Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Zoo Day

Our family came down to join us for an afternoon at the St. Louis zoo, so I wanted to photo dump...
It's Shark Week @ the Zoo
Cold water misters, always a popular attraction

Toddler Boy was fascinated with the prairie dogs



























This is the first time we've been to the zoo this year.  I realize that sentence makes me into the most neglectful parent in town, considering it's only a 1/2 hour drive from our house and it's free too.  The summer is almost over and this is our first zoo trip (shudder)!  My only excuse, we've had a pretty full summer thus far, and I've been on a two week cleaning binge.  You know the kind, where mountains of trash bags are thrown and/or given away but your house looks pretty much the same.  Frustrating...I'll just leave it at that.

Moving on...since our last visit they have finished the new sea lion habitat, which was really neat.  You got to walk into an underwater tunnel and watch them swim over and around you.
No sea lions in this one...
There they are!!


























More from the sea lion exhibit
















At least, I think they were sea lions (maybe they were seals)?  I was busy counting heads as we were walking in so I didn't read the sign.  We had eight kids between three adults and three needed one-on-one supervision so we had our hands full today.  I was glad Doug was able to take off work to go with us, I think it would have been a bit overwhelming with just two.





It seems I'm getting lots of pictures of backs...














After checking out the sea lions (seals, whatever), we headed to the bird cage and then went to see the safari animals.
There's some faces!!
Last stop was the always popular reptile house.  Popular with the kids (snakes) and the adults (air condition)!
My beautiful niece!
So glad snakes are in glass cases
Nice hip bump Game Boy is giving his cousin
This is as close as I ever want her to
a water moccasin!!
























































My main job in this place is just to make sure my herd doesn't run over any unsuspecting visitor trying to enjoy a day at the zoo.  They would be casually studying an exhibit when WHAM, out of nowhere eight kids descend and it's all they can do to escape with their life and all their limbs!

We had hoped to make the penguin exhibit (another popular, smelly, but very cold place),  but ran out of time, due to Game Boy's soccer practice this evening.  Doug ran back to get the van while we entertained the kids and he did a drive by to get us loaded up.  I would like to insert here that I rode to the zoo with my sis-in-law and even though Doug told us we drove in the wrong way we TOTALLY scored an awesome parking spot RIGHT IN FRONT of the north entrance.  Just sayin, we absolutely knew what we were doing when we drove that way.  (Let's be real, I'm giving all the props to God for that cool spot, because there's no such thing as luck when it comes to zoo parking)...
Parting group shot!
When we got home I asked Princess what her favorite animal we saw at the zoo today...

Princess:  the penguins
Me:  We didn't see the penguins today, what is your favorite from today?
Princess:  I don't know, what did we see?
Me:  Well, we saw the birds and sea lions, monkeys, prairie dogs, giraffes, zebras, and snakes.  Which one was your favorite?
Princess:  The lions

Guess another trip is on the horizon!

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