The Perfect Day

Sometimes the perfect day is one in which there is no plan, other than to have fun. Yesterday we had nothing going on and we all had some Christmas money burning a hole in our pockets so the 5 of us took off on a 2 hr trip to St Louis for the day. We started off at Toys R Us, or a Little Slice of Heaven as I like to call it. I think I have as much fun as the kids in there. Next we headed for St Louis Mills Mall, one of my favorite spots in St Louis. We ate lunch and then the kids hit their playground for a bit. I got some shopping time alone to hit some of my favorite stores (like Archivers, armed with all of my coupons!) while Todd took the boys to one of those huge bounce house things. We had a blast and since it was only mid afternoon and the weather was so warm and sunny......we headed for the zoo. I was getting teary on the drive there just picturing Aiden's little face when he saw the lions and tigers. I'm sure everyone knows of his lion obsession by now. We hadn't been to the zoo since he was really little so of course he didn't remember it. I think everyone had the same idea because the zoo was packed!! It was warm enough to walk without coats but I carried them in for when it got dark.

Here are my 4 boys headed towards the River's Edge at the zoo.

Can you tell which one is the gorilla?? :)

The tiger cubs were so stinkin' cute romping around together.

Aiden was so excited to see the lions.......

but he wasn't happy that he couldn't go in and pet them!

The boys were thrilled to see some Wild Ass. I don't know what they thought was funnier....seeing some Wild Ass or saying "Wild Ass".

Did ya ever think you'd get so close to a penguin??

We took this towards evening when the sun started going down and all the Christmas lights in the zoo came on. By the time we left, it was completely dark and the entire zoo was lit up for Christmas. It was gorgeous and I had no idea they did it up like that for the holiday. We'll have to make another trip there next year for the lights.

We finished off our night with a trip to Target, some supper and then the 2hour drive home. We arrived at our house around 9:30pm exhausted but happy. A great day indeed. The boys were all so well behaved (yes, even Aiden!!) and it made for a fun relaxing day.

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Can your cat do this???

Aiden was taking a bubble bath this morning and Grayson was sitting on the edge watching him. He had done that the other day with Noah so it wasn't a surprise. What DID surprise us was when Grayson decided to just climb on in the tub with Aiden! Apparently I've deprived my cat of taking a bubble bath this past year so he decided to help himself, and while AIDEN was in there nonetheless! He let Aiden pet him and play with him while he wandered around in the tub. I swear sometimes I think I live in the Twilight Zone here. When he was done, he just hopped on out. I wonder if this will become a habit!

We had a wonderful Christmas here and I was a spoiled girl for my birthday. I have posts related to both of those coming up, I was still just so excited from yesterday that I had to get on and post about it. I'm losing just a little bit of that excitement as Todd has just spent over an hour on the phone with the insurance co, the hospital, and the medical group and we've come to realize that yes, they are going to screw us out of money we shouldn't pay and we've done what we can. I'm not sure what's more screwed up, the billing department or the insurance. UGH!