A Weekend Getaway to St. Louis.

For various reasons, we are not taking a family vacation with my family this year...so several weeks ago we started looking at the possibility of a quick weekend trip to St. Louis for a Cardinals game.  We were all actually available this past weekend, so we made the hotel reservations, bought the tickets and the plans were made.

Hubby, Elyse & I actually headed up Friday night with my parents so that we could be at the St. Louis Zoo first thing on Saturday morning before it got too hot.  Elyse of course chose not to ride in her wagon and we had left her stroller at home (knowing she wouldn't ride in it), so she walked some of the way while being carried or riding on shoulders the rest of the morning.  We saw practically the entire zoo before grabbing a quick lunch, calling it a morning and heading out just PRAYING that she would nap in the car while Hubby sat with her and the rest of us went shopping.  (We switched hotels from Friday to Saturday night so we didn't have an actual bed available for her to nap in). 

 

 

 

 

Thankfully she passed out practically before we were back on the highway and got a couple of hours in before we headed back to the zoo.  Yup...we went back.  Because my brother, his wife Millie, and my niece Harper were now in town and ready to check out some of the zoo with us.  We spent a little more time at the zoo, saw the Hippos & Elephants...again.  And then headed out when the downpours arrived! 



We had a nice dinner together @ Fitz's Bottling Company (it was actually not the greatest food in the world), before heading to check into our hotel for Saturday night.  Elyse went to sleep fairly quickly (and she should have since she woke up that morning at 5:45), and Hubby I just spent the last part of the evening relaxing with our feet up while she snoozed in the bed next to us. 

Sunday was Game Day and as we were leaving the breakfast area of our hotel, who should appear, but FREDBIRD!!!  Elyse pretty much has the same feeling about him as she has about Santa Claus or any other costumed character. However, this time we were actually able to get within touching distance.  ha! 

 

We took Elyse down to see the Arch & the St. Louis Riverfront before heading back up to Busch Stadium to head into the game.  Considering the game started exactly at Elyse's naptime...I was actually pretty impressed with how well she did.  We lucked out and ended up with seats in the shade which was a HUGE blessing considering we had Elyse & Harper (who's 1) with us.  They were champs and lasted the entire game! 

Unfortunately the game results were less than desirable, we lost 8-0!  However, Elyse came home with a Build-A-Bear stuffed Clydesdale horse and it was a fabulous weekend with family! 

We headed home and had grand plans of letting Elyse nap until we got to a dinner spot about 1 1/2 hours down the road.  My big plan was to wake her up, feed her some dinner, and then pop a movie in for the rest of the ride home so she'd still go to bed at a decent time last night.  Yeah....this COMPLETELY BACKFIRED!!!!  When we woke her up she was literally inconsolable.  Poor baby was just completely and utterly exhausted from the entire weekend and was not a happy camper.  Hubby ended up eating while I rocked her outside, and then he took over...only to be puked on because she was crying so hard and so upset.  After our less than pleasant, relaxing dinner...we got back on the road and she finally calmed down when we put on one of her favorite videos in the car.  We made it the rest of the way home without incident...but man those 30 minutes around dinner time were ROUGH!  I swear, you can try and plan and plan and plan with a toddler...and sometimes there truly is NO right answer. 

And seriously, if this sweet little angel was crying because she was just SUPER tired...wouldn't your heart break for her as well?!?