Beth did so well on the plane-there and back! We had packed a special purse just for her equipped with toys and books she'd never seen before that I'd bought especially for this trip. Awesome idea if I don't say so myself. ;-) She played just about the entire time with her new toys (little things- like her own wallet with photos, a travel-sized Magna-Doodle, some Mardi-Gras beads, 3 new books, some snacks) and barely realized we were on a plane. We had numbed her ears with some stuff from the pediatrician so there was no pain for her. She wasn't so interested in the people around us or even looking out the window, so we just played the whole time. This photo was taken right as we got on the plane, by the way, before the people in front of us sat down!We arrived on Saturday and headed to the house to see everyone and all had dinner together. That night (all nights we were in St. Louis actually) we stayed with Ryan's uncle and aunt, who let us stay in their basement "suite". It was really nice to have all that space to let Beth play, and of course it was super-dark so putting Beth to sleep was a cinch! On Sunday we went to mass with Ryan's grandfather, who showed off his little great-granddaughter to his friends after mass. We had another huge family dinner that night, then Monday Ryan, Beth and I hit the road to sight-see in St. Louis. We went to the Arch then to the zoo, then had to make it back to the house in time to get ready for Ryan's cousin's graduation. She graduated at the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis, which from what I heard was absolutely breathtaking. I stayed home with Beth since the ceremony was in the evening, and we'd hoped to attend a tour of the Cathedral Basilica later that week but we just ran out of time. So it's on my list to see next time I visit!
On our way there- it was chilly! In fact, our whole trip was pretty cool, a wonderful escape from our usual hot and humid climate.
The view looking straight down from the Arch. Pretty intimidating!
Up inside the Arch
Beth had fun looking out the windows!
Ryan and Thomas Jefferson having a staring contest.
Our little family outside the Arch. We survived the trip up there in those tiny little pods!
At the St. Louis zoo. It was free to enter but we had to pay for parking. This was Beth's second time to the zoo and I think she enjoyed it more than the first time. We we able to get a little closer to the animals- in fact I was taking a video when one of the giraffes you see behind them came up to us and stuck his head over the rocks, inches from Beth. Some punk kid touched the giraffe's head and the giraffe sort of ran away- oddly the ostrich chased him away from us.
I have video of this encounter also- that's Beth's head in the corner. He was really checking her out! Yes, there was a thick wall of plexi-glass or something there, but it was really cool. Actually there was a boy (another boy, less of a punk) who was making faces at the gorilla and the gorilla made faces back!
This picture is at the hippo exhibit, where you can see underwater as the hippos swim by. Beth was more interested in the fish swimming right by the glass than the huge hippo that would swim by every minute or so, but it was really interesting for me and Ryan. The hippos are so graceful underwater, but their eyes sort of bug out funny.Monday night we had the graduation party (Congrats Annie!) and hit the sack pretty late. Tuesday morning we were up early to leave for our road trip... Which will be continued in another post on another day!
Picture of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, courtesy of Wikipedia. ;-) The picture is cut off significantly, so I suggest you visit the site to see the whole photo!
1 comment:
Great pics!
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