Spring Break St. Louis Part II

After Rachel's family spent Spring Break in St. Louis,  Rebecca and Roman also came for a visit.  The weather was again beautiful, so we went to the zoo again.  The St. Louis Zoo is so large, we didn't duplicate much from the week before.  The Reptile House was high on both families' list. :-(

Roman loves to climb as you will see in the photos.  The photo above has him on Phil the Gorilla whom I remember seeing when I was a child at the zoo.  He took great joy in harassing visitors by splashing them with water and tossing various food items out of his cage---the gorilla that is, not Roman.

The high-light of this visit was seeing the baby elephant and daddy Raja below.

Lately, I have been buying the kids "face-painting" rather than a trinket at the zoo store.  Roman chose a dragon for his arm.  That night we watched High School Musical Three and ate ice cream.

 We finally got all of Kansas City's rain on Thursday, so Roman played in the basement, then donned Grandpa's raincoat for a walk in the drizzle.

We had a great visit---I wish the grandchildren lived closer, but I can't complain as long as I see them once a week---so who's next?

Spring Break St. Louis Part 1

 Rachel and her kids came last week to spend a few days of Spring Break with us.  The weather was beautiful, so we had several outdoor activities.  Usually, we go to Longview Park.  Click here and click here.

 But, we decided to go to Queeny Park this time.  It's just as close as Longview and the park my children played in when they were children.

The playground isn't as grand as it used to be, but the kids still enjoyed hiking and playing there.  The next day, we went to the zoo, but parked at a different entrance which had us exploring some new sections of the zoo.

 We went to the Children's Zoo where the kids enjoyed petting a hedgehog, sliding down a slide by an otter water attraction.

 

 We also went in the Insectarium which has a butterfly room---not as big as the butterfly house, but still fun for the kids.

 We did get to see other parts of the zoo, but my camera took a holiday?

White is Weird!

I was going to say "White is Beautiful", and it is but I don't expect to see white on animals in my backyard (suburban St. Louis).  Yesterday morning, I caught a trace of white hopping on my paving stones.  When I published it on facebook and said I thought it was a robin, no one believed me.

But, today I got some good photos and I was RIGHT---it's a white robin or albino robin.  Apparently, they don't have to have pink eyes to be albino.

Sometimes the robins just have a little white and are called "white robins", so mine definitely qualifies although he is a little beige.  If you google "white robin" you'll see some that just have white spots on their chests.

They would be weird enough, but I have very light and white squirrels in my yard, too.

These were photographed last year, but I have seen at least one of them scamper through the trees.  I wonder what this says about my community and the environment.  Read here what a woman from an Avian Rehabilitation Center says.  Really, what are the odds that my .33 of an acre in a subdivision has two albino animals?

Teaching Miss Daisy

The dog show at Purina Farms inspired the children to have a show with Daisy, a 9 year-old Siberian Huskey. First, they set the balls and "frisbee" in front of her to entice her to run and jump.
Brett really wanted Daisy to jump in the pool after a frisbee, but. . .
Daisy showed little interest and the pool was a little small.
Next, they wanted to see Daisy jump in the air for frisbees, but. . .

this is all the further we could get her off the ground. . .for popcorn.
Next, was the obstacle course, but. . .
it was hard to do on a leash (Grandma's back yard is not fenced and Daisy has a tendency to run off).
Finally, we decided to create some "tricks" we thought she could do---this is balancing a "frisbee" on her head.
Next, we decided to test her tracking skills by hiding popcorn to see if she could find it.

Yea! What a good dog!
It didn't take much for Eli to celebrate---he does like to "drum."

Purina Farms

While the Twenters were in town, Leah and Eli came over and we all went out to Gray Summit to Purina Farms. We hadn't been out there for at least 20 years. We are very fortunate in St. Louis to have so many child-friendly places that are free or almost free. Purina was a St. Louis company founded by the Danforth Family before it was acquired by Nestle' several years ago.
The first building was about dog food and how it's made---Brett demonstrates.
Then, we went to the barn which had a hay bale maze, a rope to swing from and tractors for the little tykes. Downstairs were lots of barn animals---goats, cattle, sheep, horses.
There was a petting area with the cutest piglets, a rabbit and a chicken.

Davis and Eli petting the chicken.

At 10:30 AM, there was a milking demonstration and an opportunity for children to actually milk a cow.
Next, we went to the dog and cat house---that cat house is at least 3 stories of a miniature house with furniture for the cats. The dogs are used in the dog show (actually, there's a cat show later in the afternoon).

That is the dog and cat house next to the performance arena.Eli, Davis, Libby's feet and Leah waiting for the dog show to begin.
One dog demonstrated his ability to jump for frisbees (hard to get a photo in air)
Another demonstrated his agility on a obstacle course.
But, my favorite part was watching the dogs jump into the pool. The dog above was rescued by the trainer after it had been adopted and returned 5 times to a shelter---I'm guessing it had too much energy for the average family.