Lions and tigers and bears...oh my!

A couple of weeks ago, Brad and 44 other adults and students spent the day at Valley Fair. I, being a loving wife, decided to not hold a grudge or be bitter that I couldn't spend the day riding roller coasters and eating yummy cheese curds, but in turn decided to pack up the van and go to Como Zoo with a friend and her son. I was determined to have an adventure as well.

And, what an adventure we had!

You see, I decided to totally disregard what weather.com was telling me.

Showers likely until 1 p.m.

So what! I can handle a little drizzle...no sweat!

So Jemi and I left around 10:00 for the Cities, and after about 10 minutes of driving, we hit rain.

Not just light drizzle...full blown rain.

"Well, I'm sure it will get lighter as we get closer."

Seriously, who was I kidding?

The rain only got heavier, and as we pulled into the Como Zoo and Conservatory parking lot, (we got a GREAT parking spot, just in case you wanted to know...maybe that was because there were only about 20 other people there) it became an all-out downpour.

But God was gracious, and it was lunchtime, so we all ate our very tasty lunch in the van while the rain continued to come down.

And we waited for a clearing...

Yup, you guessed it. It never really happened.

So we bundled up the kiddos in their strollers and grabbed our umbrellas to make the most of our trip to the zoo.

If you've ever been to Como Zoo, it's all in a pretty close proximity and each little area has its own building. I was hoping that we wouldn't get too wet between each building.


As you see in the picture of Sammy, yeah, not so much.

But we were determined to make the most of it, and continued happily on our way.


Caleb did get quite a kick out of the monkeys.


And the penguins were a HUGE HIT! I really couldn't pry my kiddos from these guys.


"Just one more hug, Mommy!"


I'm thinking about getting my kids a penguin statue for Christmas.

We finally made it to the last building where the big cats were. Thankfully, the tigers and lions did put on a good show and played a bunch with their bouncy balls, and the kids watched them for quite a while. Here's a picture of Sammy with her little friend, Timothy.


But as we were getting ready to head out, we were told to stay in the building because there were reported tornadoes in the Cities.

Oh, bother!

We stayed a bit longer, and then were told we had to immediately leave that building...since there were LOTS of glass and windows, go figure...and go to the main building. Since we had yet to see the Conservatory, we decided to hunker down for a bit, give the kiddos a snack, and wait it out.

Because the tornado warning was only in effect for another 10-15 minutes.

Did I mention, they extended the warning at least FOUR MORE TIMES!

Good grief!

Finally, after about an hour, we were able to finish.

We spent another hour walking around and looking at all the green palms and beautiful roses and huge goldfish. The rain had finally stopped, and the kids were actually not that cranky.

Caleb and Sammy even took the time to stop and smell the flowers.




After one last sniff, we made our way back to the van. Which, by the way, was a BEAUTIFUL walk, since the sun was out and the rain had completely stopped.

Of, course!

We strapped into the van, gave the kids some make shift supper (since it was around 5:00 p.m.) and headed home.

Oh, did I mention we were in St. Paul, and had to drive across the Cities during rush hour!

Oh, help!

We did eventually make it home (after taking some great back roads to avoid the parking lot that was 694) by 7:45 and put the kids to bed.

So, who's up for a road trip?