Monday, May 12, 2014

Last Outing as a Family of 3

We decided that before Charlie comes we wanted to do something fun for Will with just the three of us. One last hurrah, if you will, so we headed up to Springfield the day before Easter for a little trip to the zoo.

Before hitting the zoo we went to Build a Bear in the mall since we don't have one here in town. A few weeks before Will was born Jake and I made him a monkey at the one in Branson, and we wanted to make something special for Charlie too. Will got to help out in the process this time. We gave him three options to pick from for Charlie, a dog, a bear, and a tiger. He decided that the tiger was what Charlie would need, and Will also got to help stuff the special present for his brother.


After the tiger was stuffed Will got to put the heart in it for Charlie, then we took a family picture, just like we did after the monkey for Will.



After a quick trip to Old Navy to look for a hat for Will to wear for Easter (we found one!) we headed to the zoo. We had packed a lunch, and it was about that time when we got there, so we ate at the little park outside the zoo before we headed in. Will wasn't too sure about the petting zoo area, he mostly just wanted to look at the animals rather than touch them.


I don't know if it was because it was kind of hot that day or because the animals at this zoo are just pretty lazy, but most of them were not very exciting for the most part. A lot of the animals just sat around or laid out in the shade, and were more difficult to spot, especially for a year and a half old. Will did like the monkey exhibits though, and I think the tiger and giraffes were his favorite. 




This lonely elephant was the only one we saw, and it was actually further away than it looks in the picture. Will was getting pretty hot and tired by this time too, so he wasn't in the mood for smiling during a picture. 


The zoo had a small playground for the kids, so since Will was starting to get restless we let him run around there for a while and he really enjoyed it, although he mainly wanted to practice his stair climbing. He also really liked the bucket drums they had just outside of the playground area, seriously, we may need to invest in some sticks and buckets, he didn't want to leave. 





The Dickerson Park Zoo is pretty small, but that was probably best since Will was getting tired and I was getting tired from toting my 8 1/2 month pregnant belly up all the hills at the zoo, so we took a couple of quick family photos and then headed out to the car. We were there for a good portion of the afternoon though.


Will actually fell asleep on Jake as we were walking out, but woke up just enough to take a quick picture outside the zoo entrance before conking out in the car almost as soon as he hit the car seat. 


We left the zoo around 4:00ish, and wanted to let Will sleep a while before eating dinner, so we drove around Springfield for a little bit and then went to Bass Pro where Jake went in to use a gift card he had while I stayed in the car to let Will continue sleeping. After Jake got back out we headed to dinner (Will had woken up while Jake was finishing up in Bass Pro). We ate at Wilson's Chuck Wagon, a cute little burger place owned by one of the guys that worked under Jake as an electrician. It was a good burger/BBQ place, and to qualify as a good, true BBQ place in my opinion, you have to have at least 3 different types of sauce: sweet, hot, and house. Well it qualified, and I'm not sure whether the sweet or house sauce was my favorite. I love this picture of Will and Jake from after we had finished eating.

 

We hung out there for a while, it wasn't busy since it was early for the dinner hour, so Will got to roam around and flirt with the ladies that were working there before we got in the car to take the hour trip home. All in all it was a fun and tiring day, and hopefully one that Will may at least have a faint memory of as he gets older. It will definitely be an adventure as we learn very soon what it is like to be a family of four instead of three, and I'm glad we had the opportunity to have one last little outing with just our first born little boy.




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