Tuesday, May 26, 2009

St. Louis, MO: Day 1

I decided to go to St. Louis to help my sister, Tori, with her new little baby when Tori's maternity leave from work ran out. On May 10th, Lincoln and I hopped on a plane and headed out to babysit little Alexis Tori Cox for five days.

Lincoln had never been on an airplane so I was quite nervous about the whole experience. We didn't get off to a very good start. I somehow chose the only row on the entire plane whose air letter outter thingy was busted out. Instead of a pin size opening jet of ice cold air shooting down on us, we had a coffee mug size opening jet of ice cold air. Immediately Lincoln was not impressed. He was scared during take off and landing so I held him on my lap. (Shh.... don't tell.) Once we were in the air, he warmed up to the idea of being on an airplane. I immediately started pulling things out of my bag of tricks and we started to play. About 10 minutes into the flight, I noticed that Lincoln's shorts were wet on the bum. How could that be? He was nice and dry before boarding the plane! After further investigation, it was confirmed that he had in fact wet through his clean diaper and was sharing the warmth with me. Unfortunately, I disobeyed the cardinal rule of flying by not packing an extra set of clothes in the carry-on. (Sorry Dad. I know I've disappointed you.) There simply was not room in the carry on because it was stuffed with goodies to keep Lincoln happy. Fortunately, I was able to take off Lincoln's shorts and set them under the huge stream of icy air for them to dry. By the time we landed, I was able to put those gross shorts back on Lincoln and I was dry too. (If you don't have kids of your own, don't judge me!)

We met Tori, Dan and cute little Lexie and they whisked us off to Dog Town. It was pretty late by the time we arrived so we visited for a bit and then crashed in our beds.

The next morning, Tori went to work and I was able to spend some bonding time with Lexie. Lincoln even bonded with her! The 6.5 hrs. flew by and Tori came home. It was time to play. We headed over to a beautiful park that is right by Tori and Dan's house. This park is enormous and equipped with playgrounds, water fountains, ponds, bike trails, paddle boats and even a zoo! We tried out the play ground first.



If you know Lincoln, you know he is obsessed with water. We found a pond for him to throw rocks into. He was content to do that for as long as we would let him. I was floored by how pretty and nicely taken care of this park was. Tori and Dan are so lucky to have something like this so close to them to use and enjoy.





Day 2

On Tuesday, we decided to head over to the zoo. It is part of the huge park that is by Tori and Dan's house. This zoo is incredible, AND it's FREE! The animal exhibits are so beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute we got to spend at the zoo. The animals look healthy and the surroundings are breathtaking.



These little penguins were my favorite part. They are so funny!





Lincoln really wanted to ride the train that takes you around the zoo. I hopped in line to buy tickets. Can you believe that it was five bucks per person? Who can complain when entry to the zoo is free though. I was glad to pay my ten dollars. Although the train ride was not necessarily worth the money, the rest of the zoo definitely was.


What a fun day!

Day 3

We went to an awesome children's museum called The Magic House. We all had a great time. They have a story book room where the books come alive. Lincoln is sliding Jack's beanstalk.

In this picture, he is showing off his pretty smile in Rapunzel's castle.


They had a really cool water exhibit for the kids to splash around and see how water works. I can just see Lincoln getting smarter in this picture.



Lincoln really liked this place. Can you tell?




Perhaps Lincoln's favorite part of the Magic House was this giant thing that you can push your hands/face or whatever on and it comes through on the other side. You are probably familiar with the smaller ones. This one was HUGE!



Tori and Dan had a good time helping Lincoln out at the little fishing pond.




They even had a cute little grocery store where you can put all your items in a basket, scan them and pay for them. Then, you put them back. It was so fun!



The Magic House was awesome! St. George need to get one soon!

Day 4

For day four of our St. Louis adventure, we went back to the awesome park by Tori and Dan's house. Lincoln could have spent all day there if he were able.

A lot of rocks were thrown in the water by my little guy.














We got these cute shots of Lincoln and Lexie at the park.




The band-aids on Lexie's legs are from her immunizations that day. Tori is not enjoying the painful parts of motherhood. Who can blame her?


Sweet little girl!