St.Louis Zoo...

Well...we made it back home this evening from our vacation to Missouri! It was a great visit! I tried to post while I was at Moms house, but for some reason it wouldn't let me upload pics. Anyway...I wanted to write about one of the highlights of the week. We all ventured out to the St.Louis zoo on Thursday. This is the zoo I grew up going to throughout my childhood, so it was neat to see my kids enjoying the animals and getting their pictures taken at the same landmarks that I did when I was their age. One of our favorite things to see were 5 little tiger cubs with their mom. This was the first week that they were on display...up till now they had been inside away from all the spectators. It was so fun to see them playing and wrestling in the grass with their momma. I was so excited to be watching them, that I forgot to take pictures! The penguin exhibit was really cool (literally...it was freezing in there!) We actually got to reach in and pet the penguins as they swam by, and we could see them swimming under water through the glass. Alec got splashed when one of the penguins dove in near him. The Gorillas were really fun to see too...we got to watch them getting there lunch in individual paper bags. I was told that was to stimulate them...so they had to tear and dig to get to the food. One of the Gorillas was a little strange...it was completely hairless! Anyway, I took a LOT of pics...so here are some.

Alec and Ava with their cousins!

Our fam in the reptile house.
My brother Jimmy with his kids Tiff, Titus, and Rex in front of their school mascot.
Rex and Alec hangin with the Giraffs
The boy cousins

There was a new dinosaur exhibit at the zoo that mom had been telling Alec about over the phone for a couple months. So, he was really looking forward to seeing some "lifelike" moving Dinosaurs ! He was not dissapointed, one of the dinosaurs even spit on Alec! It was great. His all time favorite was the T-Rex of course. It was opening it's giant mouth and roaring...Alec even got a bit scared when Eriik lifted him close to it's huge teeth.

He got to dig for dinosaur bones in the sand!
He was soaking it all in.

It was a great day...(despite a road contruction detour that lead us all over St. Louis)! We were at the zoo all day and the kids didn't even get cranky...Ava just fell asleep in her stroller, and Alec was having way too much fun for naps.