Family Vacation to St. Louis

It had rained so much in the previous week that the Mississippi river was flooding the street. That river was huge and running so fast that it really gives me nightmares just remembering us being so close to it.

There were huge barges that take tourists for a ride on the river. Also, mini helicopters taking tours over the river. It is beyond me why anyone would want to do that. We even saw a person in a kayak (did I spell that right??). Yes, a kayaker was making his way across that huge river! He had to be nuts!


First stop, the St. Louis Gateway Arch. It was a spectacular sight. It was right on the river front. We carried the stroller up all those steps you see behind Mary. We really got a workout.


Here we are standing in front of the arch, close up. We sat in line for about 15 minutes, (and it was a mile long) before we realized we would be there in line for at least an hour, and the tickets to ride up to the top of the arch in the elevator were $10 for adults and "less" for kids. We decided to head out to the zoo (cheapskates).

Little Rusty LOVED the train ride. It took us through the entire zoo. We rode it twice over because it was so fun. Throughout the whole ride Rusty kept shouting "Weeeeeeeeeeeee!"


We were so hot. It was a hot and muggy day, but we knew it was now or never because I'm going to be in school soon.

There was a lot of fun things to do there at the zoo.



And, of course there were animals. Here is a hippo we saw swimming in a pool.



Jr. took this picture. He's eating a frozen yogurt.

Isaac took this photo. It looks like something out of a magazine!


Even Dad rode on the carrousel!


What the heck is this creature? Crazy lookin.

We had a long day in the sun, but we had fun TOGETHER, which is what family vacations are all about. I love my family!

I'm surviving...kinda-sorta.

Jared is in Florida for the week on a business trip, and I'm trying to survive while he is gone. I had the idea to finally potty train Sam while he is gone. I sat with Sam on the toilet for 2 1/2 hours yesterday before he finally gave up and went pee in the toilet for the very first time. He is still working on it and mostly successful, so YAY!!!!

We went to "Going Bonkers" fun center

Weezie and I decided to get out of the house and take our kids plus Susan's kids and go to an indoor fun center here in Columbia. The kids had hours of fun. We are trying to squeeze the last bit of fun out of the summer, can you tell? haha

The Devil's Icebox Cave

We went on a hike to a beautiful nature area with a cave. It is one of our favorite hang-outs around Columbia. There is a boardwalk that circles the entire area, and we were sweating pretty bad by the end of our hike, so we stopped and waded in the stream, which was ice cold. It was so refreshing on a hot and humid day. Glad we brought plenty of gatorade and a bag of ice...

Happy 6th Birthday Tommy!

Our little Tommy boy turned 6 on July 26th! He had a party with all his cousins.
We ate pizza, cake & ice cream, and candy. We played the bubble wrap game (walk across bubble wrap without popping any bubbles to get a prize).

He got a drum set, and he was so excited.

Hooray!

Morning cuteness...

Mary: "We're letting Sam do our morning exercises with us, Mom."

Mom: "Oh, that's nice of you."

Tommy: "Yeah, we're gonna exercise all morning long so we'll never die."

Mom: "Wow."

Tommy: "And for dinner we're gonna have the vegetable corn-on-the-cob. Vegetables are good for ya'."

Mom: "Oh."

Tommy: "Yeah, we also figured out that popsicles are good because they have ice in them, and ice has water in it, and water is good for you."

Mary: "I taught him that, Mom. C'mon Tom, let's go finish our exercises."