A Trip To The Zoo

Today was a beautiful day. I am vey tired right now, and pretty hungry, but I am very happy with how our day went. I could not have asked for a better day.

We got up early, somewhere around 5:30 to get the children up and head off to St. Louis to the zoo. It is about 2 1/2 hours to the zoo from here. We left right around 6:30 as we had planned. The children had fruit and pumpkin muffins to eat on the way. We ended up getting lost trying to find the zoo and our GPS sent us on a wild goose chase through a gorgeous neighborhood with gated streets and stunning brick mansions. I was drooling as we drove past them all. They were so beautiful and historic. I LOVE old historic houses! So anyways we finally found the zoo. We had wanted to get there when they opened because although the zoo is free (how cool is that?) the childrens petting zoo area is only free for the first hour that the zoo is open. After we parked I had to feed the baby real quick before we went in. Then we spent a lovely day walking around the zoo. The weather was gorgeous, the children were perfectly behaved and the animals were beautiful. We had such a wonderful day!! The zoo is very park like. We strolled around enjoying the day and the animals and when the baby got hungry we just found a place to sit down for awhile so I could feed her while the children ate cookies and waited patiently. It was just very relaxed and peaceful and wonderful. A very awesome day! :)

A couple of thoughts and observations:

I stayed true to my plan. It was not hard. The food at the zoo didn't look good and it was crazy expensive. Not even a temptation there. The salad bar was pathetic. They had little tiny containers of fruit but they were super pricey. I had brought oranges from home and so I strolled through the zoo eating them as I pleased. It was lovely.

I noticed that the animals in the zoo are fed better than the children in our public schools. Very sad. I also noticed that the food that I eat looks a whole lot like the food the zoo animals eat.

I wish that I had the forethought to wear a pedometer. I would love to know how much walking we did today. I am beat now! Fatigued in a very good way. And the children all went to bed with no problems. They are all very tired too. A good tired.

A couple of funny things were said today. We were watching the elephants when The Carnivore said to me "I bet that they are happier here in the zoo than in the wild." I said "Why would you say that?" He replied "Because here they don't have to worry about not having enough water to drink." I replied "Well that may be true, but I think that given the choice most animals would choose to be free rather than live in captivity." Meanwhile a very unhappy child had been screaming in the background throughout the whole conversation. At the end of my exchange with The Carnivore my Big Helper commented :"At least in the wild the elephants wouldn't have to listen to children screaming." HaHaHa! She is so funny.

The children sometimes get money for birthdays and Christmas. I have always encouraged them to save their money to buy something special and have discouraged them from using the money to buy candy or other garbage. Today they were all very happy that they listened to me. Four of the children got cute stuffed animals at the zoo. Tonka boy loves seals. He LOVES SEALS. He is so cute about it too. He got a big stuffed seal and asked us what he should name it in the car on the way home. Our suggestions were "polar bear bait" "orca lunch" and "polar bear breakfast" lol. We are mean! He laughingly told us "no!". He is such a cutie. Hubbys best name suggestion was Yum-yum. I don't know what he finally decided on. Diver, I think. My children love their stuffed animals. They call them their children and love to play with them. They are so cute.

OK, so I guess that is all. I need to go to bed. I am so tired. It is a good tired though.

I love raw.