Family vacation: Day 4

Aaah, Day 4.  The 'aaah' is for any of you still reading.  *smiles*  We came home on Day 5 so you've almost made it.  Day 4 was probably my favorite, although for me Day 5 was a close second.  Now you must come back to read tomorrow's too, huh?  How'd you like that hook?

Anyway, Day 4 was Grant's Farm.  Named Grant's Farm because a cabin/former home of Ulysses S. Grantis located on the property.  The property was eventually purchased by the Anheuser-Busch family and is home to some commercial celebs - the Clydesdales. 

Upon arriving and parking, horse shoe prints lead you to the edge of the parking lot where the security guards stop traffic and let you cross over onto a little bridge.  Once across the bridge the line weaves around to the tram boarding area.  And, if you are travelling with a 3 and 5 year old, as soon as you are in the front of the tram line it detours to the General Store for a potty break, and then back to the end of the tram line.  Fortunately, the lines weren't too long - bathroom or tram. 

The staff asked us to empty the stroller, then they whisked it away to the front of the tram and it magically appeared once the ride was over.  Awesome, because most of the day was spent exploring the zoo-type exhibits, post-tram drop off. 

On the (very nice) tram - not even sure what they were looking at, but I love that all four of them seem so interested.  Probably the two swans on the lake. 

We drove by this gate and statue on the tram.  They were real antlers, found on the property and dipped in bronze.  Also, this gate (tough to photgraph on the tram), is the one the Clydesdales are often seen running through in the commercials.  Kinda cool.

The best of the tram ride was that it took you through all sorts of just open area with free roaming animals - deer, lots of geese, cattle, and these guys.  It's such open area, in fact, that this guy was hanging around on the bridge we were supposed to drive across.  The driver had to stop and honk at them for awhile so they would move.  He then kindly asked us not to stick our hands out and try to touch them.  Umm, fine by me.

As soon as the tram dropped us off, I noticed a show was about to start.  Dave took Max and I took Seth and Luke and the three of us hurried into the show.  Because I thought it was the elephant show.  But it turned out to be a lot of birds.  I don't love birds.  Truthfully, I am really not a fan of birds.  Especially not when the bird trainers are begging everyone to sit still and be quiet (and the audience is full of small rowdy children) so as not to upset the birds.  Ugh.

There were a lot of interesting animals.  Some of them not really "farm" animals - there were two bald eagles.  They had been injured and were unable to fly so they were living here.

"Ooh, Daddy, let's feed the camels," quickly became "Daddy, you can feed the camels."

Goats were another story!  The Farm had a 'fun pass' and for a discounted rate you got a snow cone, a carousel ride, and two bottles to feed the goats.  I must say that watching my little boys seek out hungry goats was quite cute.  They both fed them without much hesitation. 

I was surprised at how much Seth enjoyed it as he's not one to do things like this often.  But, he seemed to really enjoy the goats both at the zoo and here at the farm.

Seth even did some more goat brushing.  I guess he figured out that it was okay at the zoo so he couldn't be so bad here.

After we finished at the animal exhibit part, we boarded the tram again and headed back to the parking lot.  Just on the other side of the parking lot were the Clydesdale stables.  I just thought this was a really pretty "scene" - the truck and the beautiful flowers and the white fence.  Unfortunately, I couldn't convince a horse to wander into the photo.  Bummer.

Luke jumped right up on the fence to put the horse.  Seth alleges he also at least touched the horse.  I never saw it.  [The blue shirt is not mine, but I was melting and couldn't wait for him to be done to take the picture.]

Another horse.  They really are huge animals - very amazing to look at.

Little Max put up with SO much on this trip.   Thankfully, he really loves his stroller and loves to take in the sights (no idea where he gets that slightly nosy gene).  But, to put up with anyone this close to your face when it's nearly 100 degrees outside, he deserves a medal!

