Sorry it has taken me so long to post this! I have had a pretty full week and now the family is back home! All the pictures are at the bottom, so if you just want to view them and not listen/read my rambelings, scroll down!
So last week, I went to the zoo with Sarai and Micah. Joining us in our car were the Sadlers, Michele, Elijah, and Ali. We had a great time riding together. Also joining us on the trip were Trish Johnson, her mother-in-law, and kids, Shane, Alivia, and Kalissa. Plus Lisa Woods and her boys, Braden and Noah. The morning started out with me planning to pick up Michele at her house at 7 am and then swing by Trish’s and then head out of town. St Louis is about a 3 to 3 1/2 hour drive from us. So I got to Micheles about 7:15, not bad considering I had a one year old who usually sleeps until 8:30 or later! When Michele got in the car, she said that Lisa had called and was planning on meeting us in Moberly. But not until 8:30! So I was like wow. The last I had heard from Lisa was that she wan’t going to be able to make it. I was glad that she was joining us. So we got to Moberly at 7:45 and Michele and I decided to run to McDonalds to get the kids some breakfast and Trish said she needed to go fill up with gas. Then Trish called me and said that they had decided to go on ahead because they needed to stop in Coumbia so I said ok and I will meet you at the Zoo.
We waited for Lisa and while we were waiting Trish called back and said that she thought that she had left her wallet at the gas station and asked me to run over there and check. So we drove over there and thankfully it was sitting on the post next to the pump she filled up at! So I called her back and let her know. Lisa arrived and we took off from Moberly at about 8:45. A little later than we planned put all was good.
We didn’t have any more trouble on the way down, unless you count Micah having diarrhea and having to change clothes as a problem. And the fact that Michele and I were talking so intently and laughing so loudly that we did not hear the GPS tell me my exit and the next we knew it was telling us to make a u-turn! Then we ended going through town because the highway that runs next to the zoo is pretty much completely shut down for construction! But we finally made it to the zoo and parked. And again I had to change Micah because of diarrhea! At this moment I was starting to panic. We hadn’t even really begun our day and I had already ran out of baby wipes, was putting his last outfit on him and had 2 diapers! Oh Joy!
So we got into the zoo, bought our Safari passes and met up with Trish and her family. The first thing we did was ride the train. Micah seemed to enjoy it and my favorite part was that we got to see a up close and pretty cool view of the Tiger cubs! It was amazing watching them lounge and play. After the train we ventured into the River’s Edge which houses the elephants, rhinos, hippos and other animals like that. It was fun walking through there and looking at the animals. One of the best parts was the pretty close-up view we got of a parrot! Got some great shots of the kids looking at the animals and some of the just the kids being silly! One of my favorite was of Sarai and Ali ip under a rock cliff!
At the end of River’s Edge there is a water feature and of course the kids had to get wet! At first Elijah was the only one that was really into getting wet but before long the others followed suit. I even wheeled the stroller close enough for Micah to get a little wet. But he really wasn’t too into it as he was not feeling that well. But I did get a cute group shot of the kids!
After there we headed into the Insectarium and Butterfly House. The Butterfly house was amazing! Check out my pictures below of the blue butterfly, he was beautiful! Several times Sarai and Micah both almost had a butterfly land on them. I could have stayed in there for hours just watching the butterflys and taking pictures of them.
Our next stop was the Children’s Zoo. This is always a favorite of the kids because it is so hands on! And today was not exception. They had so much fun. Especially at another water feature (more wetness!) and the playland. The slides were so fast and the kids loved them. One even went through the otter exhibit, although Sarai said that she didn’t see any otters when she went down because it was too fast!
Then we ventured towards the Bears and Penguin exhibit, but decided to eat before we did anything else. Lunch was nice and pretty relaxing. After lunch we visit the bears and got some great shots of the Grizzlys. Then we headed over to Sarai’s favorite exhibit, the Penguin and Puffin Cove! This exhibit is amazing and so fun. You can literally come face to face with the penguins and puffins. Although today not many of them were in the water. It is also nice to visit the exhibit when it is hot out because it is kept at 40 degrees inside!
As we were exiting the exhibit it started raining! We decided to wait a few minutes and then when he didn’t seem to be letting up we went ahead and ventured over to the carousel. It was coming down pretty hard so we let the kids ride on the carousel. Of course becasue of the rain, one ride turned into about 10! But they had a lot of fun. Micah finally feel asleep at this point. Poor little guy was still not feeling well. And I was now down to one diaper and worried that he was going to have an accident while he slept. So the rain started to let up and we decided to venture out into the zoo. We made to the Chimpanzee exhibit before it started pouring again! We didn’t even get to see the chimpanzees! The we hightailed it to Build A Bear as that is where i told Sarai she could get something from. At this point Lisa, Michele and their kids took off for the South Entrance Gift shop before it closed. After we finished up, we met them there and headed out to our vehicles.
Wouldn’t you know that he decided to quit raining as we were leaving the park! But that didn’t last long. About as long as it took us to drive from the zoo to the airport and then it started pouring again! We had quite the adventure on the way home but I am going to save that for another post as this one is getting super long! We finally made it home about 10 pm! And went straight to bed. It was a long day but tons of fun and I would do it again in a heartbeat!
Enjoy the pictures! Ok I am having some issues getting the pictures to upload, so I am going to include a link to my facebook gallery and hope that you can see them. If I can get the pictures to upload then i will update this page or post a new post! Sorry
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Ali on the drive to the zoo
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Sarai next to the bee colony
Facebook Album- St Louis Zoo
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