Fun Day at the Zoo

Today we started our morning on the early side at the zoo. The St. Louis Zoo is always free and is a really nice zoo, so it's a super great bargain. But first thing in the morning, the children's zoo is also free so we wanted to take advantage of that. It was not cold, but a little cool and blustery, so Hannah spent most of the time under a warm blanket. We happened to see a real St. Louis cardinal in one of the trees on the way in, which was very appropriate.

The children's zoo was not amazing, but it had some fun things for the kids to do. Joshua was a big fan of petting the guinea pigs and both kids enjoyed the playground and goats.

Joshua tried scaling the wall like a mountain goat. He was pretty successful until the lady managing the place came over and politely informed us that the walls were only for goats.  

After the children's zoo, we went in search of some larger species. We decided to find the elephants.

Joshua walked sideways like a crab and on all fours like an elephant on the way. 

We saw several types of animals, but the highlights were the rhinos and elephants.

We went from some of the biggest animals to some of the smallest. After the elephants we went through the insect house. This was really large and had a lot to see, though after awhile I think Joshua and Jason were the only ones still excited. But everyone liked the giant bug statue outside.

The kids were getting tired and hungry at that point, but we wanted to see one more thing so we did the ape house. They had a lot of different apes and many were doing some really entertaining things so that was a fun thing to see. Clara kept saying "It's sad". We like to think she was just talking and not making a commentary about apes in captivity.

After the zoo, we went to lunch at Fitz's. This is a St. Louis restaurant and root beer (as well as other types of pop) bottling facility. We had a yummy meal and some very delicious root beer shakes. Their floats are super good as well, but they have a lot of ice cream so are kind of difficult to eat so we thought shakes would work better. After that, we went home and napped.

My hope had been that after nap we would eat dinner and go to City Museum (open late) and see a fourth attraction tomorrow. However, that didn't work. I had forgotten how long meals take with kids so it was just too late by the time we finished with dinner. My only regret so far with this trip is, because it was a bit spontaneous, I didn't plan a lot of meals to pack and bring. I wish I had because we are losing a lot of time on food. But luckily St. Louis is very close so we will have the opportunity to see it many times in the future. However, I still wish I had planned that part because I hate wasting time. We ended up going to Pasta House for dinner. It's sort of like the St. Louis version of Olive Garden and there is one particular dish there that I really like and have never found it elsewhere made the same way so I was really happy with my dinner and every one else was okay with their dinner. 

After dinner, it was almost time for bed. We are in a two bedroom condo, which I am not sure I would choose a two bedroom again because of Clara's sleep issues. But one really nice thing about it is there is a futon in the second bedroom so there is plenty of room for 2 pack-n-plays and Joshua doesn't need space so sleeping on a futon is fine for him. The kids are really excited to have both mom and dad be able to sit down with them at bedtime. I am sure we will all sleep well tonight because all that fresh air was super tiring. Tomorrow we plan to see City Museum and hopefully the Arch before heading back home.