Zoo Day

A good friend gave us some last minute passes for the zoo train, caurosel, and children's zoo so we decided to make a "Diego Rescue Mission Day" at the zoo. The kids had a list of animals from Jeremiah's Diego puzzle that they were supposed to try and find at the zoo. They each had their maps and were excited about the adventure. And boy oh boy, what a gorgeous day to spend at the zoo! We could not have ordered better weather.

Of course with Daddy in tow, we were bound for a little bit of excitement. We approached a rocky formation with fake lizards on it. Stuart had convinced Jeremiah and Claire they were real and Jeremiah kept trying to see if lizard twitch it's tail. There were holes in the formation and Stuart would tell the kids he saw one run in so they would peek their heads in the holes and shout, "We can't see it!"

Finally Claire tried to pick one up and it wouldn't come off and so with hands on her hips declared, "Daddy, these are NOT real. They are fake." While perhaps it's not the nicest thing to trick your kids, admittedly it was very funny watching them peek in the holes or focus on their tails in hopes they would catch a glimpse of it moving.

This trip we also got to go to the Insectorium which, besides bugs, has a small butterfly house. The giant cockroaches, millipedes and other various creepy crawlies were not my favorite but I loved the butterfly house. The butterflies flitter all around you. There was a giant butterfly that had just hatched but stayed on the tree b/c its wings were still wet. I wish we could have stayed longer but it was crowded and Claire was getting nervous about one landing on her head. I plan on going back sometime when I can spend more time there. The picture at the left is of a Zebra butterfly who flew over my head and landed majestically on the flowering plant.

After that we went and let the kids ride the caurosel, twice. Miss Independent did not want mom and brother anywhere near her so we granted her the freedom to go by herself. Jeremiah wanted to follow his sister's example but was forced to have me stay by him since he was too short. If I even touched the gorilla it upset him. But despite having me there, you can see what I call pure kid joy on their faces. These are the moments I live for.

We of course saw as much as possible but didn't get to see everything. We ended by seeing the alligators, hoping to find a Caiman since it was on our "Diego Rescue Mission" list. We didn't see a Caiman, but we did see this big alligator. He looked a little hungry so Stuart decided to offer his finger for a snack. Guess the alligator wasn't hungry because Stuart came home with all 10 fingers.

All in all we had a great day. The kids enjoyed themselves and were great walkers for the 4 hours we were there. They never complained and kept up until we knew it was time to go. I hope they have some memories of outings like this because we sure enjoyed being with them. Stuart and I both wish our children to be able to remember that while yes, we did do fun things like go to the zoo, that most importantly we did things together, laughed together, grew together. We are grateful to the city of St. Louis for providing so many free or low cost out opportunities to take our kids to. It is wonderful!