We left on Tuesday evening and arrived in St. Louis around 12:30 am. The kiddos did great. We blew up our air mattress and went to sleep in Sara Jane's living room. This is the only place in her house for her guests to sleep. Sometime during the night Aunt Toots got up to use the restroom and I sank to the floor. The air mattress sprung a leak and we were flat. So I got up and went to the couch taking mom's robe with me to cover up, leaving Aunt Toots to fend for herself on the leaky air mattress.
This should have been our warning sign.
On Wednesday we went to the famous St. Louis zoo. It was a perfect day to go to the zoo. The weather was cool (not the normal blazing hot July weather) and a little windy. When we arrived we were expecting to see lots of animals and have lots of fun. Well several empty animal cages and quite a few two year old tantrums from Millie I was ready to go, but I stuck it out until the train ride and "felt the spirit" when I saw the exit gate to the parking lot.
It was the most disappointing trip to the zoo I have ever had, literally we saw one pacing bear, some ducks, and a peacock. Not even the penguins were swimming. So we didn't feel too bad for both Sara Jane and I leaving our cameras at home.
A leaky mattress and a no animal and tantrum throwing, independent two year old trip to the zoo. Did we listen or pay attention......no we pressed on.
On Thursday we ventured out to the Magic House (the children's museum).
If you would have asked me what I learned after leaving the magic house I would said something like, "never ever take a one year old, a two year old, who wants to be independent and wants no restraints, a three year old, who is anal about trucks and their loads and load placements, and an eight year old to the magic house at the same time with thousands of other children, all who are on sensory overload and are screaming and running in every direction."
This picture was taken during the one minute time frame that Millie was actually standing still and not running aimlessly looking for something to do.
While we were there we thought we would sit down for a nice, relaxing picnic lunch.....what were we thinking? Somehow Millie managed to get herself stuck in the high chair while she was trying to escape its holding her down powers. While mom and I were desperately trying to free her, Sara Jane ran around asking if any of the parents had a Swiss army knife or a screwdriver with them. Because all parents carry tools with them on a day trip to the museum. Finally a manager came to our rescue and took apart the highchair. The whole time he was looking for another staff member to share the moment with and saying over and over again, "nope, this has never happened before." Leave it to my Millie. While all of this was going on, Aunt Toots just sat in the corner laughing. 
Ok recaps - leaky air mattress, animalessness zoo trip, chaos at the magic house. Do we quit and go home like sensible people........no, we take the kiddos to fountain park on Friday to see what kind of trouble we can get into there. 
It actually was quite a fun and relaxing time. The only thing that happened there was that while millie was in the swing, I noticed a stream of "water" falling out while I was pushing her. It wasn't water, I'll leave the rest up to you. Oh she also learned that she can pee outside while squatting. She prefers this method over the actual Potty chair. 
After all of this we had had enough and headed home. After a rude Mcdonalds manager, a gas station stop, a kmart stop, another gas station stop, we arrived home. I dropped the kiddos off with Scott said hello and mom, Aunt Toots and I headed to k-mart then to Target and finally dinner without the kids. We waited to go home until it was past bed time and Millie was asleep. :)
**Thank you Aunt Sara for the pics.....I stole them from your blog**
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