The Last Few Days in St. Louie....

On Thursday we went to a place called the "Magic House". It was one of the most fun kids play places we have ever been to. It was four stories in an enormous remodeled house. It was kind of pricey so I was thrilled when once again, they accepted my museum pass and we got in for free. That pass has payed off many times over. I would have to say this was the most fun the kids had the whole week. They begged to go back every other day we were there. We did end up taking them back on Saturday and they had a great time again.

This was the giant beanstalk. The kids LOVED it. I think Paige would have stayed in it the entire time. It followed the stairs so I would walk up and down the stairs following their crawling. It went up all four floors so it kept them busy.

This was a fun toy. It would suck things up, move them all around and then shoot them out.

This was the huge bubble maker. You stand in the middle and pull the bubble up around you.



These three pulleys let the kids test the difference between the number of pulley points.

This was one of those nail plate things where you make impressions. Can you make out Paige's face in the bottom. It was hard to get the other kids to leave it alone long enough to take a picture!

A huge slide down the four floors of the building. The kids went down this thing about 10 times in a row.



The static electricity ball. It was hard to tell on J because his hair was so short.

Paige couldn't quite reach so Jackson had to touch it and hold her hand.


The museum has a huge pretend play area. Paige was in heaven. I was shocked the Jackson enjoyed it so much too. There was an auto shop, ice cream stand, grocery store, house, fishing pond, tree house, library, bank, restaurant, dr.'s office. It was so cute and fun. All of the different places were filled with things for the kids to play with. I sat for a good two hours while they played.

Paige "checking out" at the grocery store.

The house.

Ice cream stand.

auto mechanic shop

Restaurant

Dr. office. This is the other place that Paige really loved. At all the different places we went she was always drawn to the dr. offices. Here she is weighing her baby.

And, here we have the infamous City Museum. We came here on Friday. It was a pretty amazing place, but the Paige was too young, it was too crowded, too expensive, hard to find your children, and I was tired and hormonal. After about an hour I was in tears after having lost Paige for the second time (or, more specifically, she ran off because she didn't want to do what J did). I composed myself and went to the front desk to see if I could get my money back. The second I started talking I burst into tears. I think the people were so taken aback by the pregnant lady. They not only gave me my money back, but also gave me two passes to get in for free.

See that bus on the top of the building....it is a real bus. This just gives you an idea of the size of this place. They had an old airplane to climb through, a whole caving system inside. It was pretty amazing especially for older kids.


This is the famous custard place (that I may or may not have visited numerous times in my week there). It was always PACKED!!
The famous St. Louis arch. We came here on Saturday. It is just down the street from Douglas' office. The weather, luckily, was really nice.

It was marine week downtown and there were a lot of people, marines, and equipment by the arch. It was really interesting. I love seeing the kids with their daddy. I haven't seen this site enough this summer.

Here we are waiting in line to take the pods up to the top of the arch. They had some interesting things to see and read about while we waited. It was nice to have something to keep the kids occupied.



Here the kids are in the pod.

Only four people fit in them and you could feel it following the arch up to the top. I have to admit, that being at the top of the arch made me really nervous. It was pretty narrow with small windows overlooking the river and downtown. I could barely look out the windows without feeling sick. The kids, of course, had no problem with heights. I was ready to go after only a minute or two.

Here Douglas and the kids are looking out over the city.


The windows actually had a latch that technically anyone could open. That freaked me out even more.

Here is a cute little family shot.

After our trip up the arch we took some time to look at all the things the marines had out...boats, helicopters etc. They let people go onto the different things and learn about them. It was pretty cool.





And, of course, Paige had to dance a little while she was in line...always putting on a show.



Later that afternoon we took the kids back to the Magic House. Paige spent almost all her time in the construction zone. She wore full costume the entire time too. Douglas and Jackson went around together and explored.


...and then back to the dr.'s office. She couldn't get enough of it.
Later that evening we went out to my friend Yvonne's house where they treated us to a very yummy dinner and then I took family pictures for them. It was a great evening minus getting totally eaten alive by mosquitos, even after putting on bug spray. I was covered. Yuck!

...and with that we wrap up our adventures in St. Louis.