Lions, Tigers, and Bears, oh my!

Today my mom, Justin's mom, and I took Macklin to the amazingly free (yes, seriously, FREE! don't miss a chance to go there if you are passing through) St. Louis Zoo. I don't go very often, but when I do go, I am reminded of how totally awesome it is. Although the Flight Cage for the birds was made for the 1904 World's Fair, the zoo originated 100 years ago (this year is the Zootennial ;). It is on 90 acres and is so nice to be in (all I could think of is how I wanted to plan cool cross country workouts where we would run through it!). Since today was a chilly day in the middle of winter, it was like we had our own private tour of the zoo because no one was there! We did our best to keep Mack awake (although he really wanted to take a nap, I know...against everything I preach as a mom...oh well...it was worth it) to see a handful of different exhibits. It was seriously so fun.

We started with the penguin house. Mack is still a little sleepy here and didn't know what to think of these little guys.

When we got to the second part of the house, the puffins, he started to wake up when they splashed him! I love this place because you are so close to the animals!

The classic Ape statue.

OK, serious highlight of the day! We went in the ape house and this orangutang totally loved Macklin. She spotted us while she was in the middle of her area and came over to him. It was like she wanted to care for him or something.

We moved a few feet over to see if she would follow and she did! She wanted to be super close to Macklin! He thought it was pretty darn cool!

The bird house and a little horned bird in the background!

Looking up at....(you get one guess).....

The new baby giraff! He was so cute!

What we didn't get to see....

The little baby black rhino is still too small to be on display.

People said the snow leopard was out but we couldn't see this little one anywhere either.

When we got back to the house (after stopping by Katie Berger's house to say hi) we were able to visit with Mrs. Zuke and just relax. When Mrs. Zuke was leaving, I told Macklin to say bye-bye and he just waved his whole arm! That is totally new as he has given two hand-only tiny waves in his short little life. I was so excited and he totally kept doing it! I am a proud momma...my son can wave!

Two official firsts for Macklin today....first trip to the zoo...first real wave!

Good day.