A day at the park!

This weekend was absolutely beautiful. A great Fall weekend-- temperatures in the high 60's/low 70's, sunshine, and near peak foliage. I decided that Sunday would be a great day for Tyler and I to get out and spend some time together outside and for Frank to spend some "guy" time on his own.

After lunch, Tyler and I headed out to Forest Park, in Springfield. Once inside the park, we headed straight for the zoo! Although we lived in Springfield for many years, we never made it into the zoo. On days that we had planned on going, it would rain and on nice days, we always had plans! Not today! Tyler and I bought out tickets and headed straight for the exhibits!

One of the first exhibits we saw were the monkeys. At first they were difficult to find, but then, true to monkey form, they started showing off. I guess they recognized that Tyler was one of them and he needed to learn a few tricks from the pros! After the monkeys tired of swinging around, we moved onto the Cougars- very scary creatures! Even though they were nice and relaxed on their rocks, I was not relaxed when Tyler started to make his way into a better viewing position!

As we kept walking, we were seeing Peacocks freely roaming the zoo confines! It was so cool to be able to see them up close. Tyler was very good with them, and made sure that he had quiet, gentle feet so he didn't scare them away.
At the rabbit exhibit, one of the zoo keepers took a baby bunny out and asked Tyler if he would like to pet him. Tyler jumped at the chance and even "bunny-talked" to him while he was petting! It was so cute. Tyler said at the end of the day that the bunnies were his favorite animal to see. They had all kinds! The one pictured here is a Domesticated Bunny, and there were Giant Rabbits (bigger than our cat!), and Lion Haired Rabbits (big and fluffy) as well. As we made our way through the zoo, we spotted pigs, cows, kangaroos, camels, lemurs, and a spotted leopard. We also found the zoo gift shop where you could buy food to feed to the animals. I was a bit leery about this idea (I can remember being slimed a lot of times in the petting zoo!). Tyler had a blast throwing the crackers into different exhibits. One of the best ones was the camel/alpaca house. The camel was not shy about begging for food and followed Tyler until he threw in a cracker. However, the camel paled in comparison to the goats who really had no problem begging! At first, Tyler made sure that both goats got a cracker, but then....
Their mommies, and daddies, and grandmas, and grandpas also started begging! We had to walk away when the brown goat started to really make attempts at climbing the fence!

After we left the zoo, we found our way to the train depot. We had to wait, so Tyler ran off for the playground! He had a blast on all of the slides and climbers!
When the train finally arrived, Tyler picked out the front seat! He was so excited to take a ride.
The train conductor even offered to take a picture of the two of us. The train took us through the park, past the pool, ice rink, and ball fields. It was such a nice ride. We could see all the trees and their leaves changing colors, and the beautiful Fall landscape!
When the train ride was over, we stopped for a bit to smell the roses-- literally! On the way to our car, we passed the Rose Gardens. Amazingly enough (although you can't tell from this picture) there were still roses in bloom! There were people picnicking, and laying around on blankets. Made us wish we had planned to have a snack there! Tyler had to settle for taking a few quick runs under the pergolas!
Overall, it was a great day. Unfortunately for Frank, his Dolphins took one under the chin, but he enjoyed his daddy time on football Sunday! After spending this time outside today, it makes me hope that next weekend is another beautiful Fall weekend and we can head out on another adventure!