Spring Break

Our options for a Spring Break were looking pretty bleak, since Dennis couldn't get the time off work.  Our neighbor suggested coming along with her and her girls to St. Louis, as her husband couldn't get away from work either.  So we drove down on Tuesday and stayed at the same hotel.  Here's a pic of all the kids at the hotel's indoor playground (oh yeah!) before we headed out to the St. Louis City Museum on Wednesday:

I had read about the museum in Family Fun magazine, and had wanted to take the kids there for a couple years.  Finally, we made it, and it was TOTALLY worth the trip.  The place is an amazing climbing structure, inside and out, and made for a very interesting day.  Of course, my kids have NO FEAR and took off on their own for most of the day.  I was very glad to have put them in neon orange shirts so I could easily spot them.

Jason, in the middle, ten stories up over the street

One of two planes you could climb through, also suspended about 100 feet over the street below.

Inside and outside, the whole museum had all kinds of weird materials that looked like scraps welded together to make all kinds of tunnels, caves, slides, staircases, etc.  You never could really tell where you would end up when you went inside.

There were also other oddities in the museum.  Like an enormous exhibit on building facades, stained glass, and a couple rooms with taxidermy specimens... it's like they couldn't figure out where to put this stuff and it ended up in the City Museum.  Jason looks a little unsure about sitting in the electric chair fashioned out of scrap materials.

The kids spent a LOT of time at the hotel pool and playground, but we also did the touristy stuff.  Like the Arch.  Here, the kids check out a model of the tram that would take us to the top.

At the top

Mississippi Riverboat cruise

Well, our first vacation with Dennis felt strange but it was okay.  We got away for a few days and had a lot of fun with our neighbors.  I'm not a huge fan of long car trips and this was about my limit! 

Jack, Naomi, Annika, Kathryn, and Jason