St. Louis Weekend

This weekend we made a mini-vacation to St. Louis.  We went with our trip buddies, the Hoangs,  the Narwanis and the Focklers plus Phuc's sister Lucky and her son; nine boys and one girl (Emma can play at boy stuff no problem) between all of us.  Just 4.5 hrs away (less without bridge work) St. Louis is an awesome place!  The highlight of the trip was the City Museum.   A crazy mix of art/playground/fantasy/architecture this place was a fun land for kids and adults alike.  I think we will make this an annual trip, as the older Brock gets, the more fun it will be.  Anyone want to join us one year?  St. Louis is a fabulously accessible place that is not too pricey, very accommodating to parents, and loaded with fun surprises.  Let's go!

Here is Matt taking Brock down the big slide on the rooftop. 

Again, we'll be back when Brock is older.  Some of it was more for me and Matt.  We took turns watching little man.  Luckily we were able to take beer anywhere.  Definitely not in Chicago anymore.

Here I am climbing up the inside of a praying mantis belly with a long slide underneath that was quite the rush. 

The possibilities are endless here.  With stairs and passage ways spanning a 10 story high area, everyone feels can get a sense of what a hamster feels like.  I couldn't possibly take enough pictures to do the place justice, if you are interested, I recommend an image search.  

I was up in that spiral tunnel, I guess I am out of picture range here.

They had a toddler zone that was Brock sized.  We spent a lot of time here.  These were foamy Legos that Brock was content to squish and give an occasional chew to. 

They had a much larger ball pen for older kids, but had a small area for little ones too.  Brock's does love his balls (behave): this attraction offered almost overwhelming joy.

Until, like anything else, our passion becomes our prison!

enough mom.

...and yes, some of it is painful and tiring to climb on; luckily they sell knee pads in the gift shop.

We decided not to take the stroller on the giant hamster wheel.  It is much more difficult to get going than you might assume.  I needed a friendly stranger's help!

The famous arch was in walking distance from our hotel, but we had far too much to accomplish before bedtime to check it out.  

We alternated girls night and boys night with the boys getting the difference of the two.  That just meant that we had to do two nights worth of fun in one.  Somehow the formula did not seem as logical in the morning. This roof top bar of our hotel was really neat and offered a fantastic view.  Jen is out of view, but still a critical element.  Eileen and Sherry pictured here.

The next day we made a trip to Grant's Farm.   Home of Budweiser and Ulysses Grant.  What a deal! For a 12 buck parking pass per car/family you get all access to the farm and two free beers a person!  At the farm, Matt's college friends Eric and Audrey and their two boys joined the group.  Here is Brock feeding a goat.  They had bottles, but he offered his arm instead.  Luckily baby goats are not known for their highly developed fangs. 

This was was the anchor end of a chain barricade to mark off the close of the Bavarian eating/drinking area.  Maybe it was all the Budweiser, but we thought he was pretty creepy, perhaps the zombie apocalypse origin was at Grant's Farm. 

Back in downtown St. Louis, we walked to Shlafly's, the local microbrewery favorite.  St. Louis has a wonderful park system with lots of interactive sculpture and water elements to enjoy.  While Brock was sleeping we played with the bunnies.

so meta.

We got a great deal at the Hilton and Brock really enjoyed his stay.  In the beginning we were not so sure.  This is our second trip now where we have been assured of a crib and it was unavailable upon arrival.  They did deliver in the end, but it wasn't until 11:15 at night.  The bed switch did not go well, but it was good practice for Poland.  I ended up going into the bathroom, shutting the door, turning on the water, and studying the evacuation plan to see how many rooms we were sharing a wall with.

By the next night, all was well.  We discovered towel-over-the-mesh-of-crib blocked parent viewing (like, we were totally in another room or something) and also that what feels like 20 minutes of screaming is really only 3.  No TV, however, a heightened wake-up risk.   Not to worry, I got one whole chapter of my book read that night; more pages than the entire previous month before that. 

Brock's favorite hotel game was putting the ball on the gray thing, knocking it off, picking it up, and repeat.  Awesome... that meant a full solo shower... this is turning into quite a luxurious trip.

A wall size mirror?  Why didn't they list this in the amenities section?

Anyhow, it was an fantastic weekend.  Thank you so much for being such great travel buddies everyone, and thank you St. Louis for being so EZ!!  See you next year!