Family Fun Weekend

The first weekend in March, the 5th-9th, we had a family weekend away. (I'm just a little bit behind!) We traveled to Indianapolis Friday night to spend the night with my sister Tricia & brother-in-law Justin. We had a relaxing morning at their house, saw the newly renovated Indie Bike (What do I get for that Justin?) and then headed to Trader's Point Creamery for lunch. We had heard about Traders Point from friends at church that sell their organic milk to them. We actually ran into him there after we arrived, he had just finished dropping of the milk. Tric had heard good things about the place too and was interested in checking it out. We walked around the farmer's market for a little bit and then enjoyed a delicious lunch there.

From Indy we traveled to St. Louis. We were meeting Chad's brother Bradley, Renee & their daughter Lucca there. We had a great time in St. Louis. It was the first time I had been to this city. We ate at some great restaurants, Fitz's, Nadoz Euro Bakery & Cafe, Pi Pizzeria (delicious unique pizzas - we had a pesto, mozzarella, chicken, mushroom, red onion pizza that was so tasty!) & Companion (they had a blend of coffee called Goshen College which the 4 of us thought was pretty neat :) .) And enjoyed some wonderful fudge from the Fudgery. They do a little routine/chant that involves the people watching as they stir the fudge. And then you get a delicious sample! Which makes you want to buy lots more.

Sunday we went to City Museum. This place was unbelievable! There was so much to do. The first thing we did, and then revisited several times, was this huge at least two story slide. I can't believe we don't have any pictures of it! It was completely closed in with metal rods on both sides of the slide that were painted and could be turned with your hands as you slid down.

Next we went in a part that had a lot of tunnels/caves for the kids to climb in. This part I was thinking would have been more enjoyable - as a parent- if the kids were a bit older. It was hard for us adults to fit in some of these tunnels (or maybe it was lack of desire) and we didn't always know where the tunnels would end up....perhaps you could lose your child! Andrew wanted to go, go, go & didn't see how these tunnels could become a problem. :)

Lucca, Carson & Andrew

Do we really want to go down there?

Bradley, Lucca, Andrew(forever the ham), Kristi & Carson (not a willing participant for the photo) down in one of the caves.

The kiddos climbing on a large turtle shell (if I remember correctly)

Carson venturing down in a tunnel

I believe you could climb all the way up to the top and then slide down somehow. We didn't quite make it there. I believe Bradley said this used to be used in a shoe factory.

The kids also really enjoyed the outdoor space as well. The ball pit was lots of fun!

The boys fell asleep very quickly that night!!

Monday we went out for breakfast and then headed to the Zoo. It was free! Gotta love that! We did pay for parking. Anyways. We had lots of fun walking around in the beautiful sunshine and looking at all the animals.

Our crew

Carson & the giraffes

Renee, Lucca, Andrew (the three monkeys?) & the giraffes.

Oh, here are the three monkeys! Best shot we got.

Lucca, Chad & Andrew taking a stroll through the zoo.

We stayed at St. Louis Union Station Marriot. It was a nice place to stay! It was connected to a mall that we had to walk through whenever we were heading to our cars. One section of the mall had these 4 large trampolines in it, with these harnesses connected to bungee like cords. We watched many people, of all ages, jump on these "jumpey things" as Andrew referred to them. People would jump so high and do flips. Really fun to watch. One night we saw the man that was working at the trampolines pull the children down and let them go - they would go flying! Andrew really wanted to try this out, but said he didn't want the man to do that to him! So we let him.

Here he is getting the harness put in place.

Here he is jumping.

He actually was pretty apprehensive about it once he started jumping. The man in charge was encouraging him to bounce more & came over and told him he could help him go higher. Andrew was not afraid (thankfully) to tell him that he didn't want him to help him go higher. And then he was pretty much done. We were actually kindly given our money back "It's not for everyone." Andrew was glad he tried it but decided it was more fun to watch other people jumping!

Later that afternoon we headed over to the Arch.

The cousins at the base of the Arch.

Looking up at the Arch....

We did not go up in the Arch. Renee had already been up in it a few times before. Chad & Bradley didn't have much desire to go up. I would have but didn't feel that it was necessary to go up by myself. We did walk around in the museum underneath the Arch.

Lucca opening a belated birthday gift from us.

We had a great trip. So nice to see family and have a fun weekend away!