Wednesday, July 8, 2009

A Farm, A Zoo, and a Tall, Tall Arch

Last week, after hearing that my Grandpa was ill and in the hospital, Kevin and I made plans to travel to the St Louis area to visit him. We also thought, if we're going all that way, we ought to make the most of our time and have some fun too. So we made plans to leave early Thursday morning for a little mini-vacation.



Our first stop was Grant's Farm. Neither Kevin nor I had ever been, so we thought it would be fun to try. We had lots of fun at the farm. If you've never been, it's worth the trip. It's kind of like a mini-zoo. Much calmer and than the zoo, but still plenty to do for an afternoon. The kids wanted to feed the goats, so Kevin took them all in. Unfortunately, that was a little less than successful. With only one entrance, and dozens of baby goats, every child walking in is a target for attack. Jadon in particular was pretty disturbed by the swarming mass of baby goats. Chloe was fine, and as soon as Kevin handed JJ off to me and took Micah to a less crowded part of the pen, Micah seemed to enjoy himself too.

Even though the goats weren't really a hit with Jadon, he loved the carousel! There was a mirror in the center of the ride that he got a kick out of looking for every time he passed it.
Chloe had a great time, but she was asking for the horses the entire time we were at the farm. So we eventually made it through the entire farm and over to the Clydesdales on the other side. She was in horse heaven. Those Clydesdales are HUGE!She even managed to talk Daddy into getting each of the kids a stuffed horse to take home.


After we left Grant's Farm, Kevin decided to head over to the Gateway Arch. He'd never been up in it and the kids had never even been near it, so we thought it would be a fun experience. It took a little longer than we expected(hours longer) to get there, even though we were only a few miles away, because we didn't realize we were heading downtown just in time for the start of the Cardinals game. A bit of advice, always check the baseball schedule before heading to downtown St Louis.

The kids were amazed at how tall the arch was, it seems big from the interstate, but that's nothing compared to standing underneath. They had a great time going up in the top of the arch. Micah was particularly excited about seeing the Cardinals game starting.Pretty neat for such a baseball fanatic, even if it isn't his team.


We ended up getting out of there pretty late before we headed off to dinner with my parents at Landry's in Union Station. If you like seafood and are ever in St Louis, I highly advise making that stop a priority. It may have been the best meal I've ever eaten.


Friday morning, after Jadon woke me up at 5:30, we had breakfast with my parents and headed off to the nursing home to see my Grandpa. After that visit, we decided to take the kids to the zoo for a short adventure. They've all been to the St Louis Zoo, and they'd certainly seen a lot of animals the day before, but what kid doesn't like a trip to the zoo?


Since we'd already had a pretty big day on Thursday, and Mommy was feeling a bit worn out, we let each of the kids choose their favorite animal to see and we just visited those parts of the park. Kevin wanted to start in the butterfly house, so we made our way from there to the snakes and reptiles that Micah wanted to see. Jadon seemed most pleased by some ducks that we saw in the grass on the way. He apparently doesn't need any zoo animals to stay happy. Just let him out of the stroller every once in a while.


Chloe wanted to see the penguins so we wandered through the center of the zoo, past the gorillas and the sea lions to see the penguins.On the way, we discovered a new apiary(birdcage) that we'd never been in before. Think pterodactyl cage in Jurassic Park, but with much less scary birds. We only spent 2 or 3 hours at the zoo, but we were exhausted by the time we left.
Jadon was so tired that he laid down in the middle of the floor as soon as we got back to the house for naptime. We decided that we were ready to go home that night instead of leaving the next morning. So Micah and I went into the nursing home to say goodbye to my Grandpa before we left for dinner. We got home at about 11 that night completely spent but very glad we had gone.


We did very little the next day, and I was even glad to hear that 4th of July plans had been postponed because of the weather. It was much more fun to celebrate on Sunday after we'd had a whole day to recuperate.

1 comment:

BankerDad said...

I like the picture of Jadon in the mirror the best! (it may be because I took that picture) :)

Mom to four beautiful blessings including a brand new little guy. Laugh and cry with me as I navigate the joys and perils of motherhood and homeschooling.