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St. Louis Zoo, Part 1

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May 302011

We have a zoo membership to the St. Louis Zoo. It is simply one of the best zoos around! First, it is gorgeous! Most of the animals live in habitats just as you would find them in nature. You are surrounded by beautiful plants and trees everywhere you walk. Second, it is FREE! Free I said!!! We do get a zoo membership each year. It gives us a few free parking passes and then several more passes for the train, carousel and children’s zoo. It really is a great deal if you live in the STL area. We tried to go to the zoo on Friday, but unfortunately they were extremely busy and the lovely mounted police officers had us leave the area No admittance. Sigh. So I promised the girls we would try to go back this weekend. This Memorial Day Weekend. I knew when I said it – it would be hot and crowded. But our pass expires in a couple of days and I really wanted to use our free tickets. We loaded up and off we went!

They have really made some fantastic changes at the Zoo – even in the time that we have lived in STL. If you haven’t been in a while you should go take a peek! The parking area right off of 64/40 is just terrific! So many new sculptures. And also a new parking strategy. This is the elephant that greats you now.

Hakuna Matata! (You can also see the new bridge that crosses your from the lot to the zoo in the background!! No more waiting on traffic – MUCH easier with the kids!)

Sun block, Sun glasses and a big stroller just in case we get tired of walking.

Hannah was certain she wanted to walk — for about the first 200 yards

Like I mentioned earlier – this was a “use the tickets” trip. We didn’t really take any time to see the animals. We can go back in a few weeks when it isn’t as busy and do that for free. Today we had a mission! And the train was first on the list. We didn’t have any lines to deal with. We swiped the card, got our tix and jumped on the train! Abby really likes when we get the blue train (but I gotta tell ya, Daddy was really excited with how shiny the silver one was).

ALL ABOARD!!! Abby sat with Daddy and Hannah and I shared a seat.

And then the waving begins! The train makes about 4 stops. We get to circle the entire zoo! We even travel through a few tunnels. The girls had great fun! Abby loved that there was a “girl conductor”.

Next stop: The Carousel! We spotted some flamingos and alligators… err… I mean, pelicans on the way!

Abby picked a Siberian Tiger and Hannah picked the Chimpanzee.

We’re heading to the Children’s Zoo next! Come read more in Part 2.

St. Louis Zoo, Part 2

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May 302011

The next stop for us was The Children’s Zoo! I don’t know why we didn’t do this more often with Abby? Maybe I just wasn’t sure what was behind that gate. And it costs a little money (unless you have a zoo membership) The girls love it! It is usually way less crowded back there. Today, a docent had a few owls right inside the gate! Abby and Hannah took turns Whoooo Whoooing at them.

Hanna took a second to sit on the frog. She insisted I take her picture – but refused to look at me

We headed to the indoor section of the Children’s Zoo. Also lots to see and do inside! The girls seem to gravitate towards the plastic playhouse. This always amazes me. They have fun, live animals to pet and sand to dig in and so many more unique animals to see! Finally! Today they were quite interested in digging for treasures! Abby just found a red shell!

We stopped to tell the guinea pigs hello.

And a quick pat for the BIG bunny!

Wow! What could be hiding in this log??

SNAKE!!!!

We headed back outside. There were a few chickens walking around, mooching Goldfish off of some visitors. Abby asked me what chickens ate – I told her the better question might be what don’t chickens eat?? Lynn? Help here? We walked through the dark belly of a HUGE whale and it dropped us off at a splash pad! This is the place that I often hope isn’t on. I hope we can just walk right by without the girls noticing. But not today! Today we were ready to get wet!! The girls seemed a bit confused that I was not only allowing – but encouraging them stop around in their regular clothes. I knew it was there. I had planned on letting them play today. That is one of the reasons I saved the Children’s Zoo for last. I had sunblock. However, I forgot towels :/ Oh well! It was a warm day. They splished and splashed for at least 20 minutes.

“Look Abby! A little hole. I think I’ll stick my toe in it!”

“Whoa!”

“Aaaaggghhhh”

Come see more of The Children’s Zoo in Part 3.

St. Louis Zoo, Part 3

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May 302011

We dried off the best we could and walked around the corner to the “Just Like Me” play area. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t see any otters in the first tank. But guess what?? There was one waiting for us in the second tank! They have a slide in this area that allows the kids to zoom down in a clear tunnel right by the playing otters. The girls have done this a few times before – but we didn’t do this today because I can only imagine the uncomfortable ride they would have had being so wet We did stop and watch the otter for a few minutes though!

Next the girls pretended to be spiders climbing on a giant web! I’m certain there is a (30 year old) picture of me on this same web! Mom, can you find it?

The goats were our final destination at the Children’s Zoo. The girls picked up their brushes on the way in and went straight to work!

