How Green Becomes Wood

"I think the zoo has dolphins, so those will probably be her favourite, if the aquarium was any indication," Dark said.

"Selfishly, I'm going to say I hope not," Daizi chuckled, "If you have to like something that swims, habibti, like the sea lions."
 
"Oh well. As long as there are places to sit and something to eat, I can last all day," Alec said cheerfully.

"We need big hats. Water bottles. Maybe our..." Xander lost the word and frowned as he gestured with one hand, trying to indicate a scarf wrapped around his head.
 
"And you'll look lovely," Alec assured her.

After a while of hanging out with their family, the twins went off to Alec room and ended up staying up there. Xander didn't care for the idea of having to go down two flights of stairs with his boot, so he just stayed with Alec in his room instead of making the trek down.

Saturday, while at work, Alec told Tristan all about the planned visit to the zoo with his family. He was looking forward to it. He'd only been once several years ago, and it had been an amazing experience! Until Goober Griffith threw Alec's prized ball into the flamingo enclosure and then told the teacher it'd been Alec. Tristan had to ask if "Goober" was the kid's name. It was not, but Alec couldn't remember his real name.

"You know, doing the accounts for the zoo on a volunteer basis has its perks," Tristan remarked. "Like free entry for myself and one other."

"Do you mean you want to go with us?" Alec asked curiously.

Tristan chuckled and shook his head. "No, I wasn't inviting myself along. Besides, I have to balance the accounts for this place tomorrow. I was thinking you and your family could take them. It would be two tickets cheaper, and since Ivy is so young, she probably gets in free."

"Good point!" Alec grinned. "Thanks, Uncle Tristan!"

So, Alec took the free tickets home with him to give to his parents to use at the zoo the next day.
 
After Alec returned home with the tickets, Dark and Daizi both texted Tristan to thank him.

Sunday morning, Ivy gave them more trouble than usual when they tried to get her ready. First, she rejected the clothes initially presented to her so instead of wearing the very suitable outfit decorated with safari animals, she instead demanded to wear her denim overalls decorated with dinosaurs, her ladybug shoes, and a shirt decorated with pastel ghosts. It was not particularly aesthetic, but it wasn't worth the fight. Being only nineteen months old, her method of picking her own clothing was to point at things and scream if they tried to put her into anything else. Next, she refused to let them brush her hair, but this was settled by letting her brush Dark's. This was done badly, which was expected, and exactly why they let Dark be the sacrifice: both adults were fairly certain if she brushed Daizi's, with how long her hair was, the brush would be gone forever.

Thankfully, she ate her breakfast fine, and Dark and Daizi were both fairly certain they'd only leave a bit later than planned.
 
The twins did what they could to help make sure everything was ready to go, but there was only so much they could do to help with Ivy. They waited patiently for the rest of the family to be ready, and when they were, the twins helped to load up the car for the drive to the zoo.

A few minutes before they arrived at the zoo, Alec and Xander took turns helping each other apply sunscreen and then helped Ivy with hers. Alec made faces at her and told her nonsense things while playfully dabbing on the white stuff. They might have missed a couple of spots with how Ivy was in her seat, but it would cut down time once they got there, and allow the sunscreen to soak in a bit.
 
Daizi dressed herself in a blue crop top with bell sleeves and matching high-waisted, wide-legged pants. With it, she wore a large sunhat decorated with the phases of the moon, all of her usual jewelry, and her beloved pair of bat-wing sunglasses. It was significantly more difficult for Dark to dress for warm weather while keeping his aesthetic, so he fell back on the old reliable black button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up above his elbow and the top three buttons undone, which he paired with black jeans he cuffed just enough to show off more of his ankle-height boots and, like Daizi, he chose his usual accessories and hoped it worked well enough. Then, after a few moments of contemplation, he grabbed the 'Sad Dad' hat he had been given by his sons.

After arriving at the zoo, Dark and Daizi both also put on sunscreen because UV rays do not discriminate, and then Dark made sure the sunscreen had fully covered Ivy and fixed her sunhat while Daizi got the stroller set up and stowed the diaper bag away under it.

"I made sure to buy the tickets online," Dark said, "So thankfully, we do not need to wait in the long purchase line."
 
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