St. Louis Vacation, Day 8...

We definitely slept in today... and then found ourselves running to catch breakfast before it closed at 9:30! After this many days of HIE breakfast, even I am getting tired of it, which is saying something!

This was our day for the St. Louis Zoo, and it was Ian who got very excited when we announced where we were going! We have found that it is a little bit difficult to come up with activities that everyone is excited about at this point due to the age difference in kids (I think I probably mentioned that earlier in the week, but exhaustion is taking over, so I'm likely to begin repeating myself... and repeating myself... OK... not so funny...) When we said that we were headed to the zoo, however, Ian nearly jumped out of his booster seat and immediately said that he wanted to see the elephants! Caleb is usually our elephant lover, so I was slightly surprised. Caleb, too, seemed happy with our destination of the day. Grace put up with it. Seth reminded me several times of how bored he was throughout the next few hours, by asking Miah is she was as bored as he...

I have to say that I was quite impressed by the size of the zoo, the variety of animals, and the attempt at making the animals' habitats as natural as possible. It was beautiful. The elephant exhibit was especially nice and large, including a river and waterfall, as well as several different viewing areas. As expected, Caleb was quite pleased and ready to leave after he saw the "Ellies"... When Phil asked Ian what he thought of the elephants, Ian replied that they were stupid! So... uh... go figure...

My only complaint was that the day was incredibly hot... and heat tends to make me sort of... uh... crabby... I hit several misting fans on our short trip, which helped a bit. The penguin exhibit was also especially cold, so we stayed in there for quite awhile! It's the kind of zoo that I would definitely enjoy revisiting in late October!

We ran through the Wendy's drive-thru for dinner, returned to the hotel, took another dip in the pool, and now everyone under 5 feet tall is sleeping... finally... after some wiggly bedtime antics!

I am getting kinda lazy at this point... just wiped out from the speed of the trip and the heat of the day... so I will post a few highlight pictures and call it a night:

Some of my favorite "wild animals":

The Hippo Was Awesome:

I'm going to make them look at this
every time they forget they love each other:

Caleb And His "Ellie":

Ian Doin' What Ian Does Best...
Being Too Cute:

Miah... and Me... and a Giraffe:

Lisa