A Day at the Zoo

Ginny, Grace (she's in the carrier), and I at the zoo!

I love going to the zoo! As I mentioned once before, I especially love the St. Louis Zoo! It is a great zoo, that is constantly evolving, and it is free. What makes the zoo even better is the fact that I live within 2 hours of the zoo now. For a Midwesterner, driving 2 hours to do something for a day is nothing. We go on those types of road trips in a heartbeat.

Recently, I found myself craving the zoo. Yes, craving. Constant thoughts of the zoo kept flitting through my mind. I had a hard time letting the thought go. Of course, the thoughts started at the end of February. It was a bit cold to justify a visit. Then, we had a snow storm at the end of March, further pushing off my desired trip down to St. Louis. Finally, the weather seemed to ease into spring temperatures. May was a busy month, with activities like our vacation, my first 5K of the season, and going into St. Louis for a baseball game on Mother's Day. I kept hoping for the perfect opportunity to take the trip down, but then the storms came in, preventing my attempts to go to the zoo.

Last week I made the decision that I was going to go and not allow the weather to put us off in planning to go.  I put my plans into action by posting on FB that I was coming down and would love to meet with any friends (I went to high school in the St. Louis area) or family (most of my cousins and aunts/uncles all live there). Naturally, I pretty much heard crickets from all the people I know down there. I expected that. No biggie. I was going whether anyone was wanting to join my girls and me or not.*

I did get a quick response from one high school friend, Gwen, who let me know that she and her kids would love to join me. She wanted to know when I planned to come down and then let me know her availability. We set up our zoo "date" for today. Again, I tried to get others to join us, but I had no luck, although one person did say she was interested if not for the fact that she would be out of town.

We were supposed to meet at 9:30 this morning at the south entrance. Normally, I'm quite punctual. In fact, I'm usually 10-15 minutes early to everything. Today, I was 30 minutes late. Being late crushes my soul. It is an awful feeling. I made a couple of mistakes which prevented me from being on time. I forgot to factor in the time to stop and nurse my baby, Grace. I should have considered that, but I figured she would make it the whole way down and I could nurse her after we arrived. Grace let me know that she was hungry before we got there. Also, I did not think that Ginny, my toddler, would have a meltdown when I stopped to feed Grace. And, my last mistake was the zoo itself. I forgot how insane it can be to get into the zoo. I was thinking that since it was a weekday it would be a non-issue. However, since school is out, a weekday is like a weekend at the zoo until summer comes to an end.

Elephants! (Isn't the baby adorable?)

I was grateful that Gwen didn't kick my butt for being so late. She was very kind and patient in waiting for us. The weather was perfection! It was partly sunny, temps were in the low 70s, and there was a nice breeze. The weather made for a pleasant time walking around the zoo with our kids. Ginny really enjoyed seeing the animals! Of course, many animals hid from us so we couldn't see them. Typical. Ginny did get a thrill when she saw the elephants for the first time. She also seemed to enjoy the apes (which she calls monkeys, but hey, how do you explain the difference to a two-year-old?).

While we were walking around the zoo, Gwen let me borrow a toddler leash backpack thing for Ginny to use so she could get out of her stroller. I will admit to holding a certain bias against leashes for kids. They usually bother me a lot.  Today, though, I discovered the nice thing about them. They are great for crowds! Ginny could be free to walk around and at her own pace, for the most part, while using the leash. Without the leash, she would have needed to stay in the stroller or hold on to it while walking or hold my hand. Now, I'm actually considering getting one for her.

Ginny enjoying her chicken tenders at Applebees!

When it got close to lunch, Gwen and her kids needed to leave for home. Ginny, Grace, and I stayed around a bit longer so we could go to the monkey house and stop at the gift shop. After making a couple of purchases at the gift shop, we headed to the car. I had hoped to get lunch at my favorite pizza place, Imo's, before heading home. The school bus parked in the Imo's parking lot forced me to change my mind. Instead, we stopped at an Applebee's on our way home.

It really was a fabulous day! I look forward to going down for another visit to the zoo. Maybe I should make  going to the zoo a monthly adventure. We shall see!


*I should note right here, for those who are wondering, that my plans did not involve my DH. My husband is not a fan of zoos in general.  (He also has the same aversion to amusement parks, like Disney World.) I don't get it, but I still drag him on occasion.  However, when I decided to make plans, I decided to plan for a day when he would be working and unable to join us. When I mentioned that to him, he seemed thrilled.

Adventures of a Jayhawk Mommy: Now on Facebook

My new FB page! Welcome...

