Minnesota Day 4

Though our third day was quite long, Day 4 proved to equally as busy and fun. We checked out of our hotel...

... took one last look at our city view...

...and we hit the Minnesota Zoo! Where they welcome humans, animals and toe suckers alike!

We stopped to eat lunch at their food court and then we immediately headed over to the penguins. We tried to wait around to see their feeding, but so was everyone else.

So we ventured over to pet some Tiger Sharks. I was the only one in our family who was either willing or tall enough to lean over the rock barricade--so I had Matt take a picture. I occasionally like to prove I existed in our family pictures.

These were just very ornate and beautiful. I had to take a picture. 

We then ventured into the Tropical section. The girls loved looking at all the exotic animals. 

This monkey guy (excuse my lack of knowledge on his exact species name) was putting on a great show. I have several videos of him practicing swinging from limb to limb. Show-off!

There were several little cave places for kids only--well, they were small, tight squeezes so I assume they were for kiddos. My girls loved them--it gave them plenty of independence!

We like to pose!

And we checked our wing span...

Even Dad got in on the action.

Brownie's favorite part was the splash park that was smack dab in the middle of the zoo. See that smile--yeah, this zoo blew ours out of the park. And I can say we got our money's worth!

Like waaaay outta the park!

This is as close as any of us have ever been to brown bears--or any bear for that matter.

They went round and round several times. And before we knew it, the zoo was closing. So we headed to our new hotel down the road to stay our last night. 

The girls were so cute. They wanted to go out with a bang and get all dressed up and go out to a "nice" restaurant on our last night. So we did. We found this little place called Roasted Pear and it had some pretty good food. 

This was our appetizer with Brie and garlic toast. Quite delicious. It certainly had us wishing for a fridge in our hotel room!

We posed in front of the restaurant...

... then headed "home" for a late night swim. We promised they could swim, and I even gave it a shot for a few minutes. But a certain Scrunchie got a bit irritated (it was nearly 10:30 after all), so she and I headed back to the room.

But she did look cute in that pink suit--rolls and all!

I picked up our room and packed our bags so we could head home the next day. It was such a great time and I'm left feeling so blessed that I got to spend some quality time with my older two (and Scrunchie of course). We had plenty of opportunities to truly enjoy each other's company since we didn't have quite as many distractions. And despite some crazy travel issues on Day 3, I am so happy we had this trip. I sure hope our girls feel just as happy and blessed.