St. Louis

This years summer vacation took us to St. Louis for a week. We arrived Sunday evening with enough time left to get out and do some site seeing. We went to see Union Station which was just right down from our hotel. The buildings all around down town are beautiful. After visiting Union Station we got settled in our hotel and let the boys swim before bed. This was done every night during our trip. They loved the pool right down the hall from our room! The next several post are our vacation stops one day at a time!

St. Louis Vacation- First Full Day...The Zoo

We spent our first full day at the zoo. The St. Louis zoo is a beautiful place. I was surprised at how close we could get to almost every animal. It's definitely a place you want to visit while in St. Louis and it's free so that's another reason to visit!

Chad and the 2 big boys went to see the Sting Rays. This did cost a little extra but was well worth the money. No time limit!! Wasn't sure they were ever going to come out though. Cade said he could stay there all day!

Checking out the map to see where we wanted to go next

We visited the Imagination play room at the zoo (no extra cost) and here is Chance making a spider craft and Cooper cleaning window's like the zoo keepers have to do.

Watched this in 3-D.

Cooper and Rah Rah in the butterfly house. He's holding his finger out for a butterfly to land on!! He actually did have one land on him before I took this picture!

Checking out the elephants I think!


They had these fans all over the zoo. They were a great way to cool off.

Since this is a zoo post I felt I couldn't end the post without at least a few pictures of the animals we saw!

Day 2- The Magic House

Today we got up and went to the Magic House. I must say this is by far the best children's museum we have ever been too. Okay...we've only been to 3 but this one tops them all so far!! This place was HUGE!! We spent 6 1/2 hours here and could have stayed longer. There were rooms after rooms of hands-on activities and fun for the kids to do! The perfect place to spend the day with kids.

learned about recycling

Cooper sitting in the Judges seat! Doesn't he look intimidating!!

And this here could be your future president..in year 2040

There were so many fun activities around every corner for the kids to enjoy!

How high can you get the bubble?? That was about as high as any of us could get it before it popped.

Went to visit Tom Sawyer and friends! That was a fun section.

Got to paint

play with play doh

and watch balls float in the air!!

We all had a great day of fun!

Day 3- The Arch and St. Louis Science Museum

Got up today and headed to the Arch. The Arch is very impressive and even more so after you watch the documentary and see all the work that went into building it. We all rode to the very top and looked out over all of St. Louis. Very cool. I'm pretty sure we were looking at some other surrounding states too! We were so high....630 ft to be exact! When we came down from the top we visited the Arch museum.


We all rode in car #2 to the top

Me and Cade at the top of the Arch

The Arch Museum


After leaving the Arch we headed to the St. Louis Science Center. It was a neat place with lots of hand-on activities for the kids to enjoy. It was a good day!



Chad and Cade got to be scientist for a while and look at cheek cells! Sounds fun doesn't it!

Day 4 in St. Louis- Six Flags

I think I took nearly 100 pictures just at Six Flags! Here are just a few from our day. We had the best time and it was a great end to an already great week!

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck greeted us as we entered the park. These were the first of many "friends" we would meet!

The boys rode many rides. The adults rode several too. Cooper was able to ride most of the rides too. He could ride all of the rides in "Bugs Bunny National Park" so that was fun. He could also rides several "big people" water rides including Thunder River (which he says was his favorite ride), Tidal Wave, and Log Flume. We didn't have to wait in hardly any lines all day so that made the day even more enjoyable. Most rides we walked up and got immediately on. I think we only stood in 2 lines all day where we had to wait 10-15 minutes. It was great!! I think going on a week day was the way to do it!





We loved having Rah Rah with us on our trip.


We all loved riding the Tidal Wave. I think at the end of the day we had ridden it 6 times!!



The boys rode their first ever roller coaster...The Screamin Eagle! They loved it and wanted to go a second time. On our second ride we got stopped near the top of the track due to technical difficulties (not really what you want to hear when you are high above the tree tops)! The workers said it rarely ever happens...weren't we the lucky ones!! It really wasn't so bad but we did end up having to exit the coaster and walk back down the track to the bottom of the track. We were pretty far up! Not everyone can say they got to do that while at Six Flags!! The ride was fixed soon after we got off but we didn't get back on!


While Cade, Chance and I were riding The Tidal wave for the 6th time of the day Chad and Cooper ran across these guys!!

Trip Home

We had a great time in St. Louis. On our way home we made a stop at Lambert's for lunch. We all ate till we were stuffed and barely made a dent in our plates.

Gitty Up Horsey

Wasn't until a week or so ago that I realized this mechanical horse and I shared the same name! Nice! The boys ask to ride these silly things a lot and I very rarely let them but they went to the store with Chad one day and he let them ride! Chad said watching the boys on this was well worth the .25 he spent!! According to him riding this horse is like riding a bucking bull! I was impressed that Chad actually got my camera out of the car and took a picture of them. That is so unlike him!

Baby Bird

We found a baby bird sitting in Rah Rah's yard a few days ago. It had fallen from the nest in the tree above where we found it. The nest was too high for us to put the bird back so we moved it to the bushes and "bird-sat" all day. We found bugs, worms, etc. for the baby bird to eat. The kids had fun feeding the bird who just opened it's mouth wide anytime we got near. I wasn't sure if the mama was still around but eventually watched her slowing make her way down into the bushes to feed her baby. She had just been staying away from all the kids and commotion going on outside! When things got quiet she came back to care for her baby. That made me feel better! Wasn't sure how long we could keep up the bug hunting :-)!

Daddy's are so much fun!

I've read the book Go, Dog, Go to my kids several times over the years but never have I had the same reaction from the kids that Chad got the other day while reading it to them. He had the kids laughing hysterically while reading them that book. Yes, he used silly voices but the thing that had them laughing so hard was that he changed the word "dog" in the book to "Cooper". The book uses the word "dog" a ton and every time Chad changed it to "Cooper" the kids laughed. I just don't think about doing silly (and simple) things like that to change things up! It was impossible to be in the same room and not laugh along with them! The kids loved it! I'm so glad they have a daddy who enjoys playing with them and always makes things so much fun!