoying.

First Time Watching Star Wars

Started watching Star Wars with the triplets tonight. Of course we started with Episode IV, the way it should be.

Mattel's Great Customer Service

This Christmas all KJ wanted was a Finn McMissile car from the Cars 2 movie that came out last year. He asked about it for months leading up to Christmas. When he opened it up on Christmas morning, he was very excited and wanted to play with it immediately. Once we got it out of the package, he carried it everywhere.

Now, this particular Finn McMissile actually has little plastic missiles that shoot out from it. As you can imagine, we lost the missiles. I was actually astounded that we had them as long as we did, about ten hours. 

Since then, I've been meaning to get on Mattel's web site to see if they offer replacement missiles. I kept putting it off and putting it off, because I really didn't want to spend more money on something that he was probably going to lose again.

Well, the other day I finally went to the site. I searched and searched, and came to the conclusion that they did not offer the missiles as a replacement part. 

I decided to email the customer service department and ask if there was any chance that I could get replacements. I was thrilled when I got a reply email the next day letting me know that they would be sending out a bag of replacement missiles free of charge.

Kudos to Mattel for their quick response and for actually taking care of their customers. It's really nice to see and experience such great customer service.To most of you this probably seems like a very small gesture on Mattel's part, but I know how excited KJ is going to be to get new missiles to replace the ones he lost.

Looking Back

Google recently updated my YouTube channel, prompting me to take a look back at some of the great videos I've posted over the last couple of years. My "Top Videos" playlist has my five favorite videos in it, so be sure to check that out.

Here's my favorite video of the trips from the past four years (don't worry, you're not going crazy, there is no sound in the video):