St. Louis Zoo

How awesome is it that St. Louis's zoo is completely free?!  And it is a really good zoo, too!  We hadn't taken K-Man to a zoo yet, but he likes his animal books and is starting to master his animal sounds a little bit, so we just weren't really sure if he would be interested.  He had so much fun, though, which translated into us having a lot of fun, too.

It was a cool, overcast day, so a lot of the animals were out and about.

Checking out the black bears.  This was the first exhibit we looked at and there were two bears chasing each other around.  It was really cool.

Uncle Parker has always loved penguins, so this is his favorite exhibit at the zoo.  It really is probably the coolest penguin exhibit I've ever seen.  They are just right there in the open, which was awesome.

K-Man showing Mom the penguins

Dad and K-Man watching the penguins eat and swim around

This is Part 1 of the carousel.  Everyone was having a nice time...

Until the carousel started moving.  Then because we were getting on and off the animals they emergency stopped the carousel (apparently getting on and off is against the rules).  Yeah.  Pretty embarrassing, lol!

How cool is this picture?  It looks like K-Man and the gorilla are looking right at each other.

Really enjoying the insect house

Had to include this picture.  Here we are in the butterfly house.  Harmless, right?  Wrong.  Emily is terrified of the butterflies and freaks out anytime one flutters by her.  Is it bad that we all thought it was funny?

These manly boys taking a picture with the two strollers by the lovely autumn foliage.

K-Man keeping an eye on the rhino.

There's this weird, fake, dead antelope hanging from a tree in the Africa exhibit.  It has fake blood and everything!

Checking out the elephants

St. Louis Blues

We decided it would be fun to have a night out with no kids, so we got tickets to go see an NHL game.  The St. Louis Blues played, and unfortunately lost to, the LA Kings, but we had a blast.  They had someone playing a pipe-organ throughout the game, and there was this big guy with an even bigger voice who sang a bunch of songs that the crowd really got into.  It was a lot of fun!

Parker, Sarah, Amy, and Mike enjoying some hockey

Pappy's Smokehouse - St. Louis

After we worked up our appetites in the Magic House, Parker and Sarah took us over to Pappy's Smokehouse, voted Best BBQ in St. Louis for as long as anyone can remember.  It has also been featured on Man vs. Food (check it out here).

K-Man was suuuuper-tired by this point, so he wasn't his usual, smiley self, but the food was great!  We all got ribs and they were really good, especially when you added the different bbq sauces they had.

Apparently our niece always get free stuff when she goes there, like t-shirts and stuff!  This is her showing off her cool temporary tattoo.

Sooo yummy!  Thanks for showing us a true St. Louis-style barbecue, Parker and Sarah!!

The Magic House - St. Louis's Children's Museum

If you are ever in St. Louis and you have children of any age traveling with you, the Magic House is a MUST.  They have three floors filled with all kinds of cool stuff...

Yeah.  These chairs really were musical.  Every time you sat down, they played music!  With all of us sitting up and down at the same time, we sounded like a symphony.

K-Man checking out the giant chalkboard

Rolling balls

Steering a boat with Dad

Playing in the ball pit

Trying to steal the camera from Mom

Okay, so I know this isn't the best picture, but it was right in the entryway and there were tons of people around and I had to be down on the floor taking the picture up.  But K-Man thought these balloons (which were permanent fixtures) were probably the coolest things in the place.  You can kind of tell that he's saying "Wowwww!" which is one of his favorite things to say right now.

Our little pilgrim children

Cousin Emily pulling the rope to blow the train whistle

Mike thought this would be a funny picture because Amy hates worms

That metal wall is a giant magnet

And that is just a teeny tiny sample of all the cool stuff we did at the Magic House.

Chillaxing with the Fam

Despite all of the fun stuff we did in St. Louis, we still found time to hang out, 

Paint fingernails

Take naps

Eat crayons

Have bathtime and dress up as Princess Aurora

Play games

And hold our sweet little niece, Abby

What an awesome family we have!

St. Louis Sculpture Park

Okay, it's kind of nerdy, but we really went to the sculpture park mostly to see this giant eyeball.  Since Parker is in school for optometry, it only seemed appropriate.  But while we were there, we figured we should check out some of the other sculptures, too.  The park was HUGE and all of the bathrooms were locked, which is another story for another day, but for a four-year-old girl that doesn't bode well.

We had the uneasy feeling that we were being watched

Cousin Emily with the big leaves she found

K-Man cheesing it up for the camera

Uncle Mike and Cousin Emily

Aunt Sarah and K-Man

Do you hear what I hear?

Does it look like a poodle to you?