Wednesday in St. Louis...Zoo Edition

We started out our Wednesday in St. Louis with breakfast at Denny's
(heavy on the whipped cream!)

Then, we were off to the zoo!

The Insectarium is full of buggy fun!

(bug quilt picture for you, Aunt Jenny):

Right outside of the Insectarium is the way-cool butterfly house:

Then the penguins, OH the PENGUINS!! Everyone's favorite animals this time around.

They were sooo cute!

(even if they were a bit stinky)

*cute (short) penguin video:

The polar bear was out playing...
...and the Carousel is always fun: Mark chose to ride the snake(hard to see in the picture) and Maya rode on the otter. Here are a few pictures of the animals. They are beautiful!

It was definitely spring!A few random pics:

We ended our day with the sea lions. They were eating their lunch. Here's another cute (short) video, this time of a sea lion catching fish:
Whew, I'm exhausted! Next time...the Science Center!

Tuesday in St. Louis

We went to St. Louis for a couple of days earlier this week.
I am not even gonna try to squeeze the whole trip into one blog post, so I will start with Tuesday. Of course the first part of the trip was the drive there.
Guess what my kids did...schoolwork! HAHA!

We had lunch at Pizza Hut in Pacific, MO.
Not a great Pizza Hut but the coloring pages were spot on!

First stop in St. Louis...the Gateway Arch:

Before going up we toured the history museum located underneath the arch.

Then it was time to go up!
You get to the top via a small "tram" that resembles some strange cross between a spacepod/public restroom.
"What did you think of that, kids?"...their faces say it all:

There is a swimming pool on the top of the gray building in the front right of the pic. *nice*

It was a windy day so we felt the sway pretty good.

Even in the overcast weather, the views were worth it!

The view from the ground:

Then it started raining!
Vacation is even more fun when you get to wear your raincoat and splash in puddles!

We stopped at McDs and enjoyed an ice cream cone while the kids played:

But no one enjoyed their ice cream cone as much as this kid:

A bunny lives in the narrow strip of landscaping between our hotel and Interstate-44:

Sleepy in the hotel room:

Enjoying the view from the 7th floor:

Reading "bednight stories": Next time...the St. Louis Zoo!!