This was the first year that we went on a family vacation. We've been on vacation with my family, but we didn't have to do all the organizing and booking. We invited our friends to go along. We had already vacation with the Eden's once before. Back in 2010 when we camped and climb Mt. Elbert together. This vacation had a little different feel to it. Plus we have since added 5 children to the mix. No mountains or tents this time. We were living it up in a quaint little house in St. Louis with our own pool.
We had decided to break up the drive with lunch and park time in Lebanon. Our family met us there for extra fun! We had a fairly quiet and uneventful trip. That's how we like it. Ivan snoozed off and on and the boys kept themselves fairly busy with the toys I had packed. I did have to make some illegal visits to the back seat to grab a few things. Silas was our "are we there yet?" asker.
When we pulled up to our house Amos was so glad that we had made it to St. Louis. From then on, our house's name was St. Louis. I breathed a sigh of relieft that the house was as nice as it looked on the pictures. We had lots of room to spread out, but one room was all decorated in Buzz Lightyear so we decided to try all three boys -Amos, Silas and Scout sleeping in there.
The kids had no trouble keeping themselves entertained. Between time in the pool and a new place they were having a ball. The hosts left a bunch of age appropriate toys - including a Buzz Lightyear replica.
We ate breakfast and dinner in, and lunch out. A little more work, but a nice way to save money! After all the kiddos were down for the night, then the real party started! Ha ha! We did have a couple rousing games of checkers and finished both nights with a game of spades. And it needs to be mentioned that the Ladies were the ULTIMATE spade champions.
The first morning there, we all loaded up in one car (to save $15 is parking) and headed to the zoo!
The Reptile house was a good first choice! They had such variety of snakes. I think the boys could have watched them all day.
Ivan was a trooper the whole day. He napped most of it, in spite of the heat.
We hit up Imo's Pizza for lunch. It was nice and cooll and we were all starving!
Almost everyone came back and took a nap from our morning adventures. Rachel and I used this time to relax in the pool. Without kiddos hanging on us! Everyone joined us later! The pool was a BIG hit.
The next morning, we loaded everything up before heading to the City Museum! Conviently, there was an amazing donut place a block away. The dads and kids walked down to pick some up for everyone.
We's heard that the City Musuem was awesome, but didn't quite know what to expect! It did not disappoint. The boys had to warm up to things a little, but before long, they were climbing all over the place.
After grabbing a quick lunch, we hit the road hoping for some naps on our way to Elephant Rock. Jason had wanted to take the boys there for a while. It was 4 hours from home and only 1 1/2 hours from St. Louis, so it made sense to tack it on to this trip!
We were a little afraid it might be a little much, but the boys loved climbing the rocks.
I'm glad that we didn't trek home from there. Instead we drove another 2 1/2 hours to Nana and Papa's and stopped there for the night. We love playing with our cousins1
We headed home that afternoon! We had such a great time! Our first family vacation was a big success! I see many more of these in our future.
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