St. Louis vacation--- cliff notes version

We're baaaaaaaaaaaack! :-) We had  a wonderful weekend  in St.  Louis but  we're all  exhausted! The girls were excellent and the only  negative of the trip was that temps were in the 90s so the zoo on Saturday was HOT! We lasted a few hours though haha.

I've missed  you all while I've been gone! I will try to play catch up with  all  the  blogs I  read over the next few days :-) I took  over 800 pics while gone so needless to say I need to go through them all ....but here  is a very condensed look at our trip...enjoy!

Thursday night we stayed at Lee's parents' house, and then Friday morning we drove the rest of the way to St. Louis. First stop was the Magic House Children's Museum (where  we met  up with our friends, and Raya's bff Brynley)...we got in free with our membership to the Iowa Children's Museum so I definitely wanted  to stop. It was a really  fun museum! Of course the girls were running from one thing to the next and bouncing off the walls haha...definitely  a place to visit again some time.

Outside the museum...

We dressed in festive Cardinals colors  since we were attending the game later that day!

I ordered the awesome bows off of Etsy...these are the first huge over-the-top bows  the girls have owned I think....but  I figured maybe  big bows would bring us a big win! :-P

Driving a truck  in the museum

Riding in a horse cart

Brielle was not at all  into the picture for some reason... I think part of it was that our friend  Terri had the  nerve to  touch her ;-P

The girls  quickly warmed up to eachother after not seeing eachother  for awhile

This little  air tube thingy was the big  hit of the day

Windblown!

This picture was from *last year* when they were together...they're getting so big!

So after the children's  museum we checked  into our hotel rooms and got ready for the Cardinal's  baseball game that night!

Go cards!

I didn't  want to drag my nice camera to the game and have to worry about it, so I quick took  some pictures in the hotel hallway before we left. They will do!

Brielle was not happy about being forced into an impromptu photoshoot....this is the only  picture I got of them all together wearing the shirts I made them

But  Raya and  Bryn were more cooperative for pictures thankfully!

You can tell Raya is just in 7th heaven when  she's with her "friends" :-)

Then on Saturday  we went to the zoo!

Here were my girls in the parking  lot, ready to go!



Bryn's daddy carried  her into the zoo...thought this was a cute picture to share on Father's Day! :-)

At the zoo we all  had lots of fun, despite  the blazing temps!

Here's  one more quick  flashback to last  summer, when the girls were beating the summer  heat  with some popsicles :-)

Ok, back  to the current...this  is a cool picture I got of Brynley looking at a Gorilla (or some other  ape...can't quite tell lol)

Can't wait until  the girls are Madison's age (Brynley's big sis)...I said "hey, let me take a picture" and she whipped out a pose and smile in 1 second flat LOL

A super fun part of the day was a 3D motion simulator ride thing...showed part of Happy Feet...with the penguins. Anyways we wore 3D glasses and it moved you around  FAST...it was a thrill  ride for even me as an adult, so I was shocked that Raya actually didn't cry or anything! She seemed to love it...but afterwards she kept saying "that was kinda  scary mama!" :-P Lee sat in a non-moving chair with  Brielle.

Testing out the 3D glasses while we waited in line

Buckling  up and  waiting for the ride to start....love her expression!!

But  as I said  earlier, the zoo was HOT.

Soon the kids  began dropping like  flies....

Trying to stay cool ...every  time we saw one of these we got very excited lol

The girls started melting and  getting  cranky

And Brielle looked  downright pitiful!

So we headed back  to  the hotel.

...and later we went  swimming!

Brielle gave swimming a big THUMBS UP!

And Raya acted as though we forced her into a tub full  of acid....the blood curdling screams were heard by  all.

Their differing personalities shown through once  more! lol....swimming lessons next  month should be interesting to say the least haha.

Then today before leaving town we went to the city gardens...where Raya was much more comfortable "splashing" instead of swimming :-P

Aren't they  so cute?!

Bryn's mom was prepared with a suit...me not  so much :-P

So as you can  tell  it  was  a fun trip!!!!

....and exhausting....

....more  pictures  to come....