St. Loo-ey

Last week we drove 2.5 hours southwest and met up with Nathan's family for three days together in St. Louis.  This was a popular destination for my family when I was growing up, but I haven't returned since I graduated from college and I was excited for Nathan to see it (yeah, there's like a whole new baseball stadium and everything there now!).  

One other point before I jump into pics... I know it's called "Instagram", but in my case, it should be called LAZYgram.  Most of the photos you will see here are swiped from my Instagram feed.  It was hot.  I was relaxing.  The big camera didn't make much of an appearance on this trip, sadly.

I think our kids would have been happy to spend their whole time in the hotel's indoor/outdoor pool!

But we also ate very well too...  (below left, California Pizza Kitchen thought it would be easiest for the kids to sit at the bar and play with dough while the grown ups sat at their own table -- I can't blame them for not wanting to set up tables for seventeen!).  I can't speak for Steve and Rachel's, but my kids felt quite cool to sit on the tall chairs.  I was just excited to get to eat chipotle chicken pizza at CPK one more time before leaving America for the land that has never before heard the word "chipotle"... or lime cream sauce...  Okay, done talking about food.

Oops.  Not.  The hotel provided all-you-can-consume popcorn and soda fountain service in their lobby. Lounging on the bed after a swim in the pool, eating popcorn and drinking mom's diet coke while watching Animal Planet is the height of vacation luxury when you're not yet four years old.

 It was hot.  Therefore ice cream was called for...

... especially when Aunt Rebecca turns 30!!!

One thing I learned was that Panera originated in St. Louis... where they were originally called the St. Louis Bread Company, and have not changed their name.

Bottom right:  we stayed at a Drury Inn & Suites next to Forest Park.  What made this hotel ideal for all of us (with ten children!) is that they provided a huge hot breakfast bar as well as supper too!

We visited the Magic House one morning -- it was unrecognizeable from the time I visited as a child.  Pretty cool place!  I'm sharing a fraction of the photos from there... Below, we visited the "Oval Office".  As Nathan snapped the pic, I asked Ellie what they told her on the phone.  Without skipping a beat she said, "Ob*ma's invading Chin*."  Ha!  I wonder where she hears her news?

'What kid doesn't want to envelope themselves in a giant bubble?

Ellie couldn't quite work up the courage to keep her hand on the electro static ball for more than a few seconds, but Becca showed us how it was done!

The next day we visited the Science Museum (free!).  It was HUGE!

The food court has this enormous ball track.  I think we watched it for over twenty minutes.

Nathan saw the sign (below right) and got a kick.  

We viewed a really interesting short film about mummies in their Omnimax theater (a wraparound movie screen).  It was quite fascinating and at one point they show you the face of the mummy of the Pharoah that talked to Moses and the narrator says, "This is the only face from the Bible that you'll ever see."

 In case you have never been to St. Louis, you can ride to the top in a little capsule.  Ellie poses in front of the model at the visitor's center.  Yes. That is actual size.  And yes, that holds five people.

Reni was especially mesmerized with his view.  He whispered, "You can see EVERYTHING from up here!"

After a very hot visit to the Arch, we traveled out to the university part of town to enjoy floats at Fitz's Root Beer bottling store.

We have no idea how long the kids could have stayed and watched the 1940s-era bottling line chug out bottles of soda, but it was interesting to watch (especially the labeling mess-ups).

Due to the size of our group, we opted to eat on the patio.  It was a race to distribute our orders before everything was a melted mess!

Lots of memories to tuck away as we prepare to leave...  Thank you, Mom and Dad, for a great trip!