This week we took our very first (real) family vacation! We have taken Jackson out of town to visit family, but this is the first hotel stay with our little man. He was such a sweet boy and traveled very well (as long as there were snack and Veggie Tales when necessary)!
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We took a break on the trip to St. Louis and had lunch in Sikeston, Missouri.
We ate at the famous Lambert's Cafe!
Delicious!
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We took a break on the trip to St. Louis and had lunch in Sikeston, Missouri.
We ate at the famous Lambert's Cafe!
Delicious!
Jackson caught a roll! It was as big as him...and that is saying something too!:)
And....Jackson LOVED eating fried okra! That boy tore it up!
(Jason and I ate entirely too much food too...this turned out to be a repeating trend on this vacation!)
Best attempt at a picture with mom! He wanted to get down and play...
...so we finally gave up on the group picture and settled for the "riding in the race car" picture instead! :)
After we got settled in the hotel in St. Louis (bless our neighbor's hearts!), we headed out to eat a little sushi! (Well Jackson ate ravioli from home, but his parent's ate sushi.)
Jackson played a serious tune with his chopsticks! Musician in the making! :)
After supper, we went for a dip in the pool (indoor pool - thankfully)! Jackson is like a fish; he LOVES the water! This was his first time in a real pool - he's spent many an afternoon in his kiddie pool in the backyard, however!
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The next morning, our first stop was the St. Louis Zoo!
We planned our trip to the zoo during the week in hopes of less people; we were W.R.O.N.G! There were about 10,000 kids there on field trip (all with matching shirts) and more school buses in the parking lot that you could count! We still had fun, but we did share the sidewalks with a LOT of excited elementary school kids!
Strolling with Mom!
"Ohhhh! What's that?!" - Jackson's new favorite phrase!
(Note: he was checking out the baby bears!)
Loving his "site-seeing" t-shirt! Fitting, huh?
In the Butterfly House! (Except there is not a single butterfly in this picture even though they were fluttering around...everywhere! That's my luck!)
Jackson and his daddy on a gigantic beetle!
After lunch (which was eaten in the car because our boy would not wake up to go inside), we got to cruise down the historic "Route 66" and have dessert at the famous Ted Drewes Frozen Custard! They are know nation-wide for their "concretes", which is ice cream (well...frozen custard more accurately) that is so thick it is served upside-down!
"Getting our kicks on Route 66"
....and it was DELICIOUS!
Hanging out in the back of the car, eating our ice cream!
After lunch, we headed to see the Gateway Arch. This national monument is the nations tallest monument and is considered the gateway to the west (memorializes the Lewis and Clark expeditions into western United States).
Just beautiful!
We got to take a ride up to the top of the arch too!
Here is the view from above. Pretty cool shadow!
Our boy was fearless! He crawled around the windows overlooking the river and the city of St. Louis and even tried to open the windows a time or two!
Once we came back down to ground level, we spent a little while just hanging out in the grass at the park. (Okay...so this happened because we had to find somewhere secluded to change a very stinky diaper! He couldn't have handled his business while we were in the museum - where there were bathrooms and changing tables! And going back into the museum would mean standing in line to go through the metal detector again...you know the "empty your pockets/x-ray your bags/take off your belts" kinda thing! No thank you!)
Me and my first love!
No matter where we go...Jackson can find himself a stick! He loves them!
And then he played in the dirt for a while with his new-found stick!
AND!! I found a bunny! I got so close to it! It was right between the city (downtown by the baseball stadium) and the Mississippi River! Crazy.
Taking a few pictures of the arch!
For supper we went to a local Italian restaurant on the hill...Cunetto's House of Pasta!
Jackson says, "This pasta is DELICIOUS!"
After supper, we headed to Cabela's for a little shopping...
Oh goodness...
By this point, my boy was EXHAUSTED! He didn't want to wake up and spent most of the shopping trip asleep in the cart. Poor guy. He would have been so upset to know he had been missing anything! We had a busy day and by this point, we were ALL dog tired!
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The next morning we went to "The City Museum" in downtown St. Louis.
Most of the museum (which is very cool by the way) was a little too old for Jackson to enjoy, so we spent most of our time in "Toddler Town" where he played with toys, ran around, played on the slide, and jumped in the ball pit.
Then we went to the "World Aquarium" inside the City Museum and checked out some pretty cool fish and reptiles! They had a huge turtle, sharks, weird fish, sting rays, and much much more!
Jason found the "Doctor Fish" and couldn't resist trying them out! They were so weird. You stick your hand in the water and they nibbled on your fingertips!
For lunch we went to Rooster...
Food was okay; the giant chicken on the wall was awesome!
Luckily we did not get a parking ticket because our meter said NEGATIVE three minutes when we got back to the car! Oops... :)
Jackson and I playing "this little piggie" in the car....
After lunch (and a little nap), we went to the Magic House Children's Museum.
Which was huge and completely awesome!
Jackson in his hard hat in the "construction zone" - his favorite!
Playing in many of the different exhibits!
Jackson and his daddy learning about static electricity!
How awesome is that? (And...no, I did not take a turn. There was not enough room in that little room for all my hair!)
For supper we defaulted to an old favorite...Texas Roadhouse!
Jackson deciding what he wants to order.
"Hmmm. I think I'll have...."
"....whatever I can eat with KETCHUP!" :)
Later that night, we all unwound and watched a little Veggie Tales on the portable DVD player (which is quite possibly one of the smartest purchases we have ever made!)
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Saturday morning we headed out the Grant's Farm. We were afraid we would be rained out, but thankfully the bad weather held out until we were safely on our way home...
Grant's Farms - originally the home of Ulysses S. Grant; later purchase (and still owned by) the Anheuser Busch family.
Jackson and his daddy
Headed into the farm; crossing the covered bridge!
Getting ready for the tram ride. We got to see some pretty cool stuff...buffalo, exotic deer, ostrich, cows, peacocks, ducks, elephants, camel, llama, goats, kangaroos, etc...
And...we got to feed baby pygmy goats!
They loved Jackson (and me and Jason for that matter) and kept trying to eat our shirts, pants legs, and shoe strings!
We got to feed them bottles of milk!
Jason had this one little goat that kept bumping him in the leg with his tiny little horns; he's hit Jason's leg then back up and kick the dirt and snort at him. It was so funny! He sure was a tough guy!
Me and my "little goat" with an actual goat! :)
Then we rode the carousel! I wasn't sure what Jackson thought about it because he kept a straight face the whole time, but then he cried when it was over because he didn't want to get off. Guess he enjoyed himself! :)
Then we got to see the actual Anheuser Busch Clydesdale horses! They are HUGE! Just incredible!
Jackson and Mom!
But unfortunately...all good things must come to an end!
(Oh that lip! This is what I get when I asked him to "SMILE"!)
...and we took our tired little boy home!
We had an excellent time in St. Louis! Very cool town....
