Purina Farms

St. Louis is an amazing place for families--we've been here almost a year and a half and we've barely scratched the surface of all the fun things to do with kids (almost all of which are free!). Purina Farms is owned by, get this, Purina (the dog food company); it's the site of apparently one of the top competitive dog arenas, both show dogs and sport dogs, in the country. As if that weren't cool enough, they also have a little petting zoo and a twice-daily sporting dog talent show of sorts.

It is a bit of a drive from our house since it's out in the country (something like 45 minutes or an hour), so when the opportunity came up for me to do a secret shopper visit at the nearby hotel, we decided to make a weekend of it. Free hotel room, free breakfast, free (indoor!) pool time, and free zoo/dog show added up to be a fun little last-minute vacation.

For dinner that night, we found an awesome little down-home diner in Washington, Missouri. Scott & I each got a plate piled with like 4 different fried delicacies for something like 8 bucks. AMERICA!

This is Luke rather vocally requesting (/demanding) that we read his
book.

First time in a booster seat (rather than a high chair). Such a big little
boy!

Luke's favorite thing at Purina Farms, bar none, was a bin of corn kernels with some toy tractors. He spent the better part of a half hour playing there. We literally had to drag him off to see the animals.

"Chrah! Bee wheew! Bee cooo! Bbbbbb." (Translation: "Tractor! With
big wheels! And a big scoop! Vroom.")

For the record, Luke is wearing his favorite shirt in the world. Every
time he sees it in his closet (or in the dirty laundry) he demands to
wear it. ("Sriiiiii!" --"Stripes!") Something like 2/3 of his shirts are
striped, but apparently this faded, stretched-out hand-me-down is the
coolest one. 

Luke does not own any toy tractors. Perhaps Santa
will have to remedy this.

Luke got to feed the sheep (with the help of one of
the employees). He laughed and said that the sheep
kissed him. I was just glad that he still had all five
digits. 

Yes, those are two sleepy little piggies who love to have their ears
scratched. And a remarkably friendly chicken that likes to be chased
around the bench. (I sat down next to the pigs to pat their little bums,
and the chicken climbed up into my lap, hunkered down, and pecked
gently at my shirt until I started scratching her instead of the pigs.)

Luke also got to pet a cow, goats, bunnies, dogs, cats, and an amorous horse. Last stop of the day was the dog show. By this point Luke was way past naptime and barely holding on to this side of a meltdown, so we busted out the binky while he watched the show.

He was really cutting a rug to the show music! One of these days I will actually capture it on video. Below, he's too busy stealing the orange I'm in the middle of peeling to be bothered to dance.

Good times all around. Purina Farms is one of four (literally, four) free petting zoos within an hour of our house. Did I mention that St. Louis is great?