Everyday we thought we would go back to the hotel and swim in the little hotel pool.  Everyday we were gone longer than we planned to be.  We never got to swim!  But that's okay.  I don't think the boys cared at all.

This night we went to Moe's for dinner.  I love Moe's.  Seth will eat chips and queso forever.  And I know Luke can eat there without allergy incident.  Funny story:  I kept marvelling at the fact that there was no one else there.  "Isn't this odd?"  "Do people here not like Moe's?"  "Do you think people know something we don't?"  Yes!  They know that this Moe's closed 15 minutes ago!  Oops!  We hurried up and finished our dinner and scooted out.  Again, they were so nice about it.  Anyway, then we went back, got the kids in bed, and started packing for home. 

Family vacation: Day three

Wednesday it cooled off to a chilly 90 degrees so we headed out to the zoo.  We didn't have a lot of options as we only had two full days left and both of the remaining activities on our list were outdoor activities.  We had heard their zoo was huge.  That seemed to be an understatement.  We spent nearly 7 hours there and still didn't see everything.  Silly mommy thought Max would eventually just fall asleep in his stroller.  Ha ha!  Max is tooooo nosy for that!  He was awake the entire time.  And, he was actually really good at the zoo.



They had a nice children's portion of the zoo - some guinea pigs to pet, some tunnels to crawl around in and get better views of the animals, a little area with owls and a volunteer to tell you all about the owls, donkeys to pet, etc.  Side note: there was a volunteer in a rocking chair with a possum.  Gross!  I acted like I didn't notice her and scooted the boys on by.  Were there no bunnies available for petting?   Did I mention 'ick?'



Some of my favorite animals.

A chicken on the loose in the chilren's part of the zoo.  The boys didn't seem to mind sharing the sidewalk with her.

Grooming the goats.  Seth really got into brushing them.  He is definitely my  more timid one so I was glad to see him take an interest in something hands-on.

They had a small butterfly garden.

Trying not to post too many animal pictures, but our zoo doesn't have ant eaters and these things were so different looking that I had to share.  Although this picture doesn't really do it justice.  I spent most of the day debating which of my two lenses to use and usually regretting whichever decision I made.

This was a younger elephant.  The exhibit was set up well in that the elephants got really close to the crowd.  It was so hot and they were throwing water around with their trunks.  This was a fun one.

Our non-sleeper, looking very sleepy.  He cuddled with both of us on the train ride, but still refused to sleep.  The train actually makes five stops along the route and you can get on and off at different exhibits.  However, you have to leave your stroller wherever you board the train so you end up with 20 pounds of heat to carry around.  That said, we went for the round trip train ride, back to the stroller.  We were able to see a lot of animals on the train ride so that was fun.  Plus, it was a nice break for all of us from walking around in the heat.

Penguins!

The bear - check out those claws. 

A family portrait?

Our final stop at the zoo was Build A Bear.  We wanted the boys to have a special souvenir.  Seth is the only one who has even been to Build A Bear.  Aunt G and fam took him the day Luke was born, so Seth wasn't quite two and, obviously, doesn't remember it.  Here is Seth helping to stuff his goat.  After petting and brushing the goats, that's the animal he chose - I thought that was too cute!

Luke, hand on hip, assisting with the stuffing of his elephant, Bamboo.

Both boys "bathing" and brushing their new friends.

We held up a few for Max to choose from and he picked the guinea pig.  This girl was so wonderful - she let both boys put hearts in Max's animal (avoiding the fight that could've been). 

It didn't take long after leaving the zoo for 2/3 of the backseat to fall asleep.  Lukey is loving on Bamboo.   

Luke loves his new Bamboo.  Max actually gets a little excited to see Sleepy (I named his because Max was so sleepy).  And Seth, well, Seth loves his stuffed dog Beckley and seems to always feel guilt loving any other stuffed things.  He was very excited with Grassy the goat, until he got back to the car and found Beck.  For the most part, Luke just loves on Bamboo and Grassy. 

