St. Louis (part 1)

We are not taking a big vacation this summer because we will be going to Florida this winter for my sister Ali's wedding, and Oliver is gone to Virginia for about 6 weeks for a class. We decided to take a short trip to check out a bit of the midwest. This time we took a train and went to St. Louis for a couple days. We had a great time, and there is so much to do in St. Louis that we were wishing we would have had at least one more day.

The train was the first part of our adventure, the kiddos were super excited to not be buckled in and to go on a "real" train.

Cole was so excited to have all his cars in his lap. He can't do this in his car seat. The kiddos were very excited about the pool at the hotel. They had just completed a round of swimming lessons and were feeling quite accomplished.

We, of course, had to have some Barbecue while in St. Louis. Kate really enjoyed her ribs.

On the first full day we went to the most amazing Children's museum. It is called the Magic House and it was highly recommended by many people. We can see why. I, in turn, highly recommend it to anyone traveling to the St. Louis area with children. We spent the whole day there, and I still don't think we saw the entire museum. So much fun!

Cole making music...

The Alice in Wonderland exhibit.

Kate and Cole climbing Jack's Beanstalk

Kate made it to the top!

These "floating" balls were pretty cool.

Cole's hair didn't make quite the affect that Kate's did.

Bubbles...

Kate inside a bubble

Cole LOVED "working" on the car!

I had too many photos to put them in one post. The next post will highlight the rest of the trip, which included the St. Louis Zoo and the Arch!

St. Louis (part 2)

On day 2 of our mini vacation to St. Louis we headed to the zoo. It is actually a great zoo. We were there for about 7 hours and really enjoyed ourselves.

This big guy was by the parking lot. Getting ready to head in...
The hippo was snoozing in the water...
Kate was MOST excited to see the elephant. Here she is showing off the elephant on her dress. This elephant was actually (very) pregnant. We even saw the baby moving in her belly! This was quite amazing. What is more amazing, was finding out that elephants are pregnant for 22 months! This baby is due in December.

The sea lion show was cute. Kate was a bit bummed she wasn't chosen to assist.

We took a short break for a little lunch.

Cole on the train. A bit smaller than the train 2 days earlier...

A carousel ride. The animals depicted on the carousel are all endangered animals.

The penguins are always pretty funny.

Cole wanted to show off the alligator, since he had one on his shirt (like Kate did with the elephant.)

One final photo on the way out (the only family pic of the trip...)

Next, on the the ARCH!

Daddy would not go up, but Kate really wanted to so I went with her while he and Cole checked out the Marine Day's exibits on th ground... This is the little "pod" of an elevator we took to the top.

Kate and I on our way up!

At the top...

It's quite a ways down there... Oliver doesn't even like to look at this photo!

We saw this after leaving the arch, and had to get a pic of Cole Street on Cole Street...

One final Arch pic on our way back to the train station...

Kate and Cole ready to head out...

We had a great time, and will have to plan another trip to check out the City Museum, the Clydesdale's at the Anheuser/Busch tour, see the rest of the Magic House, and see that baby elephant when he comes!

Now we are just waiting for Oliver to come home from Virginia...

Kate's 2011 recital

I can not believe I have not done a post about Kate's recital! It was actually in mid-May, and she loved it. That girl sure thrives on performing. The theme of the recital was "Shopping Spree" and all the dances were based on a different store. There was a flower shop, jewelry store, toy store, sporting goods and many more. Kate's ballet class was an antique shop and they were antique dolls. It was really cute!

Here is Kate before the recital starts. She is ready to go! (and looking so grown up!) My little ballerina! Great form Kate!Kate after the recital with her flowers. She was so excited to get them, and wanted them in her room after we put them in a vase.

Kate's friend Max (and his Mom Deb and sister Taylor) came and watched Kate perform and then came over to the house to bring Kate a little gift (an adorable flower ring that I can barely get her to take off now). This made her exceptionally happy! (Deb, thanks so much for doing this. It meant so much to Kate and me!)

Thanks Deb for getting a photo of the WHOLE family. It doesn't happen too often.

We get the video in the next month, and I can't wait to see it again. Kate really can't wait to see it. Kate has decided to not do ballet anymore. She is pretty good at it, and really seemed to enjoy it. Maybe she will come back to it after trying some other activities. She says she wants to to cheerleading, baseball, gymnastics and piano. I just can't keep up...

Trip to Atchison

On Saturday we decided to get out and visit Atchison, Kansas. It is a small town with LOTS of History. We visited the Town museum, the train museum, took a ride on a mini train, went to Amelia Earhart's birthplace, and a really cool park. It was a lot of fun, and we actually learned some cool history. Did you know that David Atchison (the guy the town is named after) was the President of the United Stated for one day in 1849? Who knew...

Here are the kiddos at the town museum in front of all the Kansas license plates. There is a Judy Garland movie called "The Harvey Girls" in which she sings a song called "On The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe" The train system is a big part of Atchison's history.
Going for a ride...

This is the house Amelia Earhart was born in. It was has her grandmother's home and she lived here much of her childhood.

Amelia's dolls. Kate thought this was pretty neat.

Next we went to Warnock Park. The Amelia Earhart "earthwork" is there. I'm not sure if you can see it from this view, but the tan (rocks) is her face, and she has an aviator cap on. There were postcards of it with a photo taken from the air, and you could see it much better. Sadly we did not have any aircraft at our disposal...

Oliver and the kiddos in front of the "earthwork."

We played at the playground for a little while. I haven't seen these toys for years! Kate and Cole really enjoyed playing on them.

Last we went to the forest of friendship that was also at the Warnock park. The forest of friendship is a memorial to men and women involved in aviation and space exploration. There were plaques with names such as Bob Hope, Henry Ford, Chuck Yeager and Charles Lindbergh as well as this bronze statue of Amelia Earhart.

There was also a memorial to the men and women who lost their lives in space and a "moon tree" (which means it was grown from a seed that had been to the moon.)

Isn't it a beautiful tree?

We had a great time exploring our surroundings. I hope you all learned a little bit too... ;0)