Trip To The Zoo With Boys

 We decided to take all the boys to the St. Louis zoo!  We reserved a sweet little condo type place to stay with a pool/basketball court/etc. a couple of nights before.  I packed a bunch of goodies/stuff up and we left about 5:00am on Saturday morning.  We left Eden with Grandma.  We drove straight to the zoo and bought a membership.  It was a lot cheaper for us that way.  And we can use it the rest of the year.  We got right in to the Stingray attraction and it was SO MUCH FUN!  The kids all said that this was the best part of the day!  Woot!

 Most of the stingrays were fairly small....about the size of a beach ball with wings.  But, there were two different kind of rays in there too, that were flippin' huge!~  They were frightening and I steered clear when they were around.  There were also a couple kinds of sharks in there that you could touch too.

 When we first got there Cullen wanted nothing to do with it.  We stayed in the exhibit for about an hour probably and he finally came around.  

 I don't know what is happening here but, it sure is funny! 

 Tristan and Liam decided that they wanted to feed the stingrays.  You could buy a little cup of fish for $2.  The stingray wrangler people came over and showed the boys how to do it.  They were supposed to hold the food in a flat palm as far down as they could since the stingrays mouths are underneath.  I didn't know if they would go through with it or not...but they did!  And they both liked it too!!

 Everyone got wet too!!

 feeding the stringray....

 Part of one of the big stingrays....ew.

 One of the ones that Tristan fed flipped back around and came back from more and shocked him a bit!! haha!

 No pictures please!!

 We had the place to ourselves for a bit even....a rare occurance I am sure!

 Cullen was super excited to see the penguins.  It was hilarious though.....

 He kept putting his first two fingers up his nostrils and saying "stinky" because the penguins stunk REALLY bad!!  

 We ate lunch out on a pavilion overlooking the water.  There were ducks and fish in the water.  The table next to us was throwing french fries in the water for the animals right next to a sign clearly marked "DO NOT FEED THE DUCKS."  So, then they start offering french fries to my kids to throw to the ducks...ugh!  Luckily they got up and moved right after that and we finished up our lunch and left. 

 Liam was pretty stoked about the Rhino!

 Cedric reading the map for us. 

 There was a brand new baby elephant that is behind the bigger baby elephant here....it never would come out for a very good pic. 

 The train ride!

 The afternoon was HOT!  The kids loved these fans blowing cool water all over!

 We all got ice cream cones a bit after lunch because it was so hot out! 

 These two zebras were right in front of us but, wouldn't turn around for anything.

 I tried to get a group shot before we left.  They were hot and distracted at this point.  I guess I was expecting too much! 

 Liam and Cullen really wanted to see the giraffes before we left for the day.

 Cedric's face is like that because he was annoyed that Asher drank half his drink.  But, it wasn't Asher (although he had a drink too), it was Jeremy! BAhahahaha! 

 We took the kids through the gift shop as we left and let each one of them pick something out.  We finally pull up to the hotel and get all of our stuff unloaded.  I look out the window for the pool.....and I see it....only it is flippin' empty!!!  Long story, short.  We got our money back and left.  All the other rooms that could accomodate a group our size were booked.  The boys were totally okay with eating at Red Robin and then heading home.  I felt bad but the next day they were all very full of gratitude.  Mission accomlished!