Vacation - Day 1 {Travel, the Zoo, and Swimming!}

We set out early Saturday morning for a short vacation.  A time to get away from "life," enjoy each other, and build up our relationships again.  

Mike's job and commute make it hard for us to sneak in good quality time.  It's a constant juggling act for everyone to get the time and attention they need and deserve AND accomplish what needs done around the house.  This weekend was a very welcomed time together.

Saturday we drove in hard rain much of the way to St. Louis.  I had planned breakfast on the go (cheese sticks, granola bars, etc.) so we could get to our destination.  Mia made a nice system of it by sticking out her chubby hand and grunting when she needed more food.  Ha.

Both Mia and Xabe slept much of the way there - blessed silence.

We started our day at the zoo. Such a lovely zoo for free!  (In case anyone is planning a vacation:  We paid for parking = $15.  We also chose to eat lunch at the Lakeside Cafe in the zoo = $40.)

 

 

 

Let me in that cage!  I'm not afraid of the alligators!

 

 

Ameliya's favorite part of the zoo experience was the exhibits behind glass because she could press herself right up against them and peer into the world beyond.

 

 

"Mom, take a picture of that one sleeping!" ~Natalee

 

 

 

 

 

 

The seals and sea lions were easily Mia's favorite part of the zoo.  We spent a lot of time here with her. 

       

The penguins, of course, won out as favorite with Natalee and I again and won Xavier over this year, too.  The polar bear was a close second - he put on quite a show! 

    

 

The penguin house is also blessedly cold and I was pregnant and hot!

 

The penguins are very playful and splashy!

 

 

  

  

 

  

  

 

I'm blessed with a gracious husband who let me sit with Mia by a waterfall while he took the big kids through the River's Edge walk.  It's a long leg of the zoo with awesome hippos and elephants but I was weary and needed a break.

 

   

 

 

 

  

Mia read the map while we waited...

  

We started wearing down and Mia fell asleep in the stroller.

We walked through to see the "cats" but only the jaguar wanted to be seen.  Later, as we were waiting for the train, the tiger pranced around for us, though, as did the lion!

After the "catwalk" the big kids cooled down in the misters (again) 

 

 and I sat with a sleeping Mia while Daddy took the big kids to catch the giraffes. 

We took a quick walk through the monkey house and decided we were done...then we waited, and waited and waited for our train.  We learned that you can take your stroller on the train as long as an adult sits with it, so we did that and walked around at each stop.  However, this particular stop - the trains came but no one got off!  It was exhausting and hot, and Mia woke up midway through the wait and told EVERYONE how she felt.  We could have walked but had promised the kids a train ride and purchased the tickets.  So, we waited.  When we got on the train to go back to the stop that would take us near our exit, Ameliya continued to remind everyone she doesn't like trains.  I'm sorry to the man in front of me, but thank you for your graciousness.

Can we take a train selfie and get everyone in it???  No.  And Mom looks stressed!

It was a good day.  We got to the zoo pretty early and only spent a little time in the hottest of the heat.  Mia is a fair weather friend but she did the best she could do and we all went along with it at a pace we could manage.

We headed to our hotel to check in, order pizza to be delivered, and swim!

As it turns out, Mia doesn't swim, either.  At. all.  

 See her face below?  We thought she'd warm up and have a blast...the water was perfect.  Alas - no.

 She sat with me and watched for awhile.

(Those red spots on her cheeks - we're not sure.  The get bright bright in the sun...I finally figured out if I put healing balm over them before we go out they don't get as red but I still don't know what they are!  It's not sunburn as they'll fade and then come on strong.)

 Our other two are fish!

Mia and I finally left Daddy and the big kids in the pool and went to the room.  We ordered the pizza and she took a bath (which she loved, even though she wouldn't swim).  After a nice, relaxing supper, there were snuggles and loves all around before we all turned in by NINE O'CLOCK!  Ha!  What vacationers.  It turned out to be a blessing, though, as the next day would be a busy one!