Our St. Louis Weekend

We've been planning to head to St. Louis for months, but adding Gracie to our family has really cut into our get up and go time.  I've found a kennel not too far away so in the future, we aren't going to let her slow us down.

With my parents here visiting, we thought it would be fun to finally plan a weekend.  We started our adventure at Grant's Farm outside of St. Louis. 

This was the home of Ulysses S Grant for a short period.  There's log cabin on the property that he built himself.  I was really looking forward to touring the cabin, but apparently that's a special tour.  We got a tram drive-by as we toured the outer grounds.  Grant's Farm had many animals.  The goats, camel and the elephant were the main attractions for us.

Allie got picked to feed the elephant an apple!

I had no idea camel's had such personality!

After Grant's Farm, we headed downtown to dinner and the St. Louis Arch - The Gateway to the West.

The Arch is in the background, I promise.
 No amount of photoshopping would make it show up.

To get to the top of the arch, you have to ride in a 5 person "pod."  We squeezed 7 people into our 5 person pod and I prayed the whole time we wouldn't get stuck.  I don't like small enclosed spaces.

We enjoyed the views from the top and hung out for about 10 minutes before catching a tram back to the ground.  The arch is the tallest monument in the country.  It was a really neat thing to experience.

Sunday morning, we had some time to kill before the City Museum opened so we found one of my favorite places....Target!  And right next to Target, we found a Five Below.  Oh how I've missed you Five Below.  There have been so many times since we've moved that I've wanted something and couldn't find it, but knew I could if I could just walk through your doors!  It was wonderful!!!

We've heard great things about the City Museum, but none of them did it justice.  I don't know that I'd really call it a museum, but it was the coolest place we've ever taken the kids.  I was soooo sore after climbing behind the kids (on my hands and knees some of the time), but it was worth it.  So much fun!

I can't believe we did this. 
Dan and I seriously thought we were going to get stuck!

Did I mention the 10 story slide???  This is a view from the ground.  The slide is on the left - the stairs are in the middle.  We took the elevator!

It's a little dark, but Dan took a video as he went down the slide...it's a long slide.  I was dizzy by the end.

And the rest of the pictures.  We took over 600, but I narrowed it down to my favorite 78 :).  I haven't looked at my Dad's pictures yet so there might be another post.