Breathing Room

We've desperately needed some margin in our family lately. Life has been hard. We've had lots of questions. The Father has been quiet. Near but quiet, if that makes sense. 

So we cancelled everything for the weekend and created some margin. 

It was brilliant.

And just what we craved. 

Breathing room.

We knew a snowstorm was looming on the horizon, so we felt a need to get out of the house. We packed some sandwiches to eat in the car and headed to DC to the National Zoo. It was a beautiful day, a little chilly, but a perfect day for enjoying the outdoors and God's creativity.

This guy is Luke. And he's a new father. I found out after our trip to the zoo that the day after we were there, new lion cubs were being born (and yes, the zoo's website said actually 'March came in like a lion . . . ' haha!). You can view the new cubs on the Lion Cub Cam. We hope to go back in early summer when the cubs will be ready for visitors.

The biggest exhibit (and the only line we had to wait in) at the National Zoo right now is the Great Panda exhibit. Giant pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian are at the National Zoo under a Giant Panda Cooperative Research and Breeding Agreement and they have a new baby, Bao Bao! They were sleepy on Saturday when we were there.

This was all we could see of baby Bao Bao, but how cute she is! You can see her on the Panda Cam.

After walking around the zoo for several hours, we were ready to sit down and enjoy supper somewhere.  We had just seen an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives that highlighted a restaurant in DC called Comet Ping Pong. Since we were only about 10 minutes away, we decided to give it a try. What a fun place! Not only was the ping pong a great activity for while we waited for our table, but also the pizza was some of the best we have ever eaten! We highly recommend The Smoky.

We also skipped church on Sunday to go and explore a local city. Unfortunately, it started raining earlier than we thought, and we really only had time to briefly walk around the downtown area. Then we popped into Union Jacks to enjoy a pub lunch. We had a favourite pub we would go to in Canada, which we have missed,  and to our delight, this one is just as good. We will go again when the weather is more favourable for walking around and exploring a bit more.

Then came the snowstorm, although not quite as dramatic as predicted, which meant Bob was home from work on Monday and we had a THIRD family day together. Ahhh.

We joined Elliot, who has become a fireplace cat, for some much needed relaxation in front of the crackling fire. 

The Father was so good to remind us to take time to be together, to rest, to abide in Him and to enjoy life. 

We needed it and plan to do it more often.

Blessings and love. xo