St. Louis Vacation

Oh so many pictures. I'm just warning you. This is a post that I'm making so that I'll have it for the memories. So, only proceed if you'd like to see about 45 pictures of my family on vacation. HA!

First things first... we posed for pictures.

When we got to the hotel, Daddy had to go to a meeting. So the girls and I took lots of pictures.

I think they had fun, but probably not as much fun as my camera and I had.

But it's okay; they're used to it!

All these little feet used to kick me from the inside. Now, they just kick me in my sleep when they crowd my bed!

We spend the next day, which happened to be a Sunday, at the zoo... ALL DAY! The St. Louis zoo is quite large.

So we had plenty to keep us busy.

Like fake snakes.

And loose turtles! Brownie loved the random turtle!

My kids could be models because they are so used to posing.

But they can do the candid thing too. Like when they get distracted at a splash park.

 

Here we are in front of the outside part of the penguin exhibit.

This is near the opening to the zoo.

On Sunday, Daddy was one with his work after lunch time. So we headed down the road to St. Charles. It's quiet and quaint with some of the oldest buildings on the MO River. The girls enjoyed a treat on the porch of THE oldest house/building on the MO RIVER!

 

Running water... seriously cool to them.

That sign behind my girls says something about being the oldest house or something.

We got to take a carriage ride... yes, just like Cinderella's.

We were some shiny, happy people.

One thing the girls really appreciated was having our hotel right across the street from the airport. I thought this would be awful, but you couldn't hear a thing.

Ah yes, more swimming!

Another forced pose at the St. Louis zoo. We actually went back on our last day to the zoo, and we took daddy that time.

The arch. We kind of took an impromptu trip down to the arch. I've always wanted to see it.

Only took me 30 years.

That's where we got to ride in the carriage.

Cuties loved the ride.

My girls are all sitting on the steps to the arch. Lots of stairs for a hot, preggo who was quite dehydrated. Yep, I'm out of shape!

More arch!

They're all leaning against the arch here. So, what I mean is... MORE ARCH!

Not sure if you know this or not (I didn't know prior to visiting the arch), but there is a Museum of Westward Expansion underneath the arch. It's free, and a bit random. But cool nonetheless.

This is an example of the "car" you would ride in up to the top and back down again. We did not ride to the top, in case you're wondering.

There are only five seats. Meaning Dad would take some kids and I'd take others. I wasn't about to go up there with kids and no other adult in the "car" with me. I didn't think I should be the adult/responsible one in a situation I felt so uncomfortable in. So we had to promise to take them back when they're older.

And we're back at the zoo here. The indoor penguin exhibit was literally, cool! It felt so good to be in 50 degrees when it was 100 outside.

I think they thought they were going to talk to penguins. I think they ended up a little disappointed.

Cute stuff.

The carousel was a hit. But that's pretty typical with the Copelands!

Not sure what's going on here, but I thought it was cute.

These two, too.

As we were waiting for the sea lion show, this one gave us a dance show for entertainment.

We had a couple of po

Quite the talent, I tel ya!

The sea lion came so close to where we were sitting.

At the end of the show, the sea lion caught a frisbee in it's mouth and then threw it into the audience. Yours truly caught one of the three he threw, and I was named hero of the day. Since I was deemed a cool mom, they agreed to pose for me.

Well, not everybody posed, but those who were not throwing fits or pouting participated in the celebratory pose!
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After the show, we packed up and headed home from our week long vacay (that included an overnight in our own house).

It was totally exhausting, but we had so much fun and made a ton of memories. I feel so blessed to be able to tag along with Matt's trips sometimes. And I'm even happier that he can usually take a day or two off from the hectic work schedule and hang out with his family. We are kind of cool and I think that makes him happy-- HA HA!

And now that I've finally completed the vacation posts, I can move on to other random stuff and the start of the school year!