Eric and I have been talking about taking a family trip to the Twin Cities since last summer. But with the craziness of our move blending into Nolan's start of school in the fall and then the holidays, we hadn't been able to make it happen. It finally became a priority when I saw that the Ordway was hosting the Okee Dokee Brothers this March. We decided to make an extended trip of it and take both kids to the area for a few days of fun together.
We arrived in St. Paul bright and early on Friday morning and headed straight for one of my favorite childhood stops: Como Zoo. This awesome zoo has tons of awesome animal exhibits and lush, beautiful gardens, and best of all, it's free! We began our trek in the primate house where we saw all sorts of animated monkeys, the pensive orangutans, and the mighty gorillas. Each time I encounter one of the great apes, it is a tad bit eerie at how humanlike they are. They are so amazing and I could watch them for hours.
Our next stop was the giraffe barn complete with their newest addition, Baby Violet. Livi said Violet was her favorite out of all of the animals. From there we headed to the big cat house where we got to hear Mufasa the lion roar and see the leopards and tigers up close. We were also lucky enough to catch the polar bears on an active day and got to watch them roll around and enjoy the snow outside.
Our final stop at Como was the rain forest greenhouse. It was beautiful and filled with all sorts of the flora and fauna found in an actual rainforest. We met some turtles who were relaxing in the stream, checked out a tarantula, and came face to face (well, she was on the other side of the glass) with the 500 pound, 17 foot anaconda snake that sent shivers down all our spines. I surely would not want to meet her in the wild! The kids loved Como as much as I did and it was a great first stop on our getaway weekend.
We made our way to our hotel later that afternoon and it wasn't long before the kids were ready to go swimming. They both had a blast. Nolan was really confident with his life jacket on and loved twirling around and playing games with Mom and Dad. Livi really enjoyed it too, but kept turning shades of blue because the water was so cold! She liked swimming with some help from Mom or Dad and was very brave!
We finished out the day with dinner in the hotel restaurant. Grandpa Jim was flying back from a work trip in Texas that evening, so he was able to join us. It was a great end to a wonderful first day of vacation!
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