St. Louis

This week, we spent the weekend in St. Louis with Addie and Will.  Seth couldn't come because he couldn't get time off of work, but my parents came for part of the time and we also met up with my long-time friends Rachel and Megan.  We left Thursday morning after I did my workout (Will did it with me!).  We stopped at Lambert's Cafe on the way.  For those who don't know, this is a southern cooking style of restaurant where they are famous for throwing their hot rolls to you.  They have a guy who comes out with trays of rolls and pitches them across the restaurant to your ready hands.  My nephew absolutely loved this and caught several on behalf of our table.  My niece declared that they were the tastiest rolls she had ever had.  They were good!

Proud recipients of "throwed" rolls

The girls wanted to catch some too though it was a lot harder for them being the farthest away from the thrower

But they certainly enjoyed the ones we caught

We got into St. Louis around 3 pm and went straight to the arch.  This was my 5th or 6th time up, but the first for all the kids.  They loved the "roller coaster" ride to the top - it's actually little 6 pod-like cars attached like a train and they go less than 4 mph, but the kids enjoyed pretending it was scary.

The museum at the arch is just about to open and this map of Westward Expansion was just opened that day.  The kids are setting out from St. Louis to go west!

Ready for the ride up.

They weren't afraid to lean way out to get a good look at the ground from 630 ft up in the air.

To commemorate the occasion, they each got new "stuffies" and wanted their pictures made.

Then we went to Wash U to look around and meet up with Megan and Rachel.  After spending some time chasing a bunny and hanging out in hammocks at the butterfly garden on campus, we went out for pizza and then to an ice cream place where they make the ice cream from scratch using liquid nitrogen to freeze it.  The kids were fascinated by the process (as was I) and the owner let them play in the mist from the nitrogen for a while.

Friday after complimentary breakfast at our hotel, we picked up Rachel on our way to the City Museum where we met up with Granna and Grannadaddy.  The City Museum is basically an old building that was revamped into a giant play place - not so much a museum though there are a few historical exhibits.  On the roof, they have reclaimed metal structures that they've turned into slides, an old school bus you can pretend to drive even though it is perched off of the roof, and a ferris wheel, and lots of other things to do, including the entrance to the 10 story slide.  They have an enormous ball pit, castle remnants, a whole section of manmade "caves" - I mean, it's a crazy playground on steroids! 

This is on the roof.  For scale, my dad is the 6'2" guy in blue in the bottom section.  Addie and Will are climbing up to the top.

Evie and Addie entered from the roof that was about 2 stories up from here and they climbed their way down.  Addie is the girl at the top and Evie is kneeling at the top of a ladder, between the boy in black and the boy in a blue shirt.

Addie and Evie trying out these weird chairs

Ready for a circus show

Evie is about 2 stories in the air climbing through the wire tunnel - can you see her?

To be honest, the City Museum gave me a little anxiety, so I was glad when it was time to leave around 3 pm.  We dropped off Rachel and got gas and by the time we got back to our hotel, it was already time to leave to go to dinner.  We had dinner on The Hill (the Italian part of town) and then went for frozen custard at Ted Drewes which is another famous STL site.

Saturday morning we said goodbye to Granna and Grannadaddy who were continuing their vacation northward and we went to Meramec Caverns.  I've never been in a cave before (or if I have, I didn't recall it) since my dad isn't so wild about them, so we enjoyed checking out the different formations there.

We had planned to eat at Lambert's on the way back, but the line was atrocious so we settled for some gas station food and got back in the car.  The kids were still happy to be together even if they couldn't have rolls.

When we got back, we went straight to Huey's for dinner and met up with Kathy, Rickie, Grandma Jeanne, and Tia who was coming through town.  She was so happy to be with these kids.

Sunday, Tia came with me and Evie to drive the kids to Jackson, MS for Aimee to pick them up.  I was so impressed with how the kids didn't get sick of each other, didn't really argue too much especially considering their age and how much they were together.  They want to go somewhere together next summer and I certainly wouldn't mind if this became a tradition.

When we got back home, we went out to dinner with Daddy who was glad to have us back home.

This week, Evie is in camp at her old school, Lipman.  They are studying the art of North America so she is making her own quilt and pottery and things like that.  She is enjoying being somewhere that is so familiar to her.

She impressed me earlier this week by adding 3 numbers together (e.g., what's 5 + 3 + 1).  She's been working on a few worksheets a day to keep up her skills during the summer.

I was amused when we were playing "Guessing Animals" earlier this week and it was my turn to have the animal in mind.  I thought of a pig.  Evie eventually figured out that my animal was pink.  Her next guess was, "A bear".  I said, "Well, my animal is pink...."  She said, "A naked bear?"  She keeps me in stitches.