St. Louis trip: Days 3 and 4!

WARNING: PICTURE OVERLOAD FINALE! =o)

This first picture is actually from day 2 at the arch, but I wanted to include it on its own because I think it's such a cool shot of Jay and Holden coming down the hill with the arch in the background.

On day 3, we decided to take a break from the heat and enjoy the City Museum. This is seriously the coolest kids' museum I have ever visited! (And if you know my parents, I've been to a LOT of museums over the years!) =o) It is set up in what used to be a shoelace factory in the heart of the downtown area. When you pull up to the building, there is a giant school bus that looks like it is about to fall right over the edge of the roof! There are all these spiral climbing tunnels that lead to a castle, a ball pit, etc. right outside the museum. You can see kids and their parents way up in the air scrambling through various areas. Inside there are just so many cool, random things to see and do. Jay loves the Tom Sawyer-esque caves, complete with dripping water and tunnels that lead all over the museum. We can picture Holden climbing all over the place in a few years when he's a little more steady on his feet! There were fun slides to go down, a special toddler area, box turtle races, a circus floor with a train to ride on, circus food, and kids putting on a mini circus, and much more. We paid extra to go into the "Living Aquarium," where we touched baby sharks, saw some kind of furry creature running around in a tunnel over our heads (see bottom middle picture; Holden is looking up at it!), and watched Holden crawl through a huge tunnel that had an aquarium all the way around it. (Middle picture, middle row.) As usual, I don't know who enjoyed "playing" more; Holden or Jay! =o)

Once we left the museum, Holden fell asleep in the van and continued to sleep while we put him in the van, drove to Union Station, got him out and put him in his stroller, and passed the very loud Fudgery again! He was wiped out! Jay and I got some quality shopping done while he slept in his stroller. It was nice to do this in peace and not have to chase him around! He woke up as we were heading to the food court for lunch; perfect timing! After lunch, Jay let him drive one of the miniature boats out in the pavilion. You can pay money and then you control a boat with a steering wheel and a gear stick. Holden loved driving his boat and of course with him at the wheel, it made some crazy moves!!! They also fed the fish again. On the way out of the parking garage, I snapped the second shot of my boys in front of Busch Stadium. It looked very empty since the Cardinals were away! We are looking forward to our August game. We ended the day shopping at Macy's downtown (it had 7 floors; I was in heaven!) and running through another fountain. The water was freezing and felt SO good in the heat! Holden thought he was hot stuff. Love the bottom left picture of Jay with his pants rolled up; can we say 80's flashback???? The highlight of the day (and Jay's favorite trip story) was when Jay took Holden in his pj's over to Hooter's to get carryout dinner. We had swam again and I needed to shower, and it was 7:00 and we still hadn't eaten! So he volunteered (quite willingly I might add!) ;o) and I agreed because I love their chicken. The restaurant was right across from our hotel, so after my shower I watched out the window for them. And waited. And waited. And waited. Started to worry. All of a sudden here comes the stroller, way down below, with Jay and Holden looking like little specks. Jay was carrying Holden because all the carryout was in the stroller. I start laughing as I see this big balloon with the words, "I Love Hooters" on it, bobbing along tied to the stroller. Apparently Holden was quite the hit with the Hooters girls. Several of them held him, and what do you think he grabbed? (I am sure you don't have to think real hard; it's what is sticking out of their shirts!!!) Everyone thought this was hilarious and they got him a balloon and Jay quite enjoyed all the attention they got from the girls. My womanizing 15 month old. Lovely! The words are cut off the balloon in the collage, but that's what that picture is all about. In the last shot you can see that Holden thoroughly enjoyed the Hooters curly fries!!!!

On our last day, we checked out of the hotel and headed to Grant's Farm. This is another favorite place for Jay and I to visit in St. Louis. I think Holden's favorite part of the day was riding the tram that takes you to and from the farm! He laughed and clapped and yelled, "GO!" You can see him enjoying the ride in the first pic. with Jay. Holden helped us feed the baby goats from their bottles, although he was a bit intimidated by how greedy they were! Jay started out in the pen with him but the goats literally jump on you trying to get to the milk so we ended up just feeding them through the fence. At one point I handed him a bottle but what do you think he did with it? Yep, tried to drink warm goat's milk! YUCK! I grabbed it just in time. He hasn't had a bottle in 3 months, but he still knows what to do with one! Besides the tram, Holden's other love at the farm was the wood fences. He would rest his little arms on the top rail and try to put his feet on the bottom. He could stand like that forever if we would have let him. We had to coax him to each new exhibit because he didn't want to leave his fence spot! We saw an elephant show, a small animals show, watched the turtles getting cooled off with a hose, fed a camel (didn't get shots of that due to the huge crowd of people!), and looked at lots of other animals. Holden really liked the parrots. If you click on the bottom left picture, I think you'll see why we took it! (Hint: read the sign; it can apply to Holden at times!) We left after about an hour and a half because it was just too hot and crowded. There were about 3 day camps full of kids. Holden promptly fell asleep on the way out of the farm, sippy cup still in his mouth, and slept the WHOLE way home! Guess we wore him out this trip! We had a great time as a family and can't wait for our next vacation!