Sunday night...winding down

  This is part of a display at Cahokia Mounds, the Indian Museum we went to on Thursday after our lunch. The burial mounds make up the biggest part of the place, but the inside museum is awesome, with all kinds of information and displays and scenes of tribal life and about anything else you could ask for. We had a great time. The kids climbed the largest mound, Monks Mound in record time, reporting back that it was 260 steps to the top and 260 steps back down. I got a [bad] picture of them at the top...

 

  (They're the specks at the top) lol

   Here they are, at the entrance to the park.  Looking totally cool, eh? 

  Interacting with archeological data and stuff...

 And later, back at the ranch...making banana pudding with Vanilla Wafers...her assistant nowhere to be seen!  lol

  We had a good time and they wore themselves out running around. It was great. Later we played Cranium, a board game that's harder than it sounds.  Team youngster beat the snot out of us old folks.

  Spent some time playing with poochies too...

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  On Friday, the Irishman went to work and planned to be home by around 12:30.  I got up, made the requisite waffles for the munchkins and started planning our upcoming day. I hard-boiled eggs, cleaned out the cooler, put some Vess sodas (orange, grape, cream and rootbeer) on ice, made sandwiches and packed us a picnic lunch. I threw in some granola bars and peaches and bananas. Packed cloth napkins and silver ware. Got everyone showered and dressed and ready to go.  All this was between wrestling and dancing and chasing and puppies and kittens--oh my!  We gathered up hats for everyone, found an old comforter to take for the picnic blanket, and played some more.  When the Irishman got home, everything was pretty much set. He showered and changed clothes and we were off to the St.Louis Zoo...

  We had our picnic lunch at Forest park, where the zoo is located. It's a huge park that houses museums, the Muny and lots of other exciting stuff.  We sat under a big pine tree and ate on the grass, and all the food tasted better than ever.  When we were finished, everything went back in the car and we hiked over to where the trolley would pick us up. The kids were already having a ball by the time we got to the front entrance of the zoo itself...

  It's one of the top rated zoos in the country and was immaculate. The animals all looked great and we saw everything we could cram in to the time we had.  We got rained on, and just skipped down the paths singing ...Zooing in the rain...just zooing in the rain...  It was great, because we were hot. Unfortunately, it also rained right when we were approaching the penguin and puffin house, which is kept at a cool 36 degrees.  It got a little chilly.

 It was a great visit to the zoo...even if I was limping badly by the time we left. My poor knee...

  We stopped for pizza on the way home and then got back here and crashed. We were all tired out!

  Saturday, the kids headed out to work in the garden, and planted kale and turnips and peas and carrots and beets and lord knows what else.  They had a ball out there helping Grandpa/Uncle Pat. The boy left around noon, and around 1 the girl's parents showed up to get her.  They left around 2 and I was getting ready to head for work half an hour later.   WHEW!!!

  It was great, but exhausting. I'm so glad they're gone and the house is quiet again (mostly) and I am starting to get rested up from it all, though I daresay it might take a few days.  I wouldn't have missed this for the world...And now it's time to get some shut-eye.  Sweet dreams, all y'all....

 Namaste.