Wrappin’ it up! We thought a little ice cream might be a fun close to a great day! Daddy thought the girls might like to try dip n’ dots. Did you know: Working at the dip n’ dots stand at the Du Quoin State Fair was one of my first paying jobs.

They picked banana split. I think they were a little confused at first with the little dots. Once Abby took a bite she gave it a Thumbs Up!

Hannah’s first eating attempt was with her spoon upside down. She flipped it over and finally got a taste.

But then she quickly chose the “shovel method”.

Followed soon after with the “Drink Method”

Everyone was pretty tuckered out! The girls hopped back in the stroller and we headed for the gate!

And that was our super visit to The St. Louis Zoo!

St. Louis Zoo

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Aug 012010

Wow! We have had a busy couple of days! Our friends, Laura, Ian and Leila came to visit! We picked them up from the airport – and took the scenic route to the zoo. You all know how directionally challenged I am :/ The kids are roughly the same ages, so it looks like we have some twins on our hands! We had a blast! The kids really did well and seemed to have tons of fun too!

***Please remember you can click on an image to see it bigger! You can also use the tiny white arrows ON THE RIGHT SIDE of the larger picture to flip through all of the larger images.

It is always exciting trying to get 4 children under 5 to turn and smile for the camera

On our way to the first exhibit they noticed some ducks.

And the tortoise.

The reptile house or Herpetarium was our next stop. The kids were so excited to see the big snakes and lizards. At one point Abby and Hannah were sitting by a huge snake (maybe a constrictor – I can’t remember) and they were pointing. All of a sudden the snake started to follow their finger!!! I tried to get a pic, but Hannah kept moving her head right in the way :/ Laura also noticed someone dangling a shiny bracelet to attract a snake. She came back and told me she would not recommend wearing shiny jewelry in the jungle

Then the primate house. Leila seemed to really love watching them swing around!

Ian and Abby made some pressed pennies just like they did at Sea World!

Time for a train ride. Can you believe our luck?? The BLUE train!!

We didn’t go see the big cats – but we did get to see a tiger by the train stop!

It really was a hot day! As we were walking to grab some lunch indoors and cool off I heard Ian say to Abby, “I’m so tired. This is so far! We’ve never had to walk this far.” Somehow he had forgotten the week at Sea World Well, Okay, it was about 30 degrees cooler — but

The “twins” stopped to look at the prairie dogs.

Finally! Air conditioning!! The kids had peanut butter and jellies and hot dogs. The zoo offers fun sides like: grapes, applesauce, and goldfish crackers! I got the chicken strips! I think they are so yummy! But Laura came back with a huge quesadilla! I may have to try something new on our next outing! It really looked delicious. I think everyone had some pink lemonade!

Laura had great memories of the orangutans. So she picked out next stop – The Fragile Forrest. At first I didn’t see any out Then Laura said, “Wait!” She spotted one! He was HUGE! He was pretty far away and I couldn’t really see what my camera was focusing on. Unfortunately I got a great shot of the branch right in front of him

These guys decided to come out and play while we were watching. Notice the guy in the back does a nice somersault for us!

Looks like it was almost nap time – but she stayed with us

Now the penguin and puffin exhibit! They sure were beautiful! I asked about the water temp. I believe he said 45 degrees! Whew!

Leila fell asleep. Ian and Abby had been asking for some ice cream. Laura found a little stand and Abby had her first bomb pop! I sent a txt to Jamey and he said, “A bomb pop makes everything better!” I think Ian and Hannah both had green sherbert push ups called “frog spit”. Yummy! In case you were wondering, YES it was messy… and YES this jolt of sugar perked Hannah right up! I think she ran the rest of way out of the zoo!

Now we were in the River’s Edge. We hoped to see some elephants, rhinos and hyenas. Unfortunately the rhino wasn’t out – or we just didn’t see him. And silly me! I was thinking the rhinos were in the water!! Nope, that was the hippos! We had a fun moment there.

Hannah found a snake protecting some eggs!

Yay! The elephants were out! We noticed three of them. This big guy! I think this is Raja. I remember when he was born at this zoo.

And this new baby! It looked so tiny compared to the other elephants – but the newest elephant I can find online was born in 2007. I’m not really sure who this is?

We decided it was time to head home. We stopped in the gift shop on our way out. The little girls picked some adorable “zoo related” items. The bigger kids however chose a Clydesdale (Abby) and a railroad crossing gate pen (Ian). Kind of relevant I suppose

If you haven’t been to the zoo in a while they have built a new bridge by the entrance! You can walk right over the traffic now!

The girls and I picked out some zoo stickers for goody bags the day before our friends arrived. All of the kids did some beautiful art when we had a few minutes back at the house!