To the Zoo!!

It's obvious we love the St. Louis Zoo. We never get enough of the place! Lately, we've been heading out before 9am. That way, we get good parking and can enjoy a full hour of free activities. General admission is free, but all the extra cool stuff isn't. This time, we brought Alia VandenBrink with us. Alia and Elijah play super well together-maybe it's the age difference. Alia acts like a mother hen while Elijah follows all of her instructions. He just wants to be big like Alia.

Despite getting to the zoo in perfect timing, we were unable to make it to the free carousel ride and to pet the sting rays. The lines we too long and we wanted to make it into the children's zoo before the clock stroke 10. We didn't see very many animals, but the kids had a blast doing all the hands on activities.

The thing Alia and Eli wanted to do most was the slide. Actually, there are two slides. At the top, they are side by side, but once you go down, they split up. Basically, you have NO idea what side of the playground your child will be dumped out at. It's stressful as a mother but oh so fun for the kids. One of the slides actually go through the otter exhibit which is partially under water. You can see the clear tunnel slide at the top right hand side of the photo below.

Poor Eli finally went down the "water slide" but this annoying little girl spoiled the whole thing by kicking him the entire way down. There were kids EVERYWHERE!

The children's zoo does have a few animals like pigs, goats and free roaming chickens.

They also have two alpaca who seemed to have been recently shaved. Eli shouted "HORSE!" and ran toward them but when he got up close, he was confused. "Mama-doggie? Cow?". He had NO idea what he was looking at. We all laughed at how silly it looked, a shaved alpaca.

The petting zoo is inside and has lots of cool stuff to do besides touch rabbits and lizzards. There is a tree house, lots of cool tunnels, and a mini jeep!! Elijah drove Alia around for a while, but then gave Alia a turn at the wheel. When Eli is in the passenger seat, he's the DJ. He finds his favorite song on the "radio" (Yeah Yeah Yeah by The Flaming Lips) and then sings it for all to hear.

Dan turns in his last paper tomorrow at 5pm. Hopefully, the next Zoo post will include pictures of Eli with his dada!