St. louis for fall break

This past week the boys and I all had fall break so we decided to take a much needed family get away. All 4 of us headed to St. Louis for some fun at the zoo and city museum. Wednesday, we spent all afternoon at the zoo. It was a beautiful day and not supercrowded and we weren't miserable from the heat. Andrew was a picture taking fool--he took pictures of just about every animal there. We rode the train a few time but mainly walked everywhere. The boys enjoyed the fat penguins and the monkey/gorillas (they really got a kick out of the fact that you can see the chimpanzees' butts!!) We ate at Hodak's restaurant which is known for their awesome fried chicken--yummo! We also got to enjoy the Cardinal baseball game while eating --even better when the whole restaurant cheers for the Cards! We then headed to the hotel where the kids swam for hours! Thursday we went to City Museum which was so incredible it is hard to explain! This whole building and even outside of the building has been turned into a museum from city artifacts--almost like recycling. There was a section of architectural pieces taken from building that had been demolished. All the structures outside were welded together from lots of rebar and metal. There was an old plane suspended in air, a school bus hanging off the top of the building, a praying mantis sculpture on top, and we even rode the ferris wheel on the top of the 10 story building. We had to climb through mazes and there was LOTS of slides. We were sweaty and dirty by the time we left but what a fantabulous time. We went down a 10 story slide and ended up in the "caves" where the kids climbed through mazes and explored. Here I am standing by the crystals in the cave--I was waiting for the Slee-stakes to come and take me to Land of the Lost! I have lots of animals that Andrew took pictures of and the zoo was decked out in fall/Halloween stuff so lots of photo ops. Andrew let me take his picture by the tortoises but he wouldn't stand by the huge snakes. Other pics--Andrew going down a 2 story slide; me standing by an airplane about 6-8 stories high; the boys climbing through metal sculptures; Paul and the boys by the huge praying mantis on top of City Museum; Adam eating a huge meatball at me and Paul's favorite restaurant in St. Louis---Zia's!! We had a great family vacation and can't wait to do it again. The boys are already making plans for next time.....