Decatur, IL

I heard that admission to the Decatur zoo was free yesterday. 

So we went.

Decatur is less than an hour away.

My kids thought I had taken a short cut.

They're not used to living so close to fun things yet.

When I was researching the zoo I saw they had a red panda.

My little nerds are in love with red pandas right now.

Guess which animal was the only one in the entire zoo to not be on display?

That wimpy mammal apparently has an aversion to heat. 

Venna has planned for us to go back for her birthday.

A trip to the zoo would not be complete without a ride on the train.

Bless his little heart, Jonah was afraid the conductor would leave me since I wasn't in my seat.

The Burkhardts also have an aversion to heat, but we still had fun.

After lunch we made our way to the children's museum right next door to the zoo.

It was not free admission day at the museum.

But it was worth the money.

At one point I lost Venna and Jonah for about 5 minutes. 

I found them wearing white coats and scrubs playing doctor.

Jonah and Venna were so afraid of this spiral climbing thingy.

They attempted it two times without success.

Third time's a charm.

I was proud of them for not giving up.

Then we drove home.

And again my kids were impressed with how quickly we made it.