Josh's week of vacation started the day after Father's Day...and we up were bright an early to head on our way to St. Louis for a few days. Chase had been counting down for weeks when we would be "goin' on a cation" so he was excited and hopped right up out of bed when we told him it was FINALLY time to go!
The car ride there went incredibly smooth. The boys were great. We got the DVD player fixed so we'd have it for our trip. Milo was completely in to the movies the entire time.
We made it! Look at Josh's eyes - they never look that blue. I love it!
We stayed at "Daddy's hotel" again. I like it there.
Checking out the pool from our balcony. They were super excited to go swimming.
We got there right at lunch time so I stayed at the hotel with the boys to let them stretch their legs out after being in the car all morning while Josh went to LeGrands and got us lunch. He had me try it last year for the first time and I was excited to have it again. Yum yum!
When discussing what we wanted to do there this time Josh said he wanted to go check out the Bontanical Gardens. Milo zonked out on the way there and stayed asleep half the time we were there. I was glad he slept some though - his naps were definitely out of whack for a few days.
There were these awesome glass sculpture decorative things all over the place. This one was my favorite one. So pretty!
There was a section for kiddos that we went in to. It was full of slides and tree houses and other play things. It was kind of cool.
Chase is such a nervous guy he wouldn't walk across at first...
...but Milo did! Haha - our boys are such opposites!
My little Mitchell men! : )
It was HOT out and aside from the small section for kids it wasn't really too exciting for them. I was really only there to humor Josh and do something that he wanted to do so I didn't complain at all. We walked around and looked at what he wanted to. It was beautiful, I'll admit.
Chase picked out a lizard at the gift shop on our way out.
We decided if we ever go back again it'll be better to do by ourselves without the kids. It was okay though.
We were all hot and ready for some nice cool water when we got back - so to the pool it was! I bought the boys each a puddle jumper to wear at the pool this year. They worked awesome for them. I highly recommend them for anyone with little ones. Unlike life jackets they help them stay on their belly instead of floating to their back...but they can still be legally worn on a boat as a life jacket. Good purchase! This was their first time in the water this year. I figured we'd have to warm Chase up to the water again and that Milo would be fearless. Well, I was half right. Milo WAS fearless and was all over the place without a fear in the world loving every minute of it...and so was Chase! No warming up to it at all. He jumped in to Daddy right away and was swimming back to the wall to get back out again and again. He did great!
After swimming it was back to the room to get all showered up and in our jammies. Playing horsey with smiles and giggles - how cute! I love it when they play together so well!
We all snuggled up in a bed together and watched part of a movie. This was a "high on life" moment for both Josh and I. We love our little family so much!
Room service! We stuffed our faces with Chiles again this year. We ordered WAY too much food and it wasn't as good as last year - but we still had fun.
The boys didn't eat anything the entire time we were down there. Every single thing we bought for them got thrown away. It was quite frustrating. We were tempted to just stop getting them food but then that would be the one time that they'd be starving and we'd have nothing to give them, of course.
Getting everyone to sleep in a hotel is always interesting. Especially Milo because he is used to HIS bed and HIS stuff. He has a monkey that plays music to help him fall asleep. He has had it since he was a newborn. He is hooked on it. Whenever the batteries start dying it makes a creepy sound and he'll wake us up in the middle of the night to change them if it happens. He is a really great sleeper at home but doesn't transition to other places well. We were wrestling him and finally getting somewhere when the monkey started sounding creepy. OH NO!! Immediately we knew we were going to have to figure something out. Josh goes down to the lobby to ask for a screw driver and some batteries. Well - they had the screw driver but no batteries. So Josh had to run to Walmart in the middle of trying to get the boys to sleep to buy stinkin' batteries for Milo's monkey! Oh my goodness...all was well in the world again once the monkey was taken care of but my oh my that boy is lucky we love him!
The next morning we were up and off to Grant's Farm. When you arrive you take a ride around the farm and get a little tour.
Sweetie pie : )
There were animals all over the place. Some not caged up. Isn't this beautiful?!
You could get a carousel ride, snow cone, and 2 bottles to feed the goats for $5 - so we bought that for each of the boys. Chase was really excited to go on the carousel and was begging to go and then when it was our turn and we got on there he cried and refused to do it. So - him and Daddy sat on the bench while Milo and I did the real deal. Milo was nervous at first but as soon as it started moving he was all smiles. : ) Wohoo!
Feeding the goats was our next stop. You could go inside the fence and do it or stand outside of the fence. At first we went inside but then realized that they jump on you in there and decided to get out. Josh adopted a little poop on his shorts for the day before we escaped though. Haha - he was thrilled about that!
I was surprised how much Chase actually liked doing it. I figured he'd be all scared and not do it but he wasn't at all. He loved it!
This elephant was awesome. There was a little water fountain for it and it knew exactly where it was. It would put its trunk over the fountain and fill it up and then spray itself with the water. It did it over and over again. Very cool!
The temperature this day was much more tolerable than the day before. We got the boys their snow cones and sat down to let them eat them. As we were sitting there I told Josh I was truly having fun. ..and I was. I liked it there a lot.
We walked around at checked out lots of other animals and as we were walking back by the baby goats Chase wanted to feed them again - so we got them each another bottle to feed them.
All the buildings there were really cool. You could actually see in the background the home of the Busch family too. It was much smaller than the zoo, more hands on, FREE admission and very relaxing. We all thoroughly enjoyed our visit. I would totally go back!
