The Gateway to the West

If anyone's been wondering what the McKinstry clan was up to the past few days, there's lots to tell in this post. Yesterday we flew half way across the country and met up with Dave's parents, his sister Amy, and her family for a special vacation together in St. Louis, Missouri. We started our vacation together with a visit to the famous St. Louis Arch.

 Since it wasn't far from our hotel, 

we walked there together.

 Impressive

 The men and the kids

 

Caleb enjoyed the museum while we waited for our

ride to the top of the arch.

Luke and Lydia did too.

 

So many things for little hands to touch...

 

Finally, we reached the top; the kids loved 

looking out over the city and crawling around together.

I wasn't sure what Caleb would think since he's a bit young to 

understand what he's actually seeing, but he was thrilled that 

he was allowed to crawl up to the windows and look out. Daddy 

ruined the fun a little bit because he wouldn't let Caleb lick the 

windows but it was a good time nonetheless.

The city was on one side...

...and the muddy Mississippi was on the other.

 

Since we were all so tuckered out from the long day, all three of us were asleep by 8:30 central time. After ten hours of sleep, we felt ready for another adventure today and hit the St. Louis Zoo.

I love this sweet picture of the three cousins at the beginning of our day.

 

The first real zoo animals (aside from a couple ducks) that we 

checked out were the monkeys. Caleb was a bit apprehensive about 

being so "up close and personal."

The 100+ degree weather made it a rough day for a trip to the zoo, but the kids (and grown-ups) held up pretty well. Caleb had broken out in red bumps everywhere the night before and we weren't sure if it was heat rash, a reaction to the antibiotic he was taking, or a combination, so when we saw him dripping sweat we knew it was time to find some inside animals to look at as soon as possible. Unfortunately, unlike the D.C. Zoo, there are very few indoor exhibits. Luckily, we found the penguin house and cooled off in the frigid arctic habitat.

This pic shows how open everything was. If a penguin came close enough, 

we could have easily reached out and touched it. But be careful standing 

so close to that glass tank if you don't want to get splashed!

 

For those who don't know, I'm a pretty big penguin fan and loved this 

exhibit when I first saw it several years ago while Dave and I were dating. 

It was fun to bring Mr. Caleb this time.

Since the temperature was supposedly 45 degrees inside the penguin 

house, we couldn't stay in there too long. Instead we shopped around 

the gift shop a little while and then looped outside to check out the bears.

Shortly after, we scooted back in to cool off and admire these fellas again.

By this point, Grandpa and the rest of the crew had caught up to us.

Another wonderful way to cool off were these giant fans that we 

kept running to for a cool midst.

We went into the special children's section right before lunch and watched part of a show.

 How about some bird tricks?

 

Those animals look familiar.

Oh no! Daddy don't let the hippo eat our toddler.

Caleb, you're almost as tall as a Koala. 

 

Lydia, did you get stuck in a spider web?

I thought Caleb would be super excited about all the animals, but I guess since they were so sluggish from the heat they weren't too interesting. However, on our way out of the zoo, we spotted the insect house. Our son loves bugs. When we are at home, he often finds insects crawling outside on our windows, points at them excitedly, and says "bug, bug." Half the time it takes Dave and I awhile to spot the little guy Caleb's already pinpointed. Despite the fact that Caleb hadn't had a nap all day and it was time for what would normally be his second nap, we stopped to explore all the creepy crawlers.

Don't turn around! Just keep running!

Some of the bugs were hard to see.

But, the bees were easy to watch.

One of the biggest highlights for this button-pushing boy was the 

exhibit above. Everything was right at his height so he could run 

from one button to the next listening to all the bug sounds. 

Our last stop in this section was the butterfly house. We tried to get 

a butterfly to land on us, but the only lucky person was 

Grandma whose shoe attracted one.

This evening, we spent some time enjoying each others' company by the indoor pool here at the hotel. Caleb loved being with his cousins and running away from his parents down the hotel halls. What else is planned for this Midwestern vacation? We'll fill you in soon!