St.Louis :: Friday

We didn’t get up and around as early as we would have liked. Jarrod had a bit of a cold and wasn’t feeling too great. We had planned to go to the zoo in the morning and then have lunch and do some other things in the afternoon. Well, it took about an hour to get to the zoo and get parked. It was crazy! We had to park on the side of the road because all the parking lots were full!

Dillon and Brandye were in St. Louis to see the game on Thursday night and they also went to the zoo on Friday, they got to park in the lot, but they were there before us- I guess the early bird gets the worm! We rode the train around the whole zoo first.

[Pictures taken by Stratton on the train]

Then we went through the River’s End area and met Dillon and Brandye for lunch there. (not what I had planned at all!) I was actually pretty decent for zoo food. After lunch we headed on to see the rest of the zoo and they were already done with the whole park! I forget how fast you can go when you don’t have a kid in tow!

He got to pet a sting-ray!

No fear.

Riding the carousel (with Jarrod- heehee)

We saw all kinds of animals. . . .

Zebra and there was a baby!

and there was a baby camel, too.

We spend the ENTIRE day there. We got there around 10:30 and left around 5:30! Whew! I guess we got our money’s worth (especially since it’s free!). But by the time we were done we were all exhausted, however only one of us could pass out. . . He’s getting too big for his stroller, but he still likes to ride in it. I think we are going to have to invest in a sit and stand stroller of some sort (Kristen, when you get a chance do some research for me) to deal with Stratton and Arden in the near future.

We decided that since it was getting so close to dinner time and there was a restaurant that was on our “list” near by we might as well try it. The Boathouse in Forest Park was a really pretty place on the lake. It has a pretty park beside it and it’s super close to the zoo. We got to eat outside on the patio and it was so nice! They also welcome dogs and if you bring your dog with you they bring them their own dog bowl of water! How cute is that?! After dinner the boys took a peddle boat out on the lake.

After dinner we tracked down a cupcake place I had heard about called The Cup. If you know us, you know we like cupcakes! Jarrod considers himself a cupcake connoisseur (and he’s pretty well skilled and experienced in cupcake consumption!) It took us awhile to find it, as it’s smack in the middle of the Central West part of town (which is a happening place on a Friday night, apparently.) It looked like a very hip part of town, I think I saw a  sign somewhere that said “urban eclectic ”. Pretty neat place, a lot of old mixed with new. . .Anyway, after making the block several times in really slow traffic, we decided that Stratton and I would just jump out and get them and Jarrod would make the block and come back around and pick us up.

We took them back to the hotel and ate them. They were super yummy! The manager at this location’s name is Jon Baker. . .how ironic is that?!