While Kurt was out of the country, Carter and decided to take advantage of the opportunity to fly back to St. Louis to visit our family and friends. It was such a BUSY two weeks, but lots of fun! The only that would have been better is if Kurt would have been able to join us.
While in St. Louis we visited a lot the touristy attractions, including the zoo, Magic House, and transportation museum. We went to the zoo with Aunt Maureen and cousin Shea (and a whole bunch of school aged children visiting the zoo for field trips). Carter and Shea enjoyed watching the hippos and elephants. They also rode the choo choo train and Carousel. Both of them loved it! The St. Louis zoo also has a sting ray exhibit right now. We stopped by it but the little ones were not able to reach the sting rays, but that didn't seem to bother Carter. He thought he was there to just splash in the water:)
We made two trips to the Magic House. One was with Aunt Maureen and Shea. Again Shea and Carter were busy exploring their surroundings by investigating the various exhibits. They both seemed to enjoy the water station. What kid doesn't like to splash in water? They also enjoyed the two and under section where they could climb small structures and playing in the ball pit. The Magic House also has a traveling exhibit that happened to be "Sid the Science Kid", which is a PBS show. Carter enjoys that show so I figured he would also enjoy the exhibit. Well I wish I would have videotaped his reaction to just seeing the life size cutout of Sid. We walked in and he just started shrieking with excitement with "Ahhh! Ahhh!" It was pretty darn cute. At a later date, Carter and I went back to the Magic House and explored it some more, both parts we had and had not been able to see with Shea.
Another highlight was the Transportation Museum. We made two visits here as well. Carter is really into cars, trucks, and things with wheels, so I knew this would be a great stop. Just like Sid the Science Kid, as soon as we walked into the museum he began shrieking as he spotted cars and trains. He just didn't know what to look at! At our initial visit Carter participated in Creation Station with Gigi and cousin Allie. Creation Station is for 1-6 year olds. It's a room full of hands on activities, including Thomas trains, cars, trucks, dress ups, and art and crafts. When we walked in he stopped at the very first table he saw. After about 10 minutes I had to convince him there was more to see. After Creation Station we took a ride on the mini train. The second time we visited we checked out the old trains and cars. Gigi and I probably enjoyed this as much as Carter. We were able to go inside old trains. Carter enjoyed running through them. :) Again it was such a great place for our little guy to visit.
Carter visited Grandma several times as well. We shared many dinners with her at her house and out to restaurants. Carter enjoyed playing with old toys Grandma had saved from when Kurt was a little boy. Grandma even celebrated Easter with us.
On Easter, the Easter bunny had dropped by the night before and brought Carter some books, bubbles, golf clubs, and clothing. Oh and a chocolate Easter monkey. He licked it and made the "I'm disgusted face" so I took it as my sign to eat it for him. In the late morning Great Grandma, Grandma and some family friends came to the house to eat Easter ham. After the meal we took Carter outside to "hunt" for eggs. The Easter bunny had filled them with goldfish and then literally threw them in the front yard. Carter would pick up the egg, shake it, open it, and then eat the fish. He repeated this process until he had collected almost all of them. Later in the afternoon Aunt Joanie, Uncle John and Aunt Katie came by the house. It was a pretty warm day so we turned on the sprinkler and Carter splished and splashed in the water! Carter was one happy boy!
Well if you're still reading, let me just sum up what we did with the rest of our time. We spent time visiting our friends, playing with the puppies at papa and gigi's, and visiting our local parks. The two weeks flew by! We are so happy to have been able to spend so much time back in St. Louis with everyone!