The boys were tuckered out after visiting Grant's Farm and took a little nap in the car while we drove around. We drove to Walmart to get some water and then to the hotel so Josh could change his poopy shorts and then to the Shaved Duck for lunch. By the time we stopped they had gotten a decent little nap in.
We went to The Shaved Duck because it was one of the restaurants that Guy Fieri from Diner's Drive In's and Dives featured on his show. It was in a small neighborhood area and had a cool atmosphere. These were their loaded fries that we got as appetizer. They had smoked pork on them which I thought sounded yucky but Josh picked them out so I tried them and they were actually really good.
They also served a local soda (I can't remember what it's called...) that was pretty good. We both tried it out.
In the middle of our meal - like literally right as we were eating - Milo decided it'd be a good time for a blow out. Not a mild one either. It was up his back and down both legs...DISGUSTING! Poor Josh volunteered and took him out to the car to handle things. Luckily I had an extra outfit in the diaper bag.
Chase hung out inside with me while I finished eating. He was being so good. Isn't he precious?! Such a cutie! Best little date around!
They had pictures from Guy's trip to their restaurant up on display.
Aside from our little poop ordeal it was a fun experience. Josh will even still go on and on about how good the food was. You just have to make the best of traveling with kids and accept it when things like that happen I suppose. : )
We stopped at Ted Drewes to get some frozen custard on the way back to the hotel. We wish this place had some seating around it but it doesn't so we just got it and then ate it in the car.
The boys were ready for more pool time when we got back. The first day Milo didn't control his body entirely on his own and his face would still go in the water a little bit..but on the 2nd day he had figured it out. I was amazed how quickly he got the hang of it.
Chase's shorts didn't slip off his butt this year when Daddy was throwing him. Haha
There were people at the pool the 2nd day with their little girl who was 2 1/2 and they were telling us it was her FIRST TIME IN THE WATER! What?! That's ridiculous. But anyways..they were amazed with how good Milo did in the water. Yep, I'm pretty proud of the fact that my boys know no different than to think that swimming is fun and nothing to be afraid of. It's a childhood joy for them just like it should be.
We were all showered up after swimming pretty early and didn't really have any plans for the rest of the day. We didnt know what to do so we got a wild hair and just decided to go to the mall. Worst. Idea. Ever! We got there and the boys weren't wanting to sit in the strollers and Chase was complaining because none of the stores had toys. We decided to just leave and go back to the room. Shouldn't have been a big deal BUT...Josh let us get extremely low on gas. Yes, I do blame this one on him because he is the driver and is the one who should've been watching it. We were on the interstate in St Louis with my 2 babies in the car and only 2 miles left til empty. Yes...TWO MILES! I was literally having a full blown panic attack. I was in tears. He pulled off the interstate to try and find something and ended up in a Sams Club parking lot. We didn't know what to do. I finally decided to just go ask someone if they knew of anywhere and they pointed right across the parking lot to a gas station RIGHT THERE. If that isn't a prayer answered I don't know what is! Awesome! ..or so we thought. We get to the pump and it says to slide your Sams Club card. Well gosh darn it we don't have a Sams Club membership! I thought we were going to have to go buy a membership just so we could get gas...but I pretty much begged the lady in the car next to us to use her card and she luckily was a really nice lady. Whew! Thank God there are still nice people out there. She slid her card - we gave her cash and all was well again. It took me quite a while to get calmed down though. Darn right awful. At this point both of us were feeling pretty guilty for having the boys in the car for so long with nothing to make it worth it to them in the end...so we took them to Target which was right behind the hotel and let them pick out a toy. This made for happy boys. Yay! I felt like I ruined the whole vacation for a while from the way I acted about the gas - but I was truly upset about it. Oh well...I didn't end up ruining it after all..all was fine.
Chase got glow in the dark jammies at Target too. ROAR! I am in love with his bashful little smile in this picture. : )
Bed time the 2nd night went MUCH smoother. The first night we had Milo in a pack n play and Chase in a bed by himself so Josh and I could have a bed for us. The 2nd night we decided to put Milo in a bed with me and Chase in a bed with Josh and they were out in no time. This was the first time sharing a bed with Milo. I was in Mommy heaven! This all went real smooth until about 3am when Chase woke us up and said he peed. Yep...IN THE BED! Good grief. He never pees the bed anymore...Annoying! So we had to change his clothes, move Milo into the pack n play (luckily he stayed asleep), and then Josh, Chase and I all piled in together in a full size bed. Just a bit crowded! We did survive though!
We had originally planned to get up and take the boys swimming one more time before heading home - but after the peeing incident in the night we both agreed that we were ready to just go home. The boys were ready too. The drive home went just as smooth as the drive there. I was the worst one - I was ready to get out of the car. I couldn't hardly stand it anymore. Good thing it was only a 3 hour drive.
Before we left our A/C started acting up but we decided to just deal with it when we got home. I was hoping it was a fluke but it wasn't. It was pretty annoying to come home to a warm house that wouldn't cool off. So while it was nice to be home - it wasn't nice at the same time because if there is one thing I hate..it's being hot. The boys were happy to be home though. They snuggled right in and played and watched movies. I love this picture of Josh and the boys. Milo even said cheese. I claimed this as the 4 day late Father's Day picture I forgot to take. Haha.
We had a fun few little days with your typical "traveling with kids" hiccups along the way. Nothing was life changing though and we survived it all so I'd say it was still successful.
Next year we decided we are not going to St. Louis. We still won't go far but we want to do something a little different. We have thrown around the idea of getting a cabin and grilling out and swimming/fishing for a few days. Possibly inviting Ryan and Alisha along. We'll see though. We have a year to figure that out. Happy vacation 2014 to us!
