St. Louis-Day 2

My Dad loves to travel, so he always made a point each year to take us on some really cool trips. My most fond memories growing up were vacations with my family. I think that is why I like traveling so much. It brings back good memories for me and allows me to make new memories with my family now. There is something special about being away from the everyday stuff and the "to do" lists and just enjoying the 4 of us. Everyone seems more relaxed. Especially myself. Today, after we laid B down for a nap and set Emma up for some quiet time, I laid on the couch, without guilt, and watched HGTV until I fell asleep. It was great!

The Weather Channel said we had pretty clear skies until noon and they were right on. We ventured out to Grant's Farm this morning. The grounds are wide open, green and beautiful. The first thing you do when you get there is ride on a tram that takes you around the grounds and then drops you off at the animals.








We saw cows close up (B loved that) and many deer and buffalo along the tram ride. At the farm, the girls were able to give a bottle of milk to some baby goats. We had to have all hands on for that adventure, so John took a picture of another little girl feeding so we could remember the memory. :)






While we were there, we (well, really John) got interviewed for a segment on the news. Click here to see the video. The Busch family owns and runs this farm, so at the end of the farm, you can get free beer samples. The Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale's are also on the land, so we went to the stables on our way out. Right at noon, the rain came and we were in the car heading for our hotel.







Brooklyn and I took a long nap while John and Emma watched E.T. (it must have been a good nap for B. check out her hair after she woke up) The rain brought some cold air in and it was still drizzly, so we had to do something inside. The front desk said there was an outlet mall called The Mills that had a large children's playground, so we headed there for the night. I have never seen a mall playground like this. Apparently PBS sponsors the area. It was amazing. We also let Emma jump on this crazy trampoline. As John said, "This is what vacation is about. Letting our kids do things that we normally would not pay for."

St. Louis - Day 1

We traveled most of the day yesterday, so this is officially Day 1 of our vacation activities. I am going to try to blog each night, so we have record of our little trip. We have a list of things we want to try to do while we are here and are deciding what to do based on the weather. A bad storm came through last night and it was supposed to continue to rain this morning. Based on that, we decided to do the City Museum. We were not positive that it would be the best place based on our girls ages, but we decided to give it a try since it was inside. I am so glad we did. It was really fascinating. "Genius" is what we called it as we walked out. We decided that we need to come back in about 5 years when the girls are 6 1/2 and 9 1/2. (that is strange to say) The City Museum has things to climb, tunnels to crawl in, slides to slide, balls to jump in, ropes to swing on, and a little aquarium. I don't really know how to describe it, but whoever designed it is a genius. It was really fun. The girls really liked it. Emma was very brave going down some big slides and walking through dark tunnels. There was a toddler area that was a smaller version of the "bigger kid" things. Most of the activities we have planned are free, but the City Museum was not. I was skeptical of paying $12 per person (minus B b/c she is under 2), but it was worth it.












We made it back around 2:00 for B to take a nap. She seemed so tired, but then barely took a nap. The sun came back out, so we decided to head to the zoo for a few hours before they closed. The St. Louis Zoo is the best zoo that John and I have ever been to. (and yes, we have made a point to tour zoo's in most cities we visit, so we are experts :) To be fair, we have not been to San Diego yet) We knew that we would need more than just 2 1/2 hours to get through this zoo, so we went for a few hours tonight and then will go back again. It is a free zoo, so you can come as go as you please. Emma wanted to see the penguins, so we slowly made our way to the back of the zoo where the penguin exhibit was. We visited many animals along the way including elephants, bears, hippos, anteaters, etc.....I got a great picture of this little girl and the hippos that we watched swimming. I tried to get Emma with the hippo, but I could never catch the picture fast enough. I'm glad someone was posing!






Two of the cute highlights of the day were:

We were walking to get some dinner and came upon the Carousel. Brooklyn was walking at this point and was mesmerized by it. She was pointing with one finger and signing "please" with her other hand. I wish we had a video of it, but the picture below is the best we got. It was sweet.

Emma is fascinated with numbers right now. A light bulb went off in her head about 2 months ago that once you get to 20, everything starts repeating. We have been teaching her the 10's such as 30, 40, 50, etc....She is now constantly wanting to count or wants us to count. I told her in the car today that maybe she will be a mathematician when she gets older and she said, "Mom, I am not. When I get older I am going to be a princess!"

