Zoo-tastic 50th Post!

This is the 50th post I've made to the blog! WOW! Not too shabby for just about 6 months of operation. I hope B&H enjoy this blog someday in lieu of a baby book. Those just didn't get done.

Anyway, as you'll recall, we spent Memorial Day weekend in SoDak. After a first rough night with Hannie, we got up and out the door and hit the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls. No strangers to the zoo, B&H seemed excited to run in and see the animals. However, this was no Minnesota Zoo, for good and bad. It was CHEAP (all 5 of us, B, H, Aaron, my mom, and myself) got in for just $11! Can't beat it! It was small, so we got to see a lot of the zoo, but there weren't a ton of animals to see. The ones we did see though, were awesome! The Great Plains Zoo is certainly a spot to go when in Sioux Falls.

We saw (and later got chased by) some very beautiful and tame peacocks,

visited a cute little petting zoo,

said Hi to the monkeys and penguins before we had to stop for a snack.

And that's where it all fell to pot.

Ben - new to running, and wearing new (slightly too big) shoes - chased Daddy to the garbage can and SPLAT! fell flat on his face. Literally. Kid has a nice scrape on his nose now. (For some reason, I didn't follow my Mom of the Year protocol and take a photo of it though...). After about a 20 minute crying session, we did eventually hit the road again and saw some Rhinos (very cool) and tigers and other animals before taking a much needed rest on our very own train ride! (We were the only ones aboard the 10:30 a.m. departure). B&H LOVED the train and it calmed the still-upset Ben down quite nicely.

In true Riekenberg fashion, we left the zoo just as the massive crowds were coming in. But we were ALL ready to go home and take a nice long afternoon nap (which we all got!)