Purina Farms Fun!

Purina Farms is an awesome place to go for a little day trip! It is FREE and we love that! Even though it's a small farm, they have some cool stuff to see and do. Dan and I had been there before, but this was the first time we went as a family. The kids loved it!

One of the interactive activities you can participate in is to milk a cow! None of us had a desire to do so...maybe when the kids get older that won't be as scary to try. Instead, we chose just to look at (and in some cases, pet) all the animals.

They have some neat stuff for kids to do too. Trinity loved crawling through all the tunnels. They also had rope swings to play on, little tractor tricycles to ride and a wagon ride touring the farm for the whole family.

I think one of the coolest things for Trinity was getting to pet the bunny rabbit! It didn't scare her like most animals do and she loved it!

She was only okay with petting the pigs because they were asleep!

The BEST part of Purina Farms (in my opinion) is the Dog Show! They have a dog show at 11am and 1pm. It is only about 20-30 minutes long, but it is worth going there for just to see this show!

Here we are getting ready for the Dog Show:

They even have a little swimming pool for the dogs and they had a competition to see what dog can go the furthest while catching a frisbee...so cool!

They play loud, fun music while they do tricks with numerous dogs! The whole crowd was clapping and laughing the whole time.

(I think my Sister-in-law would be a great trainer here!!!!)

They also had some nice scenery to get some good pictures taken. Trinity was more amused watching the fish swim than getting her picture taken though. She actually wanted to pet it! 

We ended our visit petting some dogs and watching cats play and lounge around.

We were there about 2 hours and it was a lot of fun! They have a gift shop and food you can purchase, but we decided to be cheap and not spend any money. I love having that option!

If you haven't visited Purina Farms before (or if it's just been a while), I highly recommend it! Check out http://www.purina.com/purina-farms/purinafarms.aspx for more information.

Unexpected Labor Day Fun

We didn't plan to do anything fun on Labor Day. I had actually found myself being a little irritated that all my facebook friends were out doing fun things with their family while I was sitting at home with the kids and Dan was working half a day.

The day before, we had discussed possibly going shopping in the afternoon to finally use up the rest of my Christmas gift cards (that's right, I still had 2 gift cards from Christmas), but nothing was set in stone.

The weather was BEAUTIFUL! There was a high of 74* with a nice breeze. I even opened up the windows for a while just to get some fresh air.

Once Dan got home, he was as anxious to go out and have fun as I was. We decided that since we hadn't eaten lunch yet we should go pick it up and take it to the park. Cheap, easy and fun!

First stop was McDonald's...like I said, cheap!

After we survived the very new, slow guy taking orders in the drive thru, we headed to the park.

Then, the Labor Day began!

We sat at a nice little picnic table by the playground to eat. Trinity was watching the kids playing the whole time and just couldn't wait to get on herself. She ate most of her lunch, but we let her finish early since she was so excited to play.

She loved climbing and sliding!

I was wondering if she would let us leave when it was time to go...

My boys in their matching polo shirts! Too cute!

Nehemiah even got to slide a few times. As you can see, he enjoyed himself too!

We stayed at the park a little over an hour and then went shopping as planned. The stores we went to had great Labor Day sales! Dan got 2 new shirts, Trinity got a couple of dresses and pants that she needed, and I even got 2 new shirts! I still have $15 on one of my gift cards too! Maybe I'll go back and find something for Nehemiah in a week or so...

Overall, it was an unexpected fun day!

We didn't spend much money or go anywhere fancy, but we just enjoyed being together and spending quality time with one another.

What fun things did you do on Labor Day?

St. Louis Zoo Stay-cation

The St. Louis Zoo is always a lot of fun!

It is free to get in, however you'll end up paying for something during the day. We spent $32.00 for this Stay-cation adventure:$12.00 for parking, $9.00 to pet the Stingrays and Sharks, and then $11.00 for 2 small ice creams and a bottled water!