For dinner this night, we went with simple food from the fridge.  All Max could do was sit in the floor with his arms up and cry.  Everyone was hot and tired.  We got a little food in Max and bathed everyone and they were out for the night.  In fact, I think this was the first night that Max went to sleep without me laying on the floor next to his bed!

Family vacation: Day two

Day two the boys enjoyed a breakfast of sugar loaded cereal.  Really, this picture is just to show you that Max thinks he is at least as big as the other two. 

 

We decided to head to the St. Louis Children's Museum, or the Magic House.  It was really really hot outside so apparently every citizen of and visitor to St. Louis had the same idea. 

The Magic House.  It was a really neat looking old house(?).  It was large, but also very choppy on the inside.  We found it difficult to maneuver a stroller in the smaller spaces, nevermind that it was crowded and still too hot, even inside.  But, I think the boys had a great time.  I don't think Luke stopped moving from the time we hit the door until we were ready to leave.

They had an "Alice in Wonderland" exhibit and the boys loved playing the mushroom drums.

We all had the cute little purple stickers.  I couldn't figure out if we really had to wear them or if the first person in the door that morning just put theirs on and then everyone thought they had to follow suit.

Well, Luke stopped moving here, when he smacked his head into the glass that enclosed the trains.  But, it didn't keep him down.  It did make a nice little red welt, but Luke doesn't distract easily!

There were lots of little tunnels that the boys could crawl through.  Some offered additional views of the exhibits and some were just for fun.

Luke looking through the kaleidoscope.

Dressing up like construction workers and playing in rocks was a huge hit.

Seth was really working hard - I think his tongue is even sticking out.

Max looked like he thought it would be fun to get out and play in the rocks too - but, he didn't fool me.  I knew he just wanted to eat the rocks.  Thus, he stayed in the stroller. 

Playing in big machines is always a hit too.

President Luke in the oval office. [Seth refused to participate.  Unfortunately, that was a bit of a theme!]

I've never seen the President quite this jubilant while addressing the nation.

Judge Luke.  Again, not many of the judges I came into contact with were quite this excited.  Perhaps the legal system would be a happier place...

Seth finally decided to participate.  I'm pretty sure he was the defendant. Ha ha.  I tried to cross exam him, but he was having none of it.

There was a cute little play area for younger kids so Max was freed from his stroller temporarily. 

There were lots of little signs just randomly hanging around the museum.  And yes, I did know this!

Free floating little blue balls.  Unfortunately, Luke thought he was supposed to throw them and see if they would stay up.  We tried to explain.  Then we moved on.

The bubble organ.  There was a whole room of bubble fun.  However, a grandma-aged woman asked Luke to please not touch something because she was playing with it.  We moved on then as I was really hot and that makes me not very nice.  It was really way too crowded in that room to have much fun anyway. 

Max was really interested in the handrails in the elevator.  No idea why - maybe because he could reach them or because they were shiny.  I didn't even notice at first, but David pointed out that he did this every time we were in the elevator.

There was a "Goodnight Moon" exhibit.  And, since Luke loves the moon and I read that book about a million times when Seth was tiny, we had to see it.  Using the levers, etc. you could make the old woman rock and some other parts of the story move.

Overall, it was a neat place and certainly cooler than being outside that day!  But, we are definitely spoiled by our local museum!

There was a Sonic close by and I got a cranberry limeade.  Is it bad that when planning a vacation I like to check the proximity of Sonic and Starbucks?  It was Sonic that informed Max that cheese (a favorite of his) can be combined with bread (another favorite of his).  He ate that grilled cheese faster than I could tear it into little pieces.

I neglected to take pictures at dinner.  We went to a restaurant that bottles their own root beer, cream soda, etc.  It was a neat looking place - and local, which is always fun to try.  The food was just okay, but the cream soda was yummy, the server was really nice and the boys were pretty good.