With crazy schedules, it's nearly impossible to plan a family vacation with Hubby's parents, his sister & her husband, and their two boys. However, we were able to carve out about 24 hours to spend together doing some pretty stinkin' fun stuff!
We met Saturday evening in St. Louis at our hotel in Union Station all decked out in our Cardinals gear & headed to the game. We rode the Metro (or train as it was called to our nephews & Elyse) to the stadium along with hundreds of other Cards fans. Elyse had been to a game last year, but she couldn't even walk yet--this year she was much more into everything going on!
Our seats were in the Redbird Club which provided access to an air conditioned area for eating or just hanging out--it was still pretty warm even with a 6:15 start time, so it was nice to have this option for Elyse & our nephews to walk around in the cool air.
We decided to leave after the bottom of the 8th inning, as a Cardinals win was pretty much in the bag, and we didn't want to have to wait too long for the Metro since we had ONE. TIRED. TOOT. on our hands!
*Side Note--we took Elyse's pack-n-play for her to sleep in, as none of us really sleep very extremely well when she's trying to sleep horizontal while Hubby & I sleep vertically! She hadn't slept in a pack-n-play in over a year, so we had no idea how it would go...but she slept wonderfully until the next morning! So, we're definitely making room for the pack-n-play on our trip to Floriday in a few weeks!
Sunday morning we woke up and decided to grab what should have been a quick breakfast at Steak-N-Shake before any activities. Well...what should have been a fast experience, turned into over an hour for breakfast and a little girl named Elyse who was so ridiculously patient even with having to eat breakfast almost 2 1/2 hours late! Ughhh...
We finally finished our breakfast and headed to Grant's Farm, which is a zoo-like, park but with much fewer animals, space, and people...but still tons of fun! It's home to the famous Budweiser Clydesdales and has lots of fun attractions including a carousel, goat feeding, elephant shows, water misters, camel rides...and maybe most importantly...snow cones! ha!
First stop after the tram ride was the goat feeding area...they should seriously have a warning that this area is not for children under the age of like 8 or less than 50 lbs--those goats meant serious business when it came to their milk! Of course this could have had something to do with the fact that we were there first thing and you would have thought the goats were starved to death!
Next up was the carousel, and oh what a difference a few weeks made! Elyse did NOT enjoy the carousel at Silver Dollar City, but this time she was all about it! She rode on her own horse all buckled in all by herself!
Next was the small area of water misters...these might have been the highlight of the visit! I went through with her first just to see if she liked it at all...
The answer to that was YES!!! She ran through multiple times. First with cousin Hunter...
And then with Daddy, Cousin Hunter & Cousin Jackson! She was soaked, but loving every minute of it!
And of course, what do you do after getting soaked when it's 90+ degrees outside...eat snowcones of course! Elyse didn't eat much of hers, but she definitely enjoyed it and even shared a bit with her cousins!
The boys both wanted to ride the camels, and we tried to get Elyse to join in as well, but when it came her turn to ride with Daddy she was having NONE. OF. IT. So thankfully we got our refund and went on our way--but the boys definitely enjoyed their rides!
We roamed around the rest of the park checking out all the Anheuser-Busch memorabilia and then after a tram ride back to the parking lot we walked over to see the clydesdales. I'd seen these gigantic horses before, but their sheer size just almost takes your breath away. They are such beautiful animals. I didn't really get a great picture of one because they were all huddled in the shade, but it was still a pretty cool sight!
After a quick snack, we all headed down I-44 in our separate cars, already thinking and planning about how we can make a similar trip work next year. Elyse loves her cousins Hunter & Jackson so much...and I'm pretty darn sure the feelings are mutual! We are so thankful for precious time with family...so fun & such a blessing!
2 comments:
What a fun weekend! Oh my goodness she is so big! I can't believe seeing the pics of her walking around! :) She is so cute! Great pics and that's so neat to get to hang out with cousins and family like that!
So awesome! I'm glad you guys made it over to Grant's Farm. We love that place. Not nearly as big or exotic as the Zoo, but very STL and really fun for the little kids. Yes, those goats are intense...I should have warned you. Mac won't even go in there anymore.
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