Relentless

3

Colby's POV

"Did you grab her hat? And sunscreen? It's sunny out." Cora said to me as we packed up the diaper bag.

Today we were going to the zoo for...research purposes. We wanted to see what Mia's favorite animals were so we could get stuff for the party. I couldn't believe our little girl was turning 1 in less than a week.

It seems like just yesterday Cora was throwing a cup of ice across the room, and yelling at me because she was in labor.

"Yeah, I have everything, babe. Let's go." I said as I grabbed the stroller and she held Mia. "Are you ready for the zoo sweet girl!?" Cora cooed and rubbed her thumb along Mia's cheek. I couldn't help the giant smile that always bloomed whenever I saw my girls together.

I was really the luckiest guy in the world.

All of our friends wanted to tag along on our little zoo adventure today, so they were waiting in the foyer for us.

"Are we ready for the best day ever?!" I asked as Mia giggled then said a few words in jibberish. "Can you say zoo?" Cora asked Mia as she bounced her on her hip, "bah-dah!" Mia said she waved her arms around, "close enough! Let's go!" Cora said and pointed towards the door. I chuckled as she zoomed out of the house,

"You heard the woman." I said and gestured to the door so everyone would go out to the cars.

"I'm so excited! I haven't been to the zoo in years!" Kat said and jumped up and down as we walked to the cars, "seriously, the last time I went was in Kansas..except for the abandoned zoo, but I don't think that counts." Sam said as Cora strapped Mia into her car seat.

"I'm excited to see how Mia is going to react, she's never really seen any animals other than birds and squirrels and stuff." I said and put her stroller in the trunk as Sam and Kat got in our car, the others were taking Jake's car.

I got in the drivers seat and looked over at Cora, she was zoning out as she messed with her wedding ring, "Cor." I said breaking her concentration, "what?" She asked and shook her head, "you okay?" I asked quietly and started the car, "oh! Yeah, just thinking about all of the stuff we have to do before the party this weekend." She said and smiled at me.

I took her hand in mine and pulled it into my lap as I started driving down the road, "don't stress too much, we have plenty of time. I already hired the animal guy, so that's all set, then once we see what animals she likes the most today we can start getting decorations." I said and squeezed her hand,

"yeah, we just need to clean the pool and stuff, she loves swimming and we haven't gotten to do it in forever so I want her to be able to do it on her birthday." She said and bit her lip, "don't worry about it love, I'll take care of it." I said and brought her hand to my lips.

When we got to the zoo we all got out of our cars, "let's do this!!" Tara yelled and kicked her foot in the air. "I can't wait to see the gorillas man, those things are cooler than all of you guys combined." Jake said as I rolled my eyes and set up the stroller.

Cora was applying sunscreen to Mia's skin as I put her bucket hat on her. "You excited!?" I asked Mia and pinched her little cheek, she looked at me and smiled as she reached up for me. "Hold on, let mommy put your sunscreen on." I said as Cora finished up. "Okay, now you can go to daddy." She said as I picked her up, "hello princess." I said and kissed her head as we made our way to the ticket stand.

After we all got our tickets and got our bags checked we started making our way through the different exhibits. I held Mia in one arm and walked the empty stroller with my other hand.