St. Louis Zoo

We decided to go to the St. Louis Zoo on Shira's last full day with us.  And, as a bonus, the zoo is free!

  The boys needed a snack before we went to check out the animals.


We started out by checking out the reptiles.


The day that we went to the zoo, it was incredibly windy. (We later found out that there were huge outbreaks of tornadoes in Illinois that afternoon!) As we exited the reptile exhibit, the boys found a pile of leaves and couldn't resist playing in them since they were all blowing around.


We finally convinced the boys that the leaves weren't as interesting as the rest of the animals...then Garytt found the turtle statue that was also a donation recepticle.

  While Garytt checked out the turtle, Justin, Shira and Westyn headed on towards the next exhibit...so Garytt had to run to catch up.


We stopped at the Primate House next.


Next, it was off to the big cats area.


I enjoyed seeing the kangaroo and wallaby that were not far from the big cats.


About this time, we started to notice that the zookeepers were starting to feed the animals and it was getting close to closing time. Most of the animals were moved inside to feed and we could walk through a few of the buildings with the animals eating.

  Then we wandered over to the water tanks where we could see some sea otters. I took a group shot but the boys weren't that interested and poor Shira looks like she is struggling to carry G-man.


We started walking towards the elephant area and found this crazy decoration on one of the golf carts the zookeepers were using.
 

Sadly the elephants were not out anymore, nor were the other animals along the elephant trail. But Garytt enjoyed the surroundings.


Along the trail we did come upon the hyenas that were still out. They definitely looked like it was dinner time and they were sizing us up.

  Then the boys found a huge bug to climb on, although we didn't get to go inside to see the other bugs (not that I minded that at all).


Here's a few random photo ops while waiting for everyone to finish up potty breaks before heading out.

  We enjoyed our afternoon at the zoo. We could have used a little more time there since we missed the boys' favorite animals-elephants! I'm sure we'll go back next year when the weather gets warm again.