"Meet Me in St. Louie..." Part 1

At the beginning of August we headed back to St. Louis, this time with my parents in tow, for a short little overnight trip. We took Holden to his very first St. Louis Cardinals game, visited the arch museum, and stopped by the Botanical Gardens in the morning before heading home. It was a fun little "end of summer" trip and we enjoyed having Grammy and Papa along for the ride!

Playing cars at Bob Evans, fountain shots, fun at the hotel, and a peek at Abe Lincoln. =o)

Jay wanted to be sure that I included this shot of the lit up board.
He says Cubs fans should take note!

Holden's first game was absolutely perfect. It was a 7:00 game so the sun wasn't on us for long, the weather cooperated and was in the mid 80's, VERY reasonable for St. Louis in the summer, and they were giving away free Build-A-Bear Cardinals Bears at the gate! Holden really enjoyed all of the people and the music. He is a big people watcher and enjoyed watching the players warm up before the game with Daddy. He did not care for sitting so much (see the picture of him, Jay, and my parents!!!) but loved to stand right in front of us and bounce to the music. He was also fascinated with-of all things-the $5.00 water bottles. They are the kind that you squeeze to get the drink out. He thought it was great to squeeze it out all over our feet, his body, the people in front of us, etc. Needless to say we had to go ahead and confiscate the water bottles. Busch Stadium has a really neat playground area perfect for toddlers. It has giant bats, gloves, balls, etc. for them to climb on/in/under. Holden met a little curly-haired girl around his age wearing a Cardinals cheer leading outfit and it was love at first sight for both of them! They held hands, babbled at each other, and followed each other all around. Holden even tried to kiss her! She played hard to get but then kissed his hand, which I did get a picture of below. What can I say, he knows how to pick 'em! (Don't worry, Natalie, you're still his number one girl!) I also took him to make a Build-A-Bear Clydesdale horse for his Cardinals nursery. When you push its leg it plays the charge song, and it has a beating heart that you can feel. The Build-A-Bear store there has all kinds of neat Cardinals animals and is AIR CONDITIONED. Amen! Holden made it to the 7th inning before we headed back to the hotel to put him to bed. The Cardinals were winning when we left, but ended up losing.....I think we should have stayed! Oops!