Meet me in St. Louis....for Fall Break! (Saturday)

Our last day in St. Louis we decided to go to Grant's Farm since it had been a few years and Braxton had never been.  It ended up being a beautiful day, sunny and in the 70's!  Malissa and Jimmy joined us and Anthony and his kiddos also came out to meet us since Laila was at work.  The first stop was the beautiful  Clydesdales.

Grant's Farm was also decorated for Halloween in some areas but in other areas it needed no decoration - it was breath-taking beauty on it's own!

 

Second stop is taking a tram ride throughout the grounds, at the same time keeping an eye out for the many different animals that are on the premises.  My favorite were the bison and the steers (of course Heath was grumpy about taking a picture for me of the steers because he thought of the Texas Longhorns, Oklahoma's rival).

Malissa and Jimmy all cuddled up on the tram.

Brooklynn got some lovin' too!

 The third and final stop was where we could get out and interact with the animals, sample some of Budweiser's brews, and watch a few animal shows. 

Braxton and Brooklynn fed milk to the goats yet the goats were trying to snack on their clothes!

Jimmy being a great uncle

It is so sweet to see the kids get a long together so we had to snap a pic while it lasted.

On the way home we stopped at Arby's to grab a bite to eat and fill up the car.  While we were there Braxton accidently hit Brooklynn in the mouth and knocked her tooth out (it was already loose)!  She ended up getting a free shake out of it too!

Overall it was a great trip!  We had a great family time.  Braxton did much better than expected on this trip with out naps and not sleeping in his own bed.  On the ride home he slept for over two hours and was in great spirits.  Such a cutie!

Meet me in St. Louis....for Fall Break! (Friday)

We woke up, packed up, then said good-bye to the McGhees on Friday morning and headed to Malissa's house where we dropped off our stuff and picked her up.  Last year we fell in love with the City Museum and had promised Brooklynn we would go back again, especially now that Braxton could enjoy much more of the museum (hardly a museum - more like an adventure building!).  We can't say enough about the City Museum and if you are ever in the area it is a great place to visit.  So basically all day Friday we were there only breaking to walk a few blocks to eat at a Mexican restaurant (another perk about the City Museum is that you can enter/exit all day!).  I was bummed that we didn't get more pictures but here are a few of the day.

Heath and Brooklynn climbing above us through a wire tunnel.

Brooklynn, Braxton, and Heath climbing high up above in the outside portion of the museum

Zoomed in to see it is really them!

Braxton enjoying his time in the giant ball pit outside

We missed it last year but were able to watch the small, youth produced "circus" this year.  Pretty good!

Braxton taking a short train ride around on the 3rd floor

We had front row seats to the "circus" and we were all captivated by it!

Heath and Braxton ready to go down a large slide on the rooftop

Heath and Braxton in the indoor toddler ball pit

Another thing in the toddler area was a "staircase" but Braxton decided to treat it as a slide.

Like I mentioned before - the pictures don't do it justice!  We did so many other things like go down a 10 story slide and wind our way through star-wars like tunnels.  I wish we would have taken more pictures....

After our long day at the museum we headed back to Aunt Lissa and Uncle Jimmy's house where we relaxed, made some dinner, and roasted marshmellows/made smore's over a campfire.  It was a great time!  Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of this either.  :(  Not even of Brewsky, their huge Great Dane, towering over the kids!

Meet me in St. Louis....for Fall Break! (Thursday)

 We traveled to St. Louis during Brooklynn's fall break for the second year in a row.  The weather wasn't as good as last year but overall it wasn't bad.  We left Thursday morning and made it all the way to St. Louis Zoo with only one stop!  We planned it out that our stop would be to eat lunch at a McDonald's play-place so that the kids could get some pent up energy out.  That they did!

 We went straight to the zoo so we would have enough time to go through everything this year.  Last year we didn't have enough time and a few sections were closed due to construction.  Once again the zoo was decorated for Halloween so we captured a lot of festive shots....

 

 

 

  

 

Although it was quite windy which made it chilly (hence our coats, hats and gloves) we were sheltered by the exhibits and trees most of the zoo.  However a lot of animals were out because it was sunny and cool.  Here are a few animals we found interesting.

 

  

Brooklynn was captivated by the free-roaming peacock.

We witnessed a real cat fight!

A true king of the moutain!

I couldn't help but add this video at the zoo for two reasons: how Braxton follows around his big sister and how Brooklynn puts it to Heath after his efforts to rush them through. 

We enjoyed our time covering all of the zoo, having a great family day.

Once we closed the zoo down we headed in rush hour traffic out towards O'Fallon to visit the McGhees.  We picked up Chinese take out and hung out around the house so that the kids could play, the guys could watch the World Series, and the gals could chat!  As always it was a good visit but just not enough time!  We even ended up staying the night there instead of going to Malissa's.    

Anthony and Heath doing their guy thing

The kids had fun in the trampoline until Braxton busted open his mouth and Brooklynn got something in her eye!

Madison (20mo), Britton (3 1/2), and Braxton (barely 2)