St. Louis Weekend

We went to St. Louis for New Years. We love it there! They have even more awesome things to do with the fam than KC does. We went to a Holiday Celebration at Grant's Farm which is a family place run by Budweiser with the Busch Family Mansion up on the hill. You can have all the free beer that you want but a Hot Chocolate is $2, kind of funny. Admission is free too. They had it decorated like temple square with over a million lights, it was beautiful. We went to two shows; one for the kids which was the 12 Day of Christmas done by 4 elves and a new twist on the Christmas Carol with a Ventriloquist Narrator and Chinese Acrobats representing the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. The acrobats were amazing. I can't even imagine having that much strength, balance and flexibility.

The kids also got to see Santa's reindeer, penquins from Seaworld (which the Busch family also owns, who knew?) and the Budweiser Clydesdales all dressed up in their holiday finery (their harnesses alone cost $70,000) What would it be like to have that much money? Scott joked that those horses live better than we do. It's probably true.

St. Louis Zoo Rocks! It is by far the best zoo I've been too and the third largest in the states. It is also amazingly free. (The Busch family probably owns it too) They have the most awesome penquin habitat ever where the penguins are up close and personal. You could reach out and touch them if you wanted to. You can see them above and below the water at the same time. The hippos are the same way and they are amazing swimming balarinas. Disney's Fantasia isn't far off. We watched a baby elephant picking up thin sheets of ice with it's trunk. We couldn't believe how precise he could be with his trunk.

The ape and monkey houses are in these cool old buildings with gardens/atriums in the center. We watched a daddy orangatang taking care of business. So funny!