Missouri Trip Winter 2008

As soon as we hit the Missouri state line, there was snow on the ground and snow in the air. It was beautiful and Zoe was very excited.

We stopped at a favorite restaurant in Springfield and had a late lunch/early dinner and I took the opportunity to take Zoe outside for a few pictures.

She kept wanting to look up and stick her tongue out to catch the falling snow. Where did she learn that??












We arrived late Sunday night, too late to stop in and say hello to Grandma and Grandpa. We got up bright and early (or should I say COLD and early) Monday morning and headed over to their house. I don't think they expected to see us so early.

Zoe was thrilled to see her Grandma and Grandpa and gave big hugs. She spent the morning playing with Grandpa's fun "toys" (his cane, his grabber thing and flashlights) and introduced him to every single stuffed animal she managed to bring with her.

We had a very fun day, Zoe missed her nap and was ready to hit the bed early. Which was a good thing, we had a big surprise for her Tuesday morning (Tuesday was going to be the only dry and partial sunny day of our trip to Missouri).



The Saint Louis Zoo has the most fantastic penguin exhibit and we've been wanting to take Zoe for the past couple Missouri trips, but our time was too short each time. This time, we made sure we had enough time. Zoe was very impressed, to say the least. It was pretty cold and there were only about another dozen families visiting the zoo that day. We got to see several kinds of penguins up close and several bears. For more info on the penguin exhibit click here.

After our zoo visit, we had lunch at St. Louis Bread, not far from Forest Park. Then off to the Science Center. Dave really wanted to go here and I'm glad we did. It was a fun experience for all of us. Most notable was the T-Rex and Triceratops exhibit, a life size, animatronic exhibit. At first Zoe thought "cool" then she saw it moving and making loud noises. This frightened her a bit, even while Dave was holding her. She wanted no part of going downstairs to get a closer look. I walked down there to show her it was ok and once Dave was able to convince her it wasn't real, she came down and got excited about all of it.

She went from exhibit to exhibit trying things, playing with things, asking questions, pushing buttons... much like her Daddy. haha

Later in the day, she played outside in the leaves at Grandma's house. She had a ball throwing them in the air and hitting them off the tree. Of course, Mommy had to take the opportunity to snap a bunch of pictures.

And last but not least, the drive home was long as it always is. But it was more enjoyable with the bigger car this trip (Thanks, Honda!) and with our additional driving helper. Thanks, Lannie!

For more (many more) pictures from our trip, click here (The password is Burnette).

I'm so glad we had the extra time this vacation. We arrived back home Friday night. We wanted to make it back by Saturday morning so we could pick up Bilbo from the Kitty Hotel. Also, our friend Lois was flying in (she opted for the $29 Allegiant flight instead of driving back with us - good thinking, Lois!) Saturday afternoon.