I hope as I look back on the early years of my kids lives, I will forget how hard it was to make memories!!! I want us to go places and have fun as a family, but man these kids make it so difficult!! The trip to St. Louis was a little bit of a last minute decision (for me anyway- by last minute I mean I started planning and booked hotel rooms about a month prior) and I had hoped it would be a good trip before school started and a good time for us to bond as a family. It seems like we haven’t had much time together lately, as Jarrod has been working so much. Well. . . . it was HOT, and everything was PACKED, and high temps + crowds + off schedule + no naps = super cranky kids. We left Thursday evening and had planned to stop in Sikeston and eat at Lamberts. We got there around 7pm. The line was out of the restaurant and almost into the parking lot. At 7pm. On a Thursday night. What??? So we ate at AppleBee’s instead. Jarrod’s steak was horrible. The kids were tired and didn’t want to sit and eat. Not a good start. . .
We got to the hotel (after it taking a while to find our way) and it was LATE. I think we finally all got settled in and ready for bed about midnight! Yikes!
We didn’t really sleep in much the next morning, but it was later than I really wanted us to get up and out. I knew everything was going to be crowded and the earlier we got around the better! We decided to do the zoo on Friday and the boys had tickets to a Cards game that night. The zoo was really busy (AND SO HOT!) we walked around and waited almost an hour (INSANE!!) to get on the train, then tried to eat lunch. We had to wait for someone to get up and grab a table since there wasn’t any vacant. We ate, but the kids picked at their food, Jarrod didn’t eat because they put pickles on his hamburger and everyone was in a horrible mood! We had to walk the rest of the way around the zoo. We decided the train was just too crowded. Before when we had been we would jump on and off the train from area to area and didn’t have to wait much if at all. It was so insanely crowded! We had to wait in line a long time for everything! I’m learning that we aren’t the family that can do a crowded amusement park. I think we’d better wait and do something like Disney when the kids are older and in the (WAY) off season!
See Lions were a hit!
They both loved the Sting Rays
I think we finally finished up and headed out about 2:30. The kiddos were both exhausted. Arden fell asleep in the stroller while I was getting us drinks for the road! Stratton fell asleep on the way back to the hotel too. We were all so hot and gross we went back to the hotel and got showered and cleaned up and headed out to dinner at a Italian restaurant that was close to our hotel, Angelo’s. It was super! We had authentic toasted ravioli, me and the kids had probably the best caesar salad I’ve ever had and we also had pizza and pasta! So yummy!! After we ate the boys left and walked to the stadium for the game and Arden and I walked back to the hotel and had coffee (for me) and dessert (for her) at Starbucks, then we browsed the giftshop and walked around the hotel a bit.
The boys at the game. Lucky for them their seats were in the shade!
Arden and her pink cake pop and selfie with my phone
Saturday we got out a little earlier but still later than I would have liked! We got to Grant’s Farm before the huge crowd but it was crowded enough! The kid’s favorite part was feeding the goats. Of course. I bet they would have stayed for hours. Arden just wanted to love on them and pet them. But it was hot and the goat area wasn’t shaded much, so we hurried them up!
On the tram to Grant’s Farm- Stratton was being grumpy.
Feeding a Llama
Feeding the goats.
The rest of the pictures are of Arden. Stratton was majorly grumpy and didn’t want to do anything especially be in a picture. But Arden was being quite the ham!
She actually asked me to take this one of her in front of the big horse!
We left Grant’s Farm and went to lunch at a place called Schafly’s bottleworks. I had heard good things. I heard wrong. It was not good. The kids were cranky and tired and didn’t want to act like they had been in public before. That’s always nice. We were all in a bad mood I think. Well, I thought we could spend the afternoon inside at the Children’s Museum. We got there about 2ish I think? It was crowded but I bet it’s always that way on a Saturday. We started the afternoon with Arden going down an enclosed climbing/ladder thing in the middle of the house (that went from the top floor to the bottom. She got scared and froze, Stratton had taken off down it without her and she couldn’t see me. Oh. Man. Talk about a crisis. Stratton got to the bottom and realized he didn’t know where he was and couldn’t find us so he also had a melt down at the same time! It was horrible! Luckily a nice older kid helped Arden down and out to me and Jarrod found Stratton with a worker. Geez! It got better after that (thankfully!) and we did have a good afternoon there. The kids played with all kinds of stuff! There was a room/area for just about anything you could think of!
In the electricity room- Jarrod is taking care of a power outage even on vacation!
They loved the library and of course the art room!
Playing in the water area!
We were all starving after the museum, so we decided to head out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Arden fell asleep on the way there, and stayed asleep while we got her out of the car and waited on our table!
After dinner, everyone was in a much better mood so we decided to venture out to the outlet mall. There were a few stores I wanted to check out. We ended up not buying much of anything, but Arden found a baby (of course) and we ended the night on a good and happy note for a change!
We had a good trip, despite the heat and crowds. I think we did learn that maybe St. Louis in August isn’t the best place for us to spend a long weekend. Hopefully, the kids will look back and remember us going places and doing things together and having a good time. I’m sure they won’t remember the fits, fights, crankiness, and unpleasantries of taking trips with these crazy precious kids! But I will. . .