One Saturday in April

When Saturday morning rolled around this weekend Will was off work, and none of us had anything scheduled we had to do all day, which is pretty rare these days, so we decided to get out and have an adventure.  

Rex has been into bats since they learned about them at school and then about a month ago we had an Owl in our woods hooting at night and Rex heard him in his window for several nights in a row right at bedtime and he because obsessed with Owls.  We listened to Owl hoots on the internet to determine what kind was in our back yard (we think a Great Horned) we watched Owl documentaries on Netflix, and we read all the children's Owl books we could find. Grant is into bats too because they are a close ally of Batman's. Then I found out about this World Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis and thought we should check it out some time.  So on Saturday morning when we were looking for what we wanted to do for the day I got on their website to check it out a a possible choice and the banner said this weekend was the once a year Midwest Batfest.  We took that as our sign, I whipped up some PBand J sandwiches, Will loaded up the boys in the van and we were off.  We all had a really fun day, saw lots of birds, and even learned a little bit! (oh and did I mention it was free!)

Grant at the entrance to the cave exhibit they had set up for the Batfest

Here Grant is checking out the wingspan of a bat, also you can see the outside of the bat exhibit behind him

Our picnic lunch, it was a brisk spring day but with the sun out it felt pretty nice.

Rex next to a Barn Owl one of his favorite kinds

Rex in awe watching a video of Bats flying out of a cave at the ranger talk

Rex was beaming to take a picture by this Eagle Owl the largest Owl species in the world

A close up of a Barn Owl taken at Rex's request

They had a live Big Brown Bat the ranger brought out and we got to see up close.  Its kinda blurry he didn't want to hold still for me.

The Bird Sanctuary was located at Lone Elk Park in St. Louis.  They have an area where you can drive in your car through the park and hope to spot Elk on the loose and another drive through area with Bison.  We spotted a large group of 7-9 Elk not too far from the van, but did not get to see any Bison this time around.

can you spot the Elk up on the hill, there were also a lot more on the other side of our van window

We are also now the proud owners of 2 new stuffed animals.  A Grey Bat named "Batty" and a Great Horned Owl named, you guessed it "Owly".  The boys are both quite proud of them.  They have been busy making them a nest, and cave out of old shoe boxes and insist they they spend most of the day in their respective homes because they are Nocturnal and need their sleep in the day!

We are at fun age right now were we can load up and go somewhere for the day without having to worry about nap schedules, or diapers, or baby food supplies, this trip we didn't even pack a stroller!  Its fun to have hit this next chapter in our family, and to be able to get out and make fun memories as a family. (also we had several meltdowns and both boys cried at least once I think, just keepn' it real)