The Kids Almost Got Trampled!

Laugh it up, but I love the World Bird Sanctuary.  When we would go to Bald Eagle Days when we lived in Moline, the WBS would bring eagles and other birds of prey up with them each year.  The year my extended family went to Branson, and knowing the WBS was in St Louis, I wanted to check out the WBS on the way through.  Although I can't say my family agrees with me, it's great and I loved it.  When we visited, as we were driving along the road, next to the road there was a high fence with barbed wire running along the top.  As we drove further, there was a bull elk sitting along the fence.  Weird.  So I did a bit of research when we got back from Branson and I found out it's a free county park in St Louis.  It has bison, elk, deer, and a bunch of water fowl.  So that was one place I wanted to go when we moved here.  

This past fall, whe Kathee went to Montana for her cousin's wedding, I took the older kids to Lone Elk Park and had a blast.  So today, needing to get out of the apartment for a bit (cabin fever), we loaded up the kids and headed south.    

As we drove through the park, when we'd spot something, the two older kids would unbuckle and look out the windows to see the animal(s). 

We saw one deer.  

A BUNCH of elk.

One bull elk

6 bison (not pictured above).  The kids seem to enjoy it.  

We even got out and ran a bit (helped by the bison that tried to run us down).  As you can see, this is the two older kids' first time running from a wild animal.  Had they taken my route, they too, would have bee-lined it to the van and jumped through the window (like I did).  However, after about four times running around the van (with Kathee screaming and crying the entire time...wimp) they finally made it back.  I was quite impressed with how fast Gideon was.  And once they arrived safely in the van, I did have a sit-down with Hope about tripping her brother and screaming "all I have to do is outrun you."  I was apalled by her high-pitched laughing (think hyena) as she literally left him in the dust!    I didn't think that that was very loving at all.  So we put a bandaid over the gore-mark on Gideon's back and traveled on.  All in all, it was a fun day at the park.  

Mom, I'm kidding.  Hope didn't trip Gideon.  But she did give him a sweet hip check that sent him spralling.  Okay, maybe I made up that part, too.  Maybe we stopped to stretch a bit and check to see if there were any geocaches nearby.  What they were honestly doing was chasing a butterfly.  And they chased it for a while and had a great time doing so.  But chasing a butterfly at a park with wild bison is way boring.  So I spruced it up a bit.  Take me to court.    

Tha'ts all!