I love being a family

After Luke woke up yesterday about 5:15, we took the dogs on a quick walk and then packed up and headed to Uncle Greg and Aunt Rebekah's in St. Louis. We stopped for a late dinner before getting to their place and Luke did a spectacular job of parenting us by feeding us each our salad. It was really a fun moment, and he was serious about making sure we each finished off each piece of lettuce.
We slept fitfully together. By fitfully, I mean that Luke threw a small fit when we decided that 11:00 was a good time to turn the lights out and call it a day. We all snuggled up in the comfy guest bed and Steve and I took turns being pummelled throughout the night by Luke's heels. When he would hit certain parts of my back, I just pretended I was getting a massage, but waking at 6:45 to heels pounding into my skull wasn't something I could imagine away :) Despite the bumpy night (Luke also fell out of the bed at one point, but don't ever tell him that) we woke to a day of sunshine and got in some playtime with new golf clubs that Greg and Rebekah had given him for his birthday. He LOVES pushing the cart around everywhere!


Once we loaded up (with golf clubs on Luke's lap in the carseat) we made a quick stop to Trader Joe's, got a dose of caffeine and headed to the zoo! We were there for about three hours, two of which Luke spent obsessively pushing his stroller around. He was obviously more interested in the motorized vehicles that the zoo employees use, but did eventually warm up to the idea of checking out some animals.





Then we found ourselves at a train station and we loaded up for a fun ride around the whole zoo. Just for the record, on the tour we even spotted a trackhoe and bulldozer in the wild. They are being used to expand the elephant area, but to us they were the coolest wild things you could hope to see while riding a train!
How can you visit the zoo and not get a fun snack? "The face" with a popsicle...I might have to get this one blown up and framed I love it so much!
He was finishing the bomb pop while checking out my mom's favorite wild creatures (well, these are prairie dogs and mom likes groundhogs)...these are for you anyway, Gma Jackie!

We finally made it back to the car and got on the road home. Luke slept most of the way and woke up happy and ready for more adventures so we went down to the annual fish fry that raises money for our favorite animal shelter. He liked the fish a lot! He also liked looking at the pictures of the dogs needing homes and escaping outside with Daddy and Gpa Nick. It was a great day of family fun.