We love the zoo. Specifically the St. Louis zoo. It’s free, it’s got all the important animals (elephants), and it’s free! The first time we visited the zoo was when Naomi was maybe just a few weeks old. We got there, I nursed Naomi, Hezzy played on the stairs while I nursed Naomi, and then he fell asleep. It was a riveting experience.

Since that first zoo trip we have been back many times. Nathan and I wanted to make one last summer zoo trip and since apparently people have already started decorating for fall, we figured we better make it there quick.

Now let me start by saying that this is the first time in my life that I have chosen to wear tennis shoes instead of sandals for foot support. I suppose now that I’m 30 I should really start doing things like this—how responsible of me.

We decided to leave at 6:00 to get there right as the zoo opens like crazy people. The night before I packed lunches, snacks (lots of snacks) and semi-packed the diaper bag. We woke up (and I pushed snooze on my alarm 35 times) and I fed Reya while Nathan got the big two kids ready. We had already prepped Hezzy that we were going to the zoo because he’s our planner kid, but it was a surprise to Naomi.

I grabbed some energy balls and bananas for the kids, loaded them up in the van and off we went.

We hit some backed up traffic and our two hour drive turned into an almost three hour drive. It was all okay though, and we even found a pretty close parking spot to the zoo (free parking for the win). The zoo was pretty empty for the first few hours we were there. We stopped by the penguins and the bears and the monkeys. After those animals, I stopped to grab some coffee and we ventured onwards. We saw just about every animal except for the elephants and hippos. The sun came out and it was hot. There were also a lot of people and we were ready to move on to the next thing.

Overall, the zoo was great. I highly recommend getting there early, and packing alllll the snacks/drinks.

Here are all of our favorite parts:

Nathan: the monkeys (specifically the flappy faced orangutan, that we unfortunately didn’t get a picture of).

Ana: the ape that was just lying on its back, or the penguins

Hezzy: climbing through the monkey tree house

Naomi: “I just want to watch my movie”. Don’t distract that girl from her movies. If I had to answer for her, I would probably say the penguins. Even though she let me know many many different times that “penguins are kinda stinky mommy”.

After the zoo, we loaded up our van and ate lunch on the way to the Magic House. This was our first time going, and I had no idea what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised. We spent a solid four hours there and could have explored much more.

If you’ve never been there, it’s a big ol’ mansion house that they turned into a children’s museum. There were a ton of different rooms and areas, and my kids loved it. There was an area where you could catch little magnetic fish, and then throw them back in the “stream” and watch them float back to the pond. There was also a room with a lot of different STEM activities and arts and crafts. As we made our way through the museum, my kids loved discovering what was next. It was hard keeping them in the same area, so I probably wouldn’t come back without Nathan. As it got later into the afternoon, it really cleared out and that sure did wonders for my overstimulated self. We played outside in the garden, where the kids quickly submerged themselves in the little man-made creek.

Since the children were soaking wet, and Reya was running on zero naps, we decided to load up the van and head home (with a stop at chick-fil-a of course). And that gets us to the present, sipping my cookies and cream milkshake while Nathan navigates St. Louis rush hour traffic. It was a great day. And even though there were moments that were hard, it was so fun to watch the kids have fun, and to have fun with them—soaking up the last few days of summer.