Pandamonium

January 1st 2017. The Woodman family lounges around the house contemplating the new year that sits before them. "Hey, let's write down our resolutions..." someone says. Probably me. Sounds like something I would say. So we did. We gave it some thought, and throughout the day we all jotted down on the chalk board our hopes for 2017.
'I want to try new things.' I wrote.
'I want to try a new recipe every month' Jenny adds.
The 2 big kids added some sporting accomplishments to their lists, and we were nearly finished. With the exception of Nadia. She was new to this concept of setting long term goals. Or maybe she wasn't comfortable putting them in writing for the whole family to see. She struggled to think of anything. We tried to spark some ideas for her. And then finally she came up with something on her own. When no one was looking, she went into the kitchen and scribbled in chalk:

'I want to see a panda.'

Her sisters laughed. "That's not a resolution" one of them said mockingly.
But right away, I thought differently. It was the perfect resolution, I decided.
Clear. Specific. Attainable. Just the kind of thing we can handle.
Now, where to begin?

My immediate knowledge of pandas at American zoos were the original ones in Washington D.C. But a quick Google search lead me to three other panda exhibits stateside. San Diego, Memphis and Atlanta. Well...I thought, Memphis is close by. I guess we can hop down there at some point this year. We could make it work. Then fate stepped in and decided it for us. Nina qualified for a gymnastics meet in Georgia, and fittingly Atlanta was right on the way.

Hello Pandas.

Born September 3, 2016

Not only was the Atlanta Zoo the home of two adult bears (Lun Lun and Yang Yang) but as luck would have it, they had recently given birth to twin cubs. Baby panda cubs? Are you kidding me? Our heads were sure to explode with cuteness overload. Ya Lun and Xi Lun are the 6th and 7th cubs to be born to this pair. Like their older brothers and sisters, they will grow up and move to the Chengdu Research Base in China. But for now, they were out for all to see.



Zoo Atlanta, by any measure is a nice zoo. Not too big, but big enough. Beautifully designed, mostly shaded, and well kept. There were plenty of other cool things for us to see as well. Baby orangutans. Naked mole rats. We even fed the giraffes. But let's be real, we came to see the pandas. We didn't shell out a hundred bucks to see meerkats. (side note: let me remind everyone in STL how great and amazing and FREE our Zoo is)













Pandas spend most of their day sleeping, but we were lucky enough to catch them first thing in the morning, out and about and playing with each other. We stopped by their exhibit several times throughout the day to admire these adorable creatures.

Thanks for the inspiration, Nadia.
Now, what do you have in mind for us in 2018...?

Mission accomplished