Meet Me in St. Louis

We just returned from a very last minute, but AWESOME (according to Jonah), trip to St. Louis! The kids loved it! We surprised them with packed bags after breakfast Tuesday morning. I had packed clothes the night before so that we could try to get away as early as possible Tuesday morning. We had a blast! The zoo, the arch, eating downtown, seeing Busch stadium, and tackling The City Museum were all packed into 2 days of St. Louis FUN! It was a great getaway for Fall Break, especially when I had not planned on us going anywhere at all this time. :) Here's some memories I'll treasure from this trip...


I guess it's hard to NOT act like a monkey when you are at the zoo...right, Jonah?! 




My three "monkeys" posing for a Halloween picture at the zoo




And everybody said,"Awww!" when the baby elephant came out! Mary Claire said it the loudest. hehe




Spotting butterflies with our handy-dandy "Species Identification" guides




Caught a beautiful butterfly hanging out on a leaf




Mary Claire liked the goats.
She called the little white baby goat a lamb, and the zookeeper guy got a kick out of it!




Jonah liked the guinea pigs




Family fun at the zoo




Glorious picture of the Arch




I wonder what the man resting under the arch next to us thought...




Daddy and Mary Claire at the Gateway Arch




Lots of stairs surrounded by ART!




I think I can, I think I can, I think I can be like a hamster...
I am seriously considering this type of contraption for my half-marathon training. Hard work!




Mary Claire going down the monster slide!




The biggest underwear I've ever seen! Hmm...modern art?





A Big Boy! (Our kids have never seen one, but Jan and I remember him.)




The worlds largest pencil! A real eraser and lead, too!

And that's when my batteries in my camera DIED, and I did not have the spare ones with me...UGH! So, the rest of our pictures from the day at The City Museum are whatever my husband took with his phone. I would highly recommend this museum to any one with children! Just be ready to climb, crawl, slide on your belly (at times), and squeeze through small spaces. My knees hurt after all the crawling I did! And just when I thought my inner child was gone for good :), "she" resurfaced as I slid down slides and slides and more slides. "Come on, Momma!" was the phrase for the day, and we were so happy to run into our friend, Ella, there, too! In addition to all the climbing and sliding, she and John Owen rode the ferris wheel together on the top of the museum, and I rode with Jonah. Now THAT was an experience! Being 10 stories up in the air already and then getting on a ferris wheel. Man! I was overcoming my fear of heights in a big way at that museum! Maybe that's why the "boy" running the ferris wheel gave me a "thumbs up" with a questioning look on his face as my car came around. I am guessing my expression said it all...
Seriously, the boys and Mary Claire LOVED it, and that's all that really matters. It was well worth the soreness. (A little ALEVE can fix that, right?)