St. Louis Day 1: the zoo!

So yes, if you can't tell, our family loves St. Louis! Not only is it home of the world's best baseball team, :) but it is also a pretty quick trip from our house, and there is just SO much to see and do there! When we went earlier in the summer, we were able to fit in a ballgame and Grant's Farm. This time we planned a two night trip, my parents in tow again, and went when the Cardinals were out of town so that it wasn't so crowded. We fit in a lot of fun activities during our time there, and thoroughly enjoyed our last vacation before (gulp!) school starts.

My parents bought Holden this Melissa and Doug (love their stuff!) chunky construction vehicles puzzle and gave it to him on the ride up there. It was a lifesaver! He loved playing with and naming the different types of trucks. We heard a lot of construction noises out of his mouth. :)

We knew it was supposed to be hot this past weekend, so since Friday was still pretty mild weather, we drove up early and got to the zoo at 9:30am. I am so thankful we did, because it was a beautiful day in the low to mid 80's. The rest of the weekend was a scorcher!

Mommy and Holden in front of the seal fountain. (Papa was making him laugh)

Papa, Holden, and Grammy...Mommy can't make him laugh like Papa can!

This was such a fun zoo visit with Holden. He has been to the St. Louis zoo every summer since he was 4 months old! This was the first time he knew where we were going, really was excited about it, and could name tons of animals and make their noises. So fun!

Holden and Daddy spent a lot of their day looking like this:

...and this adorable view is one I saw often!

Exploring

The hippos were really active in the morning, and we hit their exhibit at the perfect time! It was so neat to see them swimming. Holden was a little nervous about their size, but Papa took him up for a close view.

The elephants were also out and about and really cool to watch.

Holden enjoyed all of the various creatures to climb on...

...and IN!

The Children's Zoo is so well-done. We spent quite a bit of time there looking and exploring. As you can see, Holden is now about the size of a koala!

Another must-see exhibit for us is always the penguin house. It is well worth the line. Holden thought is was very funny that it was SO cold, and kept repeating, "It's COLD in dere!"

Doesn't surprise me one bit that my little monkey finds the monkeys absolutely hysterical! The zoo-keepers were throwing these flavored drinks to them, and we got to see them right up close enjoying their refreshments. Holden just laughed and laughed at their antics, then tried to imitate them. (See the water bottle picture) Monkey see, monkey do!

Some other random shots from our day. He got a wallaby airbrush tattoo (wallabies are his absolute favorite animal due to our local zoo!), made fish faces with Mommy, fed himself a snow cone, enjoyed the giraffes, and LOVED riding the choo choo between Papa and Grammy!

He crashed when we got to the hotel. Here he is napping in our bed. :)