During our time in St. Louis, we tried to see nearly every person we know, and visit as many children’s activities and parks as we could squeeze in. Highlights were baseball games, pumpkin picking 3 times (and still not getting a pumpkin), tractors and trains anywhere we could find them, the zoo, lots of friends and family time, and an early Thanksgiving dinner.
The long flight went pretty well, and Ben took full advantage of us letting him watch all his videos, instead of his normal quota of one per day. By the time we were on the second flight from New York to St. Louis, he still hadn’t slept, and was getting pretty tired and cranky. He finally fell asleep after we landed in StL, as we were taxiing to the gate.
Our first day after arriving, we went to Eckert’s Orchard to pick apples and pumpkins. They had a nice play area with a couple tractors, and Ben was captivated. When we finally headed out to the fields on the tractor/wagon ride, Ben loved it. We had about 30 seconds of apple picking, in which Ben never actually picked an apple, before we had to go back to the tractor. The workers were really nice and let Ben sit on a tractor as long as he wanted, and we never could get Ben to go back out to the fields to get any apples or pumpkins.
A quick attempt.
That evening we went out to Okawville to see great-grandma.
We went to a Cardinals NLDS game on Friday with some friends. The game didn’t go so well, but we all had a great time. It was Federica’s first game!
On
Saturday, we met Laura and Jeff at another pumpkin patch. Ben had a
great time on the tractor. We made it out to the field, but Ben had no
interest in picking
a pumpkin.
The next weekend, we got to spend some time with Uncle Brandon and Aunt Missy. We went to Suson Park and saw some animals and tractors.
Tim was out of town, but I got to go to a Cardinals NLCS game with Danielle. It was a fun time and a winner, in a very long game!
The
next morning I got up early to go to Baby Mania with my mom. I got a
year’s worth (or maybe two) of clothes and shoes for Fede, but poor Ben
only got about 4
shirts. I made up for that later at another sale in Cape.
The next weekend Tim was out of town again at another bachelor party. My parents and the kids and I went to the National Museum of Transportation. They had trains, cars, a boat, and more trains. Some you could walk through, some you could ring the bell, and some were just unbelievably big. They also had a tram, a mini train, and a trolley that you could ride.
Not sure why Elmo was there, but Ben loved meeting him.
I guess a Pirate ship is a mode of transportation too!
Okay, this one is just our car, but Ben loved driving it!
On
Sunday, we met Nick and Trish at a pumpkin patch. We walked through
the field, but again, Ben had no desire to pick a pumpkin. He was,
however, really happy to
ride the little barrel train. We tried to take family pictures after,
but Ben preferred their family over me.
We
met up with Monica and Laura at Powder Valley Nature Center. Ben was
enjoying the little animal exhibits until he saw the helicopter, then we
had to play there
for awhile.
Ben dressed up as Elmo for Halloween. I think he really liked it. When I showed him what he looked like in a mirror, he got a big smile. Federica was a flower, which she didn’t like much, I think because it was pretty hot. We went trick-or-treating, but it was windy and raining a little, so we only went to a few houses. We were so proud of Ben for saying Trick-or-Treat at every house.
We also went to Suson Park with Laura and Ceci.
We
met with our birth group one morning. It was so fun to see all the
babies together as toddlers. And the new babies, all four of us have
since had our second!
On our last day in town, my mom cooked a Thanksgiving meal, and Tim’s parents came up. After we ate, we all went to the zoo.
I had one last pumpkin spice latte at the airport (the Italians who would never disgrace their coffee this way are really missing out). The flight back went okay, but Ben still didn’t sleep much.
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