Anyway, here are some pictures I selected from our vacation. There were a bunch more, but these were among my favorites. We start in St. Louis, and end at Holiday World. We also visited Cahokia Mounds together, and Laura and I spent a night in French Lick at the French Lick Casino and Resort. It was a great vacation, and I think everyone had a wonderful time! The boys did quite well, but we're still feeling the effects of the schedule variations between this trip, and this past weekend when they spent the night with Nana and Papaw Hop while mom and dad went to a wedding reception in Evansville.
Early-morning view out of our hotel window in STL (this is actually the beginning of day 2 in STL, but it's a great way to start the pictures, I think!)
These next two are the sea lions that performed a little show for us at the STL Zoo. The first one is one of the 2 females that performed, and the second is the only male in the show.
What a GREAT zoo!!! Very big, lots of neat, in-depth exhibits, plenty of shaded areas, and VERY clean. We really enjoyed our day there...this is where we drove directly upon arriving to STL.
Laura and the boys in the stands for the sea lion show.
Here's Daddy being a little ornery with Jackson. He'd stopped to get a drink from a very differently-designed water fountain, and I decided to have a little fun at his expense. What you're not seeing, however, is the retribution he levelled at me afterward, soaking the entire bottom-half of my shirt!
These are pictures from the zoo's penguin and puffin exhibit. This was an amazing exhibit, in that the birds' water tanks were at eye-level with an adult, and they'd literally swim up to your face! There were even a couple of rock outcroppings above the glass separating the viewing area from the water, and a couple of birds were just chillin' on top of the rocks so that they were situated directly above your head if you were standing in the right spot. I was thoroughly impressed with this exhibit's design.
Kian expressing concern over polar bear escapism. I calmed him down by reminding him that the duck-and-cover technique thwarts 95% of all polar bear attacks in zoos.
Requisite zoo carousel shot. They're always SO jazzed to ride the carousel, it's great!
OK, beginning of day 2 (again) here. This is a shot of our hotel from across I-70, at the entrance to the Arch Park. We had a pretty harrowing crossing to make to get over to the park from the hotel!
Jackson and I at the base of the Arch. That's the awesome power of my aura reflecting off the metal, there, you know...
These next couple of shots were taken toward the end of the day, at Union Station. Our riverboat cruise, lunch at the Arch Landing Cafe, and bike rental for riding along the Riverfront Parkway were all kaiboshed by the uncooperative Mississippi River levels. The river had risen to the point that the entire Parkway was completely submerged, as was the entire infrastructure that leads out to the riverboat docs and the Cafe. Oh well, we're supposed to get refunded for that...in any event, we took the Metro up to Union Station and hung out there, then had dinner before riding the Metro back over to the Arch park area and walking back over to the hotel. Jackson saw this bungee/trampoline thing and just HAD to try it. I'll give it to the little guy, he showed no fear as he was jumping a good 30 - 40 feet in the air! He just wouldn't do any flips for us, which, was probably due more to not understanding what he needed to make his body do than being due to fright.
The rest of the pictures are selections from out day at Holiday World and Splashin' Safari. This was our second trip to the park as a family (the first since Kian's birth) and they've really put some effort into keeping it one of the best amusement parks I've ever visited. They've disallowed smoking in all but a few select places, which is a big bonus to families with little guys, and continue to have free drinks available throughout the park. Plus, free sunscreen in the water park, and just a very family-focused, kid-friendly series of rides and attractions make Holiday World a HIGHLY recommended stop for anyone with a family. Plus, there are more than enough adult- and older-child-themed attractions to make it enjoyable for a very wide range of attendees. If you've not been, and find yourself in need of a day or two (honestly, two days would be the ideal amount of time to spend here) of entertainment, check it out!
I don't have a lot of funny side-stories about the following pictures, except the one of Laura and Jackson making the pukey faces. That was their anticipatory expression while waiting on line for the Octopus ride, but it was probably more poking fun at Daddy, who CANNOT handle any ride that involves repetitious horizontal circles. Put me on the loopidy-loopiest crazy roller coaster in the world, and I'm fine - but you start spinning me in circles on the horizontal plane, and you'd better be ready to wear the latest meal in my stomach, cuz it's a-comin' up on ya.
