Day2: June 28, 2010

We were up early but not as early as we had planned. We were off to St Louis and the zoo. If you are ever in the St Louis area and have time for a zoo this one is great and it has free admission.

They have a sealion show.    We did not see it on this trip.  We were here 2 years ago and saw it.

The hippo swimming laps in the pool.

The orangutans were playing.  According to Carson it was "peek-a-boo" and they were hiding. 

He thought this was soooo funny.

The elephants were having a great time playing in the water.

When we came 2 years ago, these tigers were about 6 months old.

Once again the kids were quiet in the back seat or "jammin" so we drove, and drove and drove

…..through Illinois and Indiana.

Then it was dinner time. While traveling, we try to eat at places that are local or unique to the area. So we needed gas and asked a local about place in town to eat. She recommended a Mexican food place called El Nopal. We decided to give it a try because by now, everyone needed out of the car. It was a former bank turned into a Mexican food restaurant. The food was great and had it not be recommended, we would never have just stopped and tried it.

  We finally made it to Ohio for the night after losing an hour due to the time zone change.....

Day 1: June 27, 2010

This is my first attempt to blog so please do not hold any errors against me...

We left Rockwall at 11:00 after David finished up a prior commitment at the church. The kids have been so excited about our trip. Our first stop was the Oklahoma Visitors Center. Which is only about 2 hours from home but at least we were out of Texas.

As long as the kids were occupied with movies, ipods, coloring, or sleeping, we continued to drive. We finally made it to Missouri and stopped at the McDonald’s that goes over I-44 between Tulsa and Joplin. The kids thought it was cool to sit and watch the cars drive under the building.

We had to hurry at McDonalds if we were going to make it to Springfield before the Fantastic Caverns closed. We made in plenty of time. However, since it was near closing and it had been raining, we were the only ones on our tour.

This is the only place in the caves that can be touched due to the oils in our skin.  Haylee wasn't too sure about touching it because it was wet.

Carson did not really like it when the lights went off and it was so dark you could not see your hand in front of your face.

Angel Wings

This is Haylee's favorite:  Twin Giants

This was better than the other ones David and I have been to because you don’t have to walk. You just sit back and enjoy the ride….

Once we were finished it was off to the hotel,  but first this was the sight we saw as we left the caves.