Family Life

I love the outdoors and could easily spend my days gleefully hiking through the countless breathtaking parks we're lucky to have in the St. Louis area. My kids? Not so much – yet.

I will never be the mom whose kids show up at doorsteps on Halloween as anything other than what you can buy in a bag. No – mine are the children sporting the “five-piece pirate suit” and answering the question of “What are you this year?” with “A medium.”

While national chains, like McAlister’s Deli, Fazoli’s and O’Charley’s, are famous for their kids’ promo nights, there are plenty of locally owned restaurants across the metro area that can curve your little ones’ cravings at no extra cost to you. Plus, it gives you a much-needed break from oven duty.

For most of us, dogs and cats are more than our pets. They’re our family members, our playmates, and if they’re canine, our running buddies. They keep a watchful eye over our kids and cheer us up even when our human companions can’t. So, it only seems appropriate that we sing our pets’ praises from the rooftops – or at least from a video screen. Now you have the chance to publicly honor your favorite friend by submitting your family’s pet story to Purina Farms’ Pawsitive Connections: Stories of Commitment, Triumph and Unconditional Love, a video series to be featured in the indoor theater at this beloved family destination throughout the 2018 season.

"For all of the years I've been photographing, the best images are always the ones where a little bit of magic happens," Geddes told us. "It's like the baby lying in the roses with the big smile that everyone knows. One of the nicest things about photographing babies is that it's so truthful. If you've got a sleeping baby, they're not pretending to be asleep. It is what it is."

Visitors to the Saint Louis Zoo this fall have a chance to experience grizzly bears up close and personal in a brand new, state-of-the-art habitat twice the size of their old grottos called Grizzy Ridge.