St. Louis Family Vacation

We spent our first official family vacation in St. Louis, Missouri. We left last Wednesday and came home on Sunday. It was a lot of fun and the girls did great considering they are so young. I would highly recommend St. Louis to anyone looking for an inexpensive, family geared vacation. We went to the Magic House (a children's museum), the Science Center, the Zoo, Grant's Farm, and on a Riverboat sightseeing Cruise. We enjoyed them all, but the Zoo and the Magic House were really neat, both for the girls and for Mark and I. The car ride was interesting. Alaina doesn't love her carseat and 4 hours is a long time for Paige. But we all survived and I have to say that I would do it again.

Here we are at the Zoo. It was a nice cool, cloudy day. Perfect to be outside.
Paige takin' a break!
It was really nice to get so close to the animals. I think the Hippo exhibit was our favorite. They would swim so close to us and you could also see them play out of the water. It was really neat.
Paige really wanted to ride the Choo Choo train. How could we resist her? Mark took her, and Alaina and I waited for them.
Alaina did well. She either chilled in the stroller or the front pack.
You can see the giraffes in the background of this pic. There were quite a few baby animals out with their moms. There was a baby elephant, giraffe, and 5 tiger cubs that we saw.
We decided to forego naps on vacation. Paige was a trooper. She did have a big day at the zoo and fell asleep as we were leaving.

At Grant's Farm there was a spot where you could buy a bottle of milk and go in to feed the goats. What a mistake!!! We were attacked. At one point I thought I could put Paige down so she could feed one. They immediately jumped up on her and knocked her down, stepping on her. The poor girl was terrified. After dozens of dirty hoofprints all over my shorts, we left the pen and decided to feed them through the fence.
This was much calmer. Paige was still a little traumatized from the experience and got freaked out when they would start sucking from the bottle. But it was fun. Mark said he wishes he had the video going. He thought it was hysterical.
Here we are on the Riverboat. It was sunny and relaxing.
The Riverboat was down by the Arch, so we went to the base. Here is Paige standing at the base of the Arch.

The hotel had a pool. Paige loves to jump in to her Daddy. She had lots of fun.
The Magic House has a fishing pond. Paige really liked to "fish" and then throw the fish back and catch it again. It's magnetic. You could also take your fish to another little pond, throw it in, and follow it down the stream to the fishing pond. You can see the stream behind Paige. I had fun, too!
The have this very cool Electrostatic Generator. Don't we look awesome.
Here Paige and I are at the Science Center's dinosaur exhibit. I think she thought the T-Rex was real.