Enough about how much we spent! Here's an overview of our exciting trip:

One of my favorite things to see are the Hippos! Trinity really enjoyed this too! They have a neat display where you can view them swimming under water or walking around up above. To me, this is one of the best things to see at the Zoo!

Here we are petting the Stingrays and Sharks.  Okay, I'll admit it...I did NOT pet a Shark! The Stingrays were very slimy feeling, but it was a cool experience! It was $9.00 for all 3 of us to do this. They didn't charge us for Nehemiah since he's a baby, but they actually charged us for Trinity...she's 2! Oh well! I really enjoyed doing this and was glad to get some cute pictures of it, but I doubt I would do it again. After about 10 minutes I was ready to move on.

After a couple of hours of walking around, we had to get a little snack!

It was a perfect day to be out! It stayed in the 70's all day and it was overcast so we didn't get any sunburns!

We also saw the Monkeys,

(this was in front of the Primate House)

the Penguins,

(they have a really cool display for them too, but my camera was acting up so I didn't get any good photos)

went to the Reptile House to see the Snakes, Lizards, Alligators, and other gross things,

crawled through a cool tunnel,

chased birds asking for HUGS,

went to the Insectarium,

took time for some fun photos,

and made some new friends!

We were there for about 5 hours and still didn't get to see everything! They have a Children's Zoo (which I have never checked out because you have to pay extra to get in) and the Zooline Railroad. Maybe at some point we'll do those things too.

What a GREAT day with my wonderful family!!!!

For more information to plan your trip to the St. Louis Zoo, visit http://www.stlzoo.org/

Grant's Farm Stay-cation

Since Dan and I don't have a lot of extra money and/or free time, vacations just aren't a reality. We have technically only been on three vacations throughout our whole seven year marriage. The first one was our honeymoon and the next two were with my parents. They were all to Branson, MO! We just LOVE Branson!

We have also taken a few mission trips together, but they don't count as vacations because we were working the whole time and went with a big group of people. They were all great experiences though and I'm so glad I got to share them with Dan!

We have decided that since we can't really go on vacation, we are going to do some fun things around the Midwest area! These outings are known as "Stay-cations!" We don't have to pay for a hotel, travel far, or take time away from Dan's work. It's just PERFECT for us!

Stay-cation adventure this time was Grant's Farm!
Grant's Farm is a 281-acre farm named after our 18th President, Ulysses S. Grant, who founded and farmed a portion of it in the 1850's. There are more than 900 animals and over 100 different species. They have some fun interactive activities such as feeding the goats, an Elephant show, a Bird show, a Tram ride through the middle of wildlife at it's finest, a Carousel, and visiting the Clydesdale stables. It is a very small place compared to the Zoo, but it was a nice little afternoon trip for our little family.

We only spent $15.00 for the whole thing! $11.00 was for parking!!!! The other $4.00 was spent on the Carousel ride...Trinity wanted to ride it twice! :) All the shows were free and we weren't really there long enough to need anything to eat or drink...especially since we had eaten lunch right before we got there.

Here's a quick overview of our couple hour Stay-cation:

This Buffalo crossed in front of the Tram while we were riding it. We had to stop for him and then I took this nice shot of him as we were continuing our ride! I'm just such a wonderful photographer! :)

The first thing you see when you walk in is the area to feed the goats. They usually attack everyone so I told Dan I had no desire for Trinity to feed them. As we were admiring them from outside the fence, a nice lady came over and gave us a bottle that still had some milk in it. I was fine with her feeding them through the fence...she was a little shy with them anyway.

Next stop was the Elephant show! This was a really cute show!

As we were walking up to take our seats, I snapped a shot of the elephant going to the restroom! Oh my! It was crazy how much he went...it reminded me of a fire hose!

We had to ride the Carousel...twice! Trinity LOVED this, which made me enjoy it too! :)

We also ran through the "mister,"


saw a Bird show,

met a camel and a couple of llamas,

then walked through the Clydesdale stable.

Overall, it was a fun afternoon and well worth $15.00!
You can check it out at www.grantsfarm.com