For the last few weeks, I had been thinking about doing something quite bold, starting a Facebook page as a companion to this blog. I weighed the pros and cons, deciding to wait a bit longer before making a decision. Why would I want to start a page? Wasn't that only for very popular blogs?

It isn't that my blog doesn't have a readership. It does. One I'm quite proud that I've been building. When I first started this blog, I was lucky to get 10 people to read what I wrote. Now, I usually have 40-50 people reading each post. Quite amazing when I think about it. But, ultimately, those types of numbers aren't anything spectacular. I'm proud of them. It means that what I'm writing is getting read. I love writing so just knowing I have an audience is a thrill. However, some of the more popular blogs out there, particularly the "mommy" blogs, probably have a readership in the 100s for each post they put out. They have lots of responses and comments on their posts. I'm lucky to get more than one or two from regular readers of mine (which I'm quite thankful for, thanks ladies!).

So, again, I found myself asking if starting an FB page would be worthwhile much less lead to any followers. Then, I noticed that a blogger that I follow started her own FB page. Mouthy Barber Mom has a great blog. She is funny and snarky. I enjoy reading what she puts out there. I would guess that her readership is around the same size as mine. When I noticed that she started a FB page, my interest was piqued. I immediately followed her and made a comment about her page. I also mentioned that the thought had crossed my mind as well about starting my own page. She told me I should go for it. Apparently, that was all the encouragement I needed.

A few days ago, I got to work and created my FB page, Adventures of a Jayhawk Mommy.  I thought it would be along the lines of my twitter account, but have since decided it will be more focused than that. I would focus more on my adventures as a mommy, and it would be more in line with my blog. After all, the FB page is a companion to my blog. Duh.

Once the page was set up, I started inviting people to my page. I'm thrilled to say that I actually have followers too. I figured my DH would follow me as well as my mom and even Mouthy, but I have a few more followers than that. While my FB page isn't huge, it is mine. I'm enjoying having it and hope to make it a fun place. Hopefully, my followers will enjoy it too. :)

If you would like to follow my new FB page, you can find by clicking the following link: Adventures of a Jayhawk Mommy 

Carnita Dreams

Yummy Carnitas

My husband and I love Mexican food. And, by love, I mean LOVE!  Luckily, our small town has a fabulous Mexican restaurant, Cancun. The food there is so good! I can only think of one think I wouldn't order there again. Everything else is so delicious! Our (DH and my) favorite thing on the menu is their carnitas. They are beyond yummy! The flavor of the pork makes me feel as if I am in heaven, even for the briefest of moments.

Ever since eating the carnitas there for the first time, I have been desperate to find a good carnita recipe so I can make them at home. I keep searching and searching with no luck. I've come very close to begging the owner of the restaurant to allow me in the back to watch how they are made. (I have asked her how they are made, but she claimed ignorance.) Until I get the nerve up to do just that, I will keep trying out carnita recipes until I find "The One."

This week, I did try a slow cooker carnita recipe that I found on Pinterest.  The recipe seemed fairly easy and quite promising. While it didn't leave me in heaven, like Cancun does, it did turn out quite gratifying.  It is a recipe I will likely make again in the future, once we finish the leftovers that are in the freezer now.

The recipe calls for 3 pounds of pork shoulder/butt. I ended up getting over 6 pounds because there was no smaller size available to me at the grocery store. I bought the presliced pork butt, thinking it would be easier to cut it down in size that way. It was, but I didn't realize that each slice had a bone. So, I had a bit of prep to do ahead of time.

After all the prep was done with removing the bones, I seasoned each piece of meat with taco seasoning, rubbing it all over the meat. I did use a bit of olive oil on the meat to help spread the rub onto the meat. It made it so much easier doing it that way. Next, I seared each piece of meat in skillet before adding it to the crock pot. As the meat seared, I sliced up the onion and put it in the bottom of the crock pot. I figured this would add much more flavor to the meat than just adding it at the end. I put the meat on top of the onion.

Searing the meat

When I had all the meat in the pot, I decided I should use the enchilada sauce to deglaze the pan, making sure to get up all the brown bits. You have to do this quickly because you don't want to lose too much of the sauce. From there, I poured the sauce over the meat then added the green chiles. I added them early into cooking for the same reason I added the onion. More flavor.

Once everything was in the pot, I placed the lid on top, made sure it was plugged in, and cooked the meat on high for the next 5 hours.

In the crock pot ready to cook.

Unfortunately, we did not eat the carnitas that night.  It was stormy outside, requiring my husband to put in some over time at work (he's a meteorologist).  So, the carnitas went into the fridge until the next night. DH and I were anxious to try them. We weren't disappointed. They were yummy! Were they as good as our local place? Nope, but we liked them all the same. I guess that is all that matters in the end.