Getting Wild at the Zoo

Ernie's first whirlwind trip to the midwest was wrapping up but there were still some excitements left in store for him.

The Saint Louis Zoo! It's funny I remember that in my St. Louis days, if I wanted to go to the zoo I would park miles away if necessary and wonder to myself what sort of money hating idiot would pay to park when the zoo itself is free. Today I have become that money hating idiot so that my prince of a son doesn't have to ride in his stroller a minute longer than is necessary. Must be nice.

I did buy a pineapple drink that was inside a pineapple but I'm sure that was somehow Ern's fault as well.

I would someday like to just spend an entire day hanging out with primates. They are so much fun to gawk at and there's never enough time. Fun fact: cotton-top tamarin dads carry their babies on their backs around 10 days after they are born.

I'm glad that I learned that the Missouri Tarantula is a thing after I did all that Missouri hiking and camping.

When we got to the airport I made sure Ernie was aware how lucky he is that we aren't on tamarin rules.

The carseat thing is a bit of a crapshoot. We didn't buy him a ticket but apparently if they have extra seats available you can ask to bring your car seat aboard.

He had a nice snooze in his seat.

Ern perused the drink menu then told Lydia his order.

Mt. Rainier is always a nice welcome back to the PNW.

We did pretty well the entire flight but then we were stuck sitting on the tarmac for an hour. Ern did not like that so much.

Ernie gets close to zero screen time so it's a nice secret weapon to keep him entertained in an emergency situation.

Perennial Artisan Ales

We had a friend party at one of my favorite St. Louis Breweries.

Ernie keeps somehow crawling into the big boy bed despite being unable to crawl.

Perennial is fun and has some fun flavors. They also have some classics as well. They make probably the city's most sought after, wait in line fancy bottle beer as well: Abraxas.

A highlight was Ernie meeting Lainey's kids. She has a lot of them.

St. Louis Gallavanting

Ernie doesn't get up into the big boy bed very often so this was an event.

Viry and Lolo brought Emelia over to the apartment to meet Ernie.

Later on I met up with Seago and Hank at the Golden Hoosier to tell tales and curse our enemies.

One of my favorite parts of coming to St. Louis is how cheap everything is. I couldn't resist the mini beer cooler full of Busch for $15. What a deal.

Hank got scared and went home so we headed to Up Down to play some classics. We had apparently wandered in on Barbie night so there were some interesting costumes and other strange pink occurences.

Ernie Meets the Greats

Ernie got to meet his great grand parents Fritz and Pam today. The original Ernesto's life and my own briefly overlapped but I don't think I ever had the pleasure.

Lydia's Nana and Pawpaw are always very good hosts at their Webster Groves apartment, with good food and booze aplenty.

Ernie got sick for the first time this week. My guess is that he got a cold on the plane/airport. He has a little raspy cough but seems to be in pretty high spirits despite this so I’m extra happy about his demeanor. I didn’t anticipate how much joy Ernie would bring to other people. It takes a lot of pressure off of me to be interesting at social functions. Tom was especially surprising and talked about all the fishing and toy trains he wanted to do with Ernie. I feel like Ernie represents like another chance for people for relationships or something. He’s also a second chance for us to rekindle our own relationships with family. Lydia and I have discussed how effort we make now rebuilding relationships allows Ernie to bond with his family and maybe have good relationships with them of his own. So long story short we’ve been talking more to family that we sometimes have avoided previously. He is essentially like a slobbery little ambassador.

Aunt Sarah made an appearance as well to say hello.