Just a thank you to Mema for coming down on Saturday to play with me! I loved going to Pizza Hut with you, and I’m up for a game of UNO Moo anytime you’re up for a challenge! Love and Hugs!

The big plan for today was to tear down the City Museum and make them remember the Lawsons and Pattons! We arrived and went straight up to the rooftop…an area we didn’t get a chance to explore last time we were here. It was filled with exactly what you would think it would be filled with…lots of crazy sculptures, tunnels, and slides to climb on and around. They had a huge Ferris Wheel that I rode on with Daddy and we were really high up above the city. Morgan was brave enough to ride it all by herself! They even had a big school bus that was hanging halfway off the roof and we walked all the way to the front and looked out of the door to the street below.

When the Pattons arrived, we met them downstairs and played in the main area on the first floor. No real way to describe this place, and if we tried it wouldn’t really cover it. So, check out the pics and, hopefully, a movie or two will also be headed out to give a better idea. The punchline, though, is that the kiddos gave the parents a great workout. There were 1000 places to slip in to and around, down and through, under and behind. We had them squeezing and climbing and grunting all over these crazy things trying to keep up! We didn’t let up, though…we doubled our efforts outside across the slides, airplanes, and towers.

After lunch, Caden and I hung out in the skate park and slid down all of the ramps and pipes while the big kids and Daddies braved the 10 story slide (no elevator…stairs to the top!). When they met back up with us, we hit the rest of the 2nd floor, rode the train, played in the sponge room, checked out the architecture artifacts, etc. When we had hit all of the different areas and attractions, we headed down through the gift shop (of course!) and out to the car.

While the Pattons headed home to C’ville, we jumped right down the road to the river and made a stop at the Gateway Arch. I was pretty tired when we got there and wasn’t really feeling it when Daddy bought tickets for a trip to the top (just 3 tickets…Momma’s must have gotten lost somewhere). But, by the time we hit the crazy elevators, I was back in the game. Una and I chatted all the way up to the top of the big arch and immediately jumped up to the windows when we arrived. The pics look similar to our last trip…little butts up in the air and heads poking down at the small windows. We pointed out all of the stuff we could see to Daddy and even got to run the camera & phone for a while, resulting in a new viewpoint for our loyal readers. The top was pretty crowded, and it was swaying back and forth a little in the wind, so we headed down after about 10-15 minutes to meet back up with Momma and head back to the Hoosier state. After a few planned (and a few unplanned) stops, we finally rolled in to Lebanon at about 11:30. Talk about maximizing the weekend!

Thanks to the Pattons for hanging with us at the Zoo, brewery, and City Museum. We’re glad we got to play with you and hope to hook up again soon.

St. Louis – Day 2

Riley & Taylor – I can’t wait to chomp some cake and roar out some Hannah tunes!