Meet me in St. Louis

We have family all over the country so we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like to.  Jenny and Robert my brother and sister in law were married last year and we hadn't see them in a year.  They live in Michigan, which from us is more than 12 hours away.  But St. Louis is between our two locations so this summer we decided to meet there and have a weekend away with the kids.  St. Louis is a family town for sure with a free Zoo and two different children's museums and the Arch you really can't go wrong.  So we stayed at the same hotel right next to each other and had a ball. Jenny and Robert have two boys, who are 6 and 8 which is so close to our boys its like having two sets of twins running around everywhere.  We knew we needed to go out and get some of the energy out so we went to this hands on place called City Museum.  Best money spent. EVER!  Its three or four floors of adventure and our boys loved it!  Ball pits, slides, things to climb in, on, under, over, train rides and a whole section that looks like a skate park to run around in.  We stayed there for 6 hours!  Part of the exhibits are outside, some are inside.   

 

They had this area that looked like a skateboarding park, but no skateboards you could run and hang and jump on it all.  There were so many kids in there running all over they had so much fun! 

Here is one of all four of them before they slide down it, pretty amazing, cause I wasn't going to get myself up there to do it....not that brave. 

Garrett was exhausted towards the end and just laid down and gave up.  Yes the floor is disgusting and I'm sure he is filthy, we gave all the kids disinfecting baths that night. 

 

So we slowed the pace down and took Jillian on a train ride.  Garrett and Isaac went with her to keep her company.  She was so excited and just kept wanting to get back on the ride.  She got to do it more than once, and then bawled when she had to leave it. I think she could have stayed there all day. 

 

That place really was awesome, by the time we got to the St. Louis Arch I think everyone was exhausted so we didn't even go up in it, we just looked at it and then played in the field around it.

 

The next day we went to the Zoo, its a really fun zoo and free.  We stayed there most of the day too.  We saw so many animals; there is a petting zoo for small kids and small animals.  I wasn't sure how Garrett would do because he's always been scared of animals, but he did awesome!  Not a single tear, and he even touched a few animals. 

 

 

These Hippos were awesome!  They came right up the glass and swam back and forth so you could get a really good look at how huge they were.  Man, they are huge! 

Happy with the elephants! 

This was the picture I took before Garrett was running to go and catch up with his Aunt Jenny and cousin in the gift shop.  He went the wrong direction, it was directly across from where we were standing in this photo.  I took it and said "OK, go to them."  For some reason he ran in the opposite direction.  I put the camera away and walked into the store and realized he wasn't in there.  He was gone, Robert and I both went in opposite directions to go and look for him while Brad stayed with the other kids.  I didn't find him.  Robert didn't find him.  I was starting to panic, I ran where Robert just was hoping he was going to be there. Nope. I really was starting to panic.  Robert was looking concerned because we really didn't know which way he went.  We started yelling his name and running around trying to fin him, he ran back to us in tears totally confused and lost.  Honestly is was about 4 mins. of not knowing where he was but it felt a lot longer!  Garrett has never been one to run off and he just thought he knew where he was going.  I was so glad he was found and I got him all calmed down and then let him go in the shop.  I sat on a bench and tears started to come.  I quickly got over it but I hate the feeling of not knowing where my little children are.  That was the only scary mishap of the whole trip. 

We went and checked out the sting ray exhibit you could touch them!

     

 

We had such a good time at the Zoo!

The whole trip was a blast, I think by the end we were all so exhausted we need a vacation from the vacation.  I am really glad that we got to make those memories with Jenny, Robert and their boys. I hope that we get to make it a yearly trip!