As most of you know, my mom decided to take us on a weekend trip to Saint Louis last weekend. We all had a wonderful time! We arrived on Friday afternoon, and just took it easy. We ate and went swimming at the pool. Jayden loved swimming, but he wanted to be a little too independent, attempting to jump into the deep end and trying to get us to let go of him in the deeper water. It was a little nerve racking, but we were really proud that he is so comfortable in the water.
Most of you know that Jayden is an early riser, it can be a little irritating on regular weekends, but on vacation, it really pays off. On Saturday we got up and went down to the Gateway Arch. We were pretty much the first people there...
This was great, because we pretty much had the place to ourselves at first!
And we had no waiting time to get up in the Arch.
From the Arch we went straight (through the ghetto) to Grant's Farm. This was such a wonderful place to go for a family vacation, all you really pay for is eight dollars for parking, and any food you want for yourselves or to feed the animals.
You get to the actual farm by taking a tram ride through the deer park, which is completely open, and allows you to see the different types of deer close up.
This is the open deer park:
I think our favorite part of Grants Farm was simply feeding the baby goats. Jayden was a little standoffish at first...
but he soon warmed up and tried to hug any goat he could get to!
Jayden also was able to see Josh's favorite birds, the bald eagle, close up. They stay put because they are injured, and cannot fly away.
After Grant's Farm we made it back to the hotel so Jayden could take a much needed nap. We didn't really have any specific plans for the rest of the day, so we just grabbed a bunch of brochures so we could see what else the area had to offer. We were planning on going to an aquarium downtown, but we wanted to drive by the City Museum first because the brochures made it look really really cool. Once we drove up to the museum, we knew there was no turning back. The place was freakin awesome! I highly recommend it to any family. My pictures won't do it justification, but you can see better pictures on their website.
This is the view from the outside. It was an old shoelace factory that was converted to the museum in 1997. All of the parts of are of recycled material, there were two airplanes, a bus hanging off of the roof, and countless tunnels, passage ways, and slides. You could spend days here!. You could get to both of the airplanes which were stories high through mesh tunnels. Pretty much everything you see (except the roof I think) could be crawled to in numerous ways.
This is Jayden in Toddler Town, a place just for little kiddos to climb and slide and play in the balls.
This is a view of the outside from a different viewpoint. On the bridge in the middle, are Josh and Jayden.
One of the many bridges...
Inside was a whole other experience. Everything you saw, was climbable. There was a gigantic fish which you could enter through it's mouth, and find a series caves. Whenever we were separated, it was almost impossible to get back together because of the crazy passageways, even if you were within site of each other.
After the museum, we just had to take it easy. We swam a bit more, but basically just lounged around a bit. That place wears you out!
Sunday morning we got up, packed up the Jeep, and headed for the Saint Louis Zoo.
Once again...first ones there...look at those lines!
It seemed beneficial at first, but we were there before the animals were up and the train was running, so it did take awhile before we were able to see too much.
We did get to ride the carousal for free though!
Jayden was very happy once the train opened up!
We really enjoyed seeing the animals once they decided to wake up and come out.
There's our little monkey, watching a monkey eat his breakfast.
At the end of our zoo trip, we went to a Sea Lion show. They would jump through hoops, ring bells, throw Frisbees...really anything you can teach a dog to do...except sea lions are a bit bigger.
All in all, we had an excellent time. I wasn't sure about Saint Louis as a vacation destination with a toddler, but it was a blast. There was so much to do, I can't wait to get back!
Thanks mom!!
Most of you know that Jayden is an early riser, it can be a little irritating on regular weekends, but on vacation, it really pays off. On Saturday we got up and went down to the Gateway Arch. We were pretty much the first people there...
This was great, because we pretty much had the place to ourselves at first!
And we had no waiting time to get up in the Arch.
From the Arch we went straight (through the ghetto) to Grant's Farm. This was such a wonderful place to go for a family vacation, all you really pay for is eight dollars for parking, and any food you want for yourselves or to feed the animals.You get to the actual farm by taking a tram ride through the deer park, which is completely open, and allows you to see the different types of deer close up.
This is the open deer park:
I think our favorite part of Grants Farm was simply feeding the baby goats. Jayden was a little standoffish at first...
but he soon warmed up and tried to hug any goat he could get to!
Jayden also was able to see Josh's favorite birds, the bald eagle, close up. They stay put because they are injured, and cannot fly away.
After Grant's Farm we made it back to the hotel so Jayden could take a much needed nap. We didn't really have any specific plans for the rest of the day, so we just grabbed a bunch of brochures so we could see what else the area had to offer. We were planning on going to an aquarium downtown, but we wanted to drive by the City Museum first because the brochures made it look really really cool. Once we drove up to the museum, we knew there was no turning back. The place was freakin awesome! I highly recommend it to any family. My pictures won't do it justification, but you can see better pictures on their website.This is the view from the outside. It was an old shoelace factory that was converted to the museum in 1997. All of the parts of are of recycled material, there were two airplanes, a bus hanging off of the roof, and countless tunnels, passage ways, and slides. You could spend days here!. You could get to both of the airplanes which were stories high through mesh tunnels. Pretty much everything you see (except the roof I think) could be crawled to in numerous ways.
This is Jayden in Toddler Town, a place just for little kiddos to climb and slide and play in the balls.
This is a view of the outside from a different viewpoint. On the bridge in the middle, are Josh and Jayden.
One of the many bridges...
Inside was a whole other experience. Everything you saw, was climbable. There was a gigantic fish which you could enter through it's mouth, and find a series caves. Whenever we were separated, it was almost impossible to get back together because of the crazy passageways, even if you were within site of each other.
After the museum, we just had to take it easy. We swam a bit more, but basically just lounged around a bit. That place wears you out!Sunday morning we got up, packed up the Jeep, and headed for the Saint Louis Zoo.
Once again...first ones there...look at those lines!
It seemed beneficial at first, but we were there before the animals were up and the train was running, so it did take awhile before we were able to see too much.We did get to ride the carousal for free though!
Jayden was very happy once the train opened up!
We really enjoyed seeing the animals once they decided to wake up and come out.There's our little monkey, watching a monkey eat his breakfast.
At the end of our zoo trip, we went to a Sea Lion show. They would jump through hoops, ring bells, throw Frisbees...really anything you can teach a dog to do...except sea lions are a bit bigger.
All in all, we had an excellent time. I wasn't sure about Saint Louis as a vacation destination with a toddler, but it was a blast. There was so much to do, I can't wait to get back!
Thanks mom!!
