Spring is in Bloom

As I sit here and write this entry, I am watching the evening news broadcast with the weather forecast.  The title of this entry is getting CRUSHED by what is crossing over into MinneSNOWta from the Dakotas as I type.  In the next 36 hours the metro area is supposed to get anywhere from 3-8 inches of snow.  Yep.  April 9th.  I thought this entry would be a nice diversion to that as I am going tell you all about our recent trip (Mallory's first) to the St.Paul Conservatory.  On Easter Sunday Grandma Dee had asked if we would be interested in going to see all he spring flowers in full bloom.  Mallory was VERY excited.  She is at the perfect age for these types of things and spending a day with mommy and grandma is always a good thing!

We chose to go on a Thursday afternoon which was a good choice as it ended up being the nicest day we've had this spring so far.  First we walked through the tropical plant section where we got to stop and see some fish.  Mallory was pretty impressed with some of the plant life, especially how large some of the leaves could get.    

Once we got inside Mallory was oooing and ahhhing at all the pretty flowers and stopping to smell "the bestest ones" as she put it.  If you have ever been to the Conservatory you know the Sunken Garden is not vast by any means, but we took our sweet time walking through there, checking out and smelling all the different types of flowers.  It was just what these waned winter wanderers needed!  

  

After the Conservatory we took a short walk through Como Zoo and checked out the animals that were on display this time of year.  We got to see the assortment of monkeys, polar bears, zebras and lions.  If you really want to know how nice of day we had check out this picture of the lions just basking in the glow and warmth of the spring sun....

On our way home we topped off our day with an ice cream cone from an authentic outdoor/walk-up Dairy Queen on Lexington in St.Paul.  What a great day!  I, for one, will be checking out these pictures over and over again for the next few days to get me out of this winter slump we are stuck in!  Here's to SPRING whenever it decides to SPRUNG!