Wonders of Wildlife

So I bet you're all wondering how my trip with 4 little ones went the week they did the floors. We decided to visit my SIL in Springfield, MO (and check out the cute pic of Linnae that she posted!). It took us about 4 hours or so to drive there, including lunch and a few pit stops. The kids kept themselves busy with movies and books on the road. It was really a pleasant trip. Many moms on the message board I frequent worry about the actual car travel. Not me. That's the easy part - they're contained, the little two might actually nap, and our DVD player in the van is a pure blessing for us all. My worries start when my kids are totally out of their usual routine, staying up late and missing naps...that's when things get hairy for us. ;)

On Monday, we let the contractors in and we left. It was so early that we stopped at McD's for breakfast before we left town. When we arrived in Springfield, we stared in horror at the fleabag hotel we'd booked decided to change our reservation to a different hotel for various reasons. Our new hotel suite was so nice! Expecting just a room with two beds, I got that with a door that opened into a living room will pull-out sofa and a kitchenette. It was a real treat for me (yes, does that tell you anything??). The first night, I had Rose and Matthew in one bed and me and Jade in the other bed but Jade pummeled me all night with her feet and I woke up with her feet actually kicking my head. Though the bed was extra comfy, I decided to use the pull-out couch. This way, I'd also get to unwind a bit by myself before I went to bed each night. That was nice though the bed wasn't that great..but what could I expect for a pull-out?

SIL and her family (also 4 children - but she was smart and had a nice age gap between #2 and #3 so she now has babysitters. lol) take advantage of summer by sleeping in quite late...they also stay up quite late. Given my druthers, I'd do that as well but when you have 3 kids whose internal alarm clock goes off at 7am regardless of when they went to sleep, you teach yourself to go to bed earlier. Maybe when they're older and can better fend for themselves in the mornings. ;)

So, because they like to sleep in, on Tuesday morning the kids and I went to the Wonders Of Wildlife Museum, next to our hunting-family-IL's mecca Bass Pro.
On the way in, we saw a baby duckling by their pond. He was so cute and the girls were tickled watching him jump into the water after his mother.


The museum was so much nicer than I'd expected. The majority of the museum was dedicated to Missouri wildlife. They had large stuffed animal exhibits.


They had huge aquarium habitats for all kinds of fish.



In one area, the aquarium was about 15 ft high from the floor where we were standing. Just a nice piece of glass between us and sharks. It was breathtaking. On the opposite side of the room was a touch tank. They had some urchins, a horseshoe crab, and various other creatures. There were two employees who were sitting there to answer questions. But they ended up just agreeing with everything Matthew had to say. I was especially impressed with his knowledge of the creatures especially since he knew more that I did.

Rose was enthralled with the sea lions and bobcats


Learning more about our wildlife was a great little field trip for us. The kids and I thoroughly enjoyed our time there and we learned a lot about wildlife.


And we close with a political statement from Jade: