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!

Comments

Some of you let me know that you tried to comment on one or more of my posts but the comment never appeared. Others have voiced that they wanted to comment but didn't know how. Since part of the fun of blogging is enjoying your readers' comments, I thought I'd give a quick lesson on how to add your feedback on the blog itself. ( I appreciate the comments you leave on my Facebook page under the blog links as well, but if you post to the blog itself, I can save the comments. I am going to print the posts to keep in a book of memories for Caleb and possibly our future children.)

Anyway, here goes:

1. If you click directly on one of my blog links from Facebook, there should be a white box at the bottom of the  post where you can type in your comment. If you enter the blog another way, you can get to this white text box simply by clicking the link at the bottom of a post that looks like this 1 comments.


2.After typing in your comment, choose from the drop down menu that looks like this: Comment as: Select profile... Lindsay (Google) LiveJournalWordPressTypePadAIMOpenID Name/URLAnonymous. If you have a Google account, it is easy to choose to comment with that name. If you have a website you can also choose to put your name and your website. For some of you who don't have a google account and don't want to make one or who don't have a wesbite, you can choose to post as Anonymous. If you choose the anonymous setting, you can just type your name at the end of your message so I know who sent it rather than setting up a whole Google Account. Your choice!

3. Click the box that says Post Comment.Then, you will be redirected to a page where they ask for WORD VERIFICATION. This means they give you a few random letters to type in at the bottom to verify that you are a real person and not spam. Make sure you type in all the letters and don't skip this step or I won't see your comment. I think this is where most of the "lost" comments are happening. After typing in these letters, click Post Comment again.

Your comments will not show up immediately because I have to approve them first. After they are approved, you will be able to see what you wrote under my post or under the comment link that looks like this 1 comments. 

It's pretty easy but if you get hung up let me know. Once you do it once, the next time will be a breeze. Feel free to try a test comment on this post. Don't be shy.....I love to hear from you!

And since every good post needs a good picture or two, here are a couple sweet ones for you to enjoy!

Bye-bye Bottles

Yesterday, I gave Caleb his last bottle. We've been weaning him for the past three weeks, and he did really well with the transition. First, we cut out the nap time bottles and then a few days later we traded in the night time one for a sippy cup too. Last night's "last bottle" was really just so I could have one more chance to cradle my sweet boy and savor the moment.

Reading to Mommy

Tonight when I was reading a story to Caleb after his bath, he surprised me. When I paused in the middle of one of the pages to look at something on the computer, he finished the sentence for me! It wasn't a lot of words, just a "pop, pop, pop," but it made my day.

I read a few other pages and paused to see if he would repeat the same line each time, but he would only say the phrase - "pop, pop, pop" - when I was turned to and paused on the correct page. After calling my mom and Granny so they could hear him "reading," I did what any proud Momma would do; I busted out the Flip to record it. Hope you enjoy!

He may not be reading Shakespeare, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Hurston, or even Dr. Suess, but for 14 months old, I was pretty excited for him. I'm glad he's paying attention during our reading time well enough to memorize and repeat what he's heard. Good job, Caleb!

Fun Day

Today the three of us attended an all-in-one-day vacation bible school called "Fun Day" at Grace Bible Fellowship. This year they used a western theme. Psalm 103:12 was the theme verse: "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our sins from us."

Caleb and his friend Andy dressed for the occasion.

The decorations took us back to the old west.

The kids started pouring in this morning around 9:45. Over
sixty children showed up, which is amazing for such a
small country church. Praise God!

They opened with a few songs.

Then, there were a couple skits. In this one, there was some cow
tipping involved! The cow forgave the tippers though.....
How would a cow know about forgiveness anyway?
This one must have read the Bible.

After registering everyone and having the opening time together, the kids broke down into age appropriate groups to learn a bible story about Joseph and do a craft. Even though this was the most significant part of the day, I was in the nursery loving on three little ones so I didn't get any pictures to share.

After the story was told and the crafts were complete, we headed
outside for "a show down at high noon."

Then, there was a clapping-behind-your-head push-up
showdown between these two fellas both named Peter.

Afterwards, everyone headed inside to the chuck
wagon for some grub.

Caleb gives the chuck wagon crew a smile of approval.

The last half of the day was filled with a ton of activities for the kids.

Parachute fun!

Face-painting

Bubble blowing contest

A giant tug-of war over a baby pool

The most amazing balloon animal maker I've ever seen.

Airplane balloon

T Rex hat (I've got to hire this balloon guy for a birthday
party some time.)

And, what's a western without horses! Or...uh...well ponies.

Our pastor collects tractors, so of course there had
to be a few tractor rides too.

Wave to us, Troy!

Luckily, we had a lot of space for those John Deeres to roam.

Pastor Larry even let Caleb sit on the tractor.

Caleb wanted to drive. He loved it so much that he cried
when we made him get down.

Lassoing hay bales with hula hoops

One of the kids' favorite activities though was the water slide.
It was made out of a strip of plastic with an air mattress at
the bottom that slowed the kids down and bounced them
straight into a pool of water.

There were smiles everywhere.

With some soap added to the water and a few giant
floats to help them slide better, these kids went flying.

Our deacon Pete finished the day with enthusiasm. After a recap of
the theme verse, certificates were distributed and prizes drawn.
Even Caleb earned a certificate for his first VBS ever!