we went to st. louis

At the end of October, the boys had a 4-day weekend that happened to be the same weekend as Bart's and Krew's birthdays.  So, we decided to take a little road trip to St. Louis.  We looked online for suggestions of a few fun things to do, and it ended up being such a fun little trip!

 The first morning we were there was pretty rainy and cold, so we found a few fun indoor things to do.  First stop was the science museum, which was totally free and super fun!

 Look how cool this big nintendo game is!  

 A highlight of the museum were these little windows in the floor of the bridge that went over the freeway.  The kids would look down them and watch cars whizz on by below!

 Another totally free, super fun stop was Grant's Farm.  It was fun to see some animals and ride the tram, even if we were freezing the whole ride.

 The highlight of the farm was definitely the parakeet house.  it was a small enclosure that had roughly 100 parakeets that we were able to feed. Meanwhile, we got covered in birds.

 It was so fun!

 We had a few more hours to play, and we were all done with being outside in the cold, so we took a risk and took our four kids to a fancy art museum.  We were well aware that it could be a terrible idea, but we were pleasantly surprised how well all of them acted.  I even think they enjoyed themselves, if only for a little bit.

 Krew's art teacher would be proud.  He knew this was the work of Piet Mondrian as soon as he saw it!

We finished our day by enjoying some of the best BBQ we have ever eaten!  

 The next morning, we headed to another totally free, totally awesome place:  the St. Louis zoo!  Right when we walked in, we saw the millions of bubbles they were blowing into the air.  I have never seen so many bubbles in my whole life.  It was awesome!

 I loved that as part of Krew's birthday celebration weekend, we were able to visit a new zoo.  This kid loves learning about animals and it's one of my favorite things about him.  It was fun to watch him light up while seeing each new animal!

 Also, did you know that four-year olds can be absolutely terrified of butterflies?  They can.

Maybe the most fun thing we did in St. Louis was the City Museum.  It is kinda hard to describe if you've never been there.  It's a huge old building that has been transformed into a huge playground for every age.  There were places to climb, higher and higher, slides that went down five stories, tunnels through the walls that you could crawl through, slides in the floor that you had no idea where it led, a circus inside, and so, so much more!  It was crazy trying to keep track of all four kids, but otherwise it was so much fun!

Krew thought it was pretty cool to wake up in a hotel room on his birthday and that there were a couple of presents there for him to open.

Of course no trip to St. Louis would be complete without a visit to the Gateway Arch.  It's so huge in person!

I was so excited to visit the arch, because my earliest memory is from when I was two and I remember being up inside the arch.  I remember looking out the windows and seeing a helicopter.  Lots of people don't believe that I can remember anything from when I was two, but that memory is so clear in my mind (and it's the only time I had ever been to the arch), that I'm sure it is a true memory.  I was so excited to visit it again and see that the real thing matches my memory.

Everly was nervous and didn't want to go up inside it.  We kept trying to reassure her that it was safe, and that we would be inside it the whole time.  Turns out, the whole time, she thought it was like a rollercoaster and that it was going to be super fast.  We were trying to ease her fears about the height, when we should have been telling her that is was a super slow ride.

Looking out the tiny windows at the top.  And guess what?  These pictures match my memory exactly (minus Ky and Kade being in the way ;)).  There was even a helicopter on the ground that we could see from the windows.  It was a pretty surreal feeling.

It was such a great trip.  We saw new things, ate yummy food, celebrated Bart's and Krew's birthdays, and enjoyed spending some time together.