Girls Weekend with Daddy

Though I have unofficially retired from blogging (which I leave to Allison now), I wanted to blog about last weekend.

Allison went to Little Rock by herself, so I loaded up the girls on Saturday and went to the Wild Wilderness Drive Thru Safari. There's a lot of construction going on there, so most of the animals were in different locations. Also, most of the animals are still "winterizing", so they were sheltered instead of roaming the safari area. Of course, we didn't know this until we were leaving, so we missed all the monkeys and fun petty zoo animals. While driving through, I put Brooklyn in her car seat next to me in the front. Emma got the entire back seat to run back and forth to see the animals (what few there were to see, at least). I did get to snap a few pictures of the animals while we were there. We had about 5 camels chasing the car, thinking we had food. When I stopped, they all were vying for Brooklyn's window. The picture of the camel below was taken from my side of the car, meaning it was about 1-2 feet from Brooklyn...she loved it! After the safari, we ate at McDonald's and went to Veteran's Park to play. It was a full day with the girls, and it was great! The last two pictures are llama's. They're beautiful and intelligent-looking animals, aren't they?

Adventures in Traveling with Kids

We've been traveling a lot. Almost every weekend for the past month or so. And it's not letting up until mid-July. It's exhausting on all involved, too. Especially when you're kids don't sleep well in hotel rooms.

Abiline, Texas
We went to Abiline for Allison's aunt's 50th wedding anniversary celebration and family reunion. That's about a 7 hour trip without kids. A couple of months ago, we went to Dallas for the weekend. It took us 8 hours to get there. Expecting more of the same (and not looking forward to it), we decided to go early and stay in Fort Worth for a while. The drive down was pretty good. We made the trip in about 6 1/2 hours. The next day (Thursday), we took the kids to the Fort Worth Zoo and hung out at the hotel. On Friday, we went on to Abilene. To make this post short, I'll highlight the "fun" we had while we were there:

• Very little sleep. Brooklyn cut 2 teeth over the weekend! 2!!! She was fussy the whole time and didn't sleep well. When she doesn't sleep well in a hotel room, NO ONE sleeps well.
• Brooklyn threw up twice at a super-nice steak house with the entire family there. Not "spit up"...we're talking projectile vomiting. We left the party soon after.
• Emma. Where to start? A tired 3 1/2 year old girl is not a pretty thing. Especially when she's been struggling with mood swings a lot. I'm talking minute-by-minute ups and downs. Before the final dinner on the last night, we had a throw down with her in the hotel room. Over what? Putting on her pants. I had to hold her for the next 30 minutes before she could calm down. I wanted to do anything but hold her...I was furious.
• Spankings: see above point. There were many handed out throughout the weekend.

On a good note, it was nice meeting new family members and hanging out with them. It's a fun family and they all pitched in to help with the kids. For that, we are super thankful. In the picture: this meercat sat in one spot for at least 2 hours and just stared at me while I took pictures.


Mountain Home, Arkansas
My dad just turned 60 this past week. And he and Mom just moved into their new house on the golf course. To celebrate, my sister and her family and my family went over to hang out. The house is really nice and has spectacular views of the golf course! I played LOTS of Wii with my nephews while the girls all read magazines and talked house plans (my sister is building a house). Luke & Isaac (my nephews) are becoming interested in golf. So I took them to the driving range at the course and let them hit a large bucket of balls. Then we putted for a while. Us and the Hannon's (my sister's family) went to the pool and hung out for a long time swimming, which is always fun. Emma is all about jumping in from the side of the pool. Of course, I have to catch her each time so she doesn't go under water. Being a parent at the pool with your kids is really, really a great time! In the picture: Uncle Sam fed Brooklyn before bedtime Saturday night. She was so tired, she fell asleep while eating.

Brooklyn did decently well sleeping. She cut another 2 teeth this weekend! At this rate, she'll have a full set of teeth by the end of August! I'm praying they stop coming in...I'm ready for my happy Brooklyn to be back full-time. Emma slept great and got to play with her cousins all weekend. Dad and I were going to play golf this morning, but got rained out. Very sad.

We're looking forward to August....when we can have a rest from our travels.