I'd have to say day one of our first real family vacation as a family of four was successful. I'm laying in a hotel bed listening to the snores of three exhausted family members. :) Today was a laid back no schedule day. When we left home this morning our only real plan was to head to St. Louis. We took our time and didn't get into town until 2:00 where we decided to stop at The Magic House. It was AMAZING. Excellent for our kids, everything was interactive, both kids loved it. No stroller required here the kids got to sort of run free and check out of the exhibits. Nathan remembers doing The Magic House when he was younger and apparently it was MUCH smaller, in 2009 the renovated and now there is the purple side that was 4 floors and the red side that has 3 floors. We were there until 5:00 and if the kids were a tad bit older we could have stayed longer. This place is a must for kids of any age really.
After The Magic House we went to our hotel and checked in and jumped on the bed for a bit before heading to the Galleria Mall for some delicious dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, complete with post dinner Build-A-Bears and some shopping at The Gap for this momma. :)
Day 2
All four of us in a hotel room together mean when Asher wakes up at 6:00 am on 'vacation' we all wake up at 6:00 am. :) After a morning of cartoons and free hotel breakfast we headed to the St. Louis Zoo. Free zoo on a Saturday = lots of people. But we hung in there with the rest of them. Our biggest challenge was Asher wanted to literally ride every animal and would get mad then we moved on or told him he couldn't ride it. He REALLY wanted to ride the Rhino. "Rhino, ride it. Rhino ride it." The penguins were a hit with both kids and as we were headed out of the zoo Asher fell asleep in the stroller. Successful zoo trip.
We left the zoo and head to a restaurant that I had read about for lunch. Fitz’s American Grill & Bottling Works, where they actually bottled their own soda. We were able to sit very near where they were bottling root beer that day. So the kids were entertained, and we got to have some amazing soda and floats that were made with FOUR scoops of ice cream. Amazing I say.
It was raining a bit after lunch, our original plans were to head downtown and check out the Arch, but instead we detoured to another mall to kill some time while it was raining. And honestly I didn't end up buying much we were just waiting the rain out. After a quick check of the radar we decided to head downtown to the Arch.
It was just drizzling a bit when we finally made our way to the Arch, but wasn't horrible. Amelia really wanted to go up to the top she said. After talking to the lady at the ticket counter we found out it was a 45 minute wait. Seems doable, unless you have two kids who have had small naps either in a car seat or stroller. But Amelia was pretty insistence, so we went with it. Things were GREAT until in was time for us to get in time to go up in the Arch. Asher then started crying over anything and everything, nothing was making him happy. Everything we tried to do to distract him only made things worse. We were THOSE people with THAT kid for about 30 minutes, until he FINALLY fell asleep, as the top of the arch. None of this was his fault at all, totally all us trying to cram everything we could into one day. Poor dude. However Amelia enjoyed her trip to the top of the Arch. We ended the evening with Pizza delivered to our hotel room.
Day 3
We headed to Grant's Farm after we checked out of the hotel. The line to get in was crazy long. Both kids enjoyed the "big horses" and riding the camel. Asher was just super excited he finally got to ride something! We actually weren't there all that long, but we still enjoyed ourselves. Next time we'll get there earlier to avoid the crazy line at the beginning. The kids crashed before we were even out of the parking lot headed home. :)
Our first official family vacation was a lot of fun, I can't wait for many more!
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| Why, yes, I did. LOL |
After The Magic House we went to our hotel and checked in and jumped on the bed for a bit before heading to the Galleria Mall for some delicious dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, complete with post dinner Build-A-Bears and some shopping at The Gap for this momma. :)
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| Meet Rainbow Bear. |
Day 2
All four of us in a hotel room together mean when Asher wakes up at 6:00 am on 'vacation' we all wake up at 6:00 am. :) After a morning of cartoons and free hotel breakfast we headed to the St. Louis Zoo. Free zoo on a Saturday = lots of people. But we hung in there with the rest of them. Our biggest challenge was Asher wanted to literally ride every animal and would get mad then we moved on or told him he couldn't ride it. He REALLY wanted to ride the Rhino. "Rhino, ride it. Rhino ride it." The penguins were a hit with both kids and as we were headed out of the zoo Asher fell asleep in the stroller. Successful zoo trip.
It was just drizzling a bit when we finally made our way to the Arch, but wasn't horrible. Amelia really wanted to go up to the top she said. After talking to the lady at the ticket counter we found out it was a 45 minute wait. Seems doable, unless you have two kids who have had small naps either in a car seat or stroller. But Amelia was pretty insistence, so we went with it. Things were GREAT until in was time for us to get in time to go up in the Arch. Asher then started crying over anything and everything, nothing was making him happy. Everything we tried to do to distract him only made things worse. We were THOSE people with THAT kid for about 30 minutes, until he FINALLY fell asleep, as the top of the arch. None of this was his fault at all, totally all us trying to cram everything we could into one day. Poor dude. However Amelia enjoyed her trip to the top of the Arch. We ended the evening with Pizza delivered to our hotel room.
Day 3
We headed to Grant's Farm after we checked out of the hotel. The line to get in was crazy long. Both kids enjoyed the "big horses" and riding the camel. Asher was just super excited he finally got to ride something! We actually weren't there all that long, but we still enjoyed ourselves. Next time we'll get there earlier to avoid the crazy line at the beginning. The kids crashed before we were even out of the parking lot headed home. :)
Our first official family vacation was a lot of fun, I can't wait for many more!
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