Vacation Wrap-Up

Thursday afternoon, we drove out to Faust Park after a relatively long nap by the kids. Because they had napped longer than we had originally attended, we ended up getting caught in a bit of traffic jam, and did not make it to Faust Park until about 4:15 p.m. The Carousel closed at 4 p.m., so we didn't make it this time. But, it is one attraction that is inside and will be open when we come back in February. We'll try it then.

The kids didn't seem to mind at all, as there is a huge beautiful playground here, too. They just couldn't get enough of the playgrounds.

They slid:



And slid some more (notice the nice static effect on Tanner's hair here):



Climbed a rock wall:



And just ran around on the cool playground mat:



They were worn out from all the playing, and got to bed at a much more normal hour than they had been this week.

Good thing, because we started out early this morning at the zoo again. Morgan's favorite thing at the zoo is the "Tiger". So, of course, she had to ride the tiger (again) on the carousel. Can you see the pure joy in her face?



Then, deciding not to fight it anymore, we took them back to the zoo playground so that they could (what else?) slide some more. This time, they also played around on the hippo in the playground. Here is Tanner imitating the hippo, while on the hippo:



Now, the hot thing at the St. Louis Zoo right now is the baby elephant. Everyone was talking about it, so we decided we'd feel a bit foolish if we didn't take time to catch a peek. We headed in that direction around 9:45 - we were astonished to see that there was a sign about 1000 ft from the baby elephant that said "the line starts here". Thankfully, there was no line today, and we were able to see this magnificent little guy.



Tanner has loved the elephants when we've seen them, so it was no suprise that when we headed off to Build a Bear to make our souverneir, that he quickly grabbed on to the elephant. And Morgan, well, she chose a tiger of course!

Here is Tanner giving his Elephant it's heart:



And, it's test hug:



We named the elephant Ross, after Dr. Shepherd who is Tanner's main GI in St. Louis. And, appropriately, the elephant got a pair of scrubs to wear home.

Now, I don't have pictures of Morgan at Build a Bear, because about the time that Tanner was giving his elephant a hug, some lady with a double stroller ran over Morgan (literally). Morgan ended up with a small cut at the outside of her eye, and we couldn't get her calmed down enough to enjoy the Build a Bear experience. Daddy and Tanner filled her tiger, and Tanner even put two hearts in it for her.

After all that, we headed home...it's been a long vacation.