St. Louis trip days 1 and 2

We spent spring break/Easter in St. Louis this year. We went there four years ago for Easter, and it was really fun to go again, as the kids are enough older to really enjoy and remember much more this time.

Day 1: We left on Friday, and the kids were thrilled to miss the last day of school before spring break. We did the drive in one long day (about 15 hours with stops), but our kids have grown up doing long road trips and are quite good at them. Of course, we make the most of rest stops (lots of running jumping climbing and general energy burning), snacks and DVDs. But they really did great. Even Mason. Which is saying something.

Connor, ever the vehicle boy, had to have a pic with some big semi trucks at a stop-

We arrived at Kristina's house around 10 p.m. CST, tired but happy to be there!

Day 2: My sister Lara and her family also were in St. Louis from Minnesota for their spring break, which was the week before ours, so we overlapped for the weekend. So fun for all the cousins to be together for a day and a half, except little Aidan who was back in Colorado.

We took the MetroLink train downtown to the Gateway Arch. It was a cool, cloudy, grey day.

At the train station, excited to be together and to be going on a fun adventure!

On the train (notice my poor sister Lara who gets horrible motion sickness but was a real trooper on the train)-

The Gateway Arch! Unfortunately it was really busy that day and by the time we arrived, trips to the top were sold out. We were disappointed; we went to the top last time we were there and it was awesome. So we had to settle for walking around the grounds, which are lovely; they are even more lovely when everything blooms green in the near future; it was still quite brown when we were there-

We went into the Museum of Westward Expansion, a free museum located beneath the Arch underground. Awesome museum!

(Lucas LOVES buffalo)

We walked down by the Mississippi River, between the Arch and the river. Really cool area. The kids had a blast running up the hill and rolling back down. It's also fun to watch the riverboats, and there was a statue of Lewis and Clark that Brian really liked-

Can you see our family beneath the Arch?

We walked back to the train station, and it started to downpour just minutes after we got there. Seriously lucky and happy we did not get caught in the rain. The Arch through an arch at the train station-

We wanted to go to Fitz's for dinner, a local root beer brewery and restaurant, but the wait was ridiculously long so we settled for a pizza party at Kristina's house. The cousins loved being together and just having some down time on a cozy, rainy Saturday night-

"Twas Easter eve! The super excited children got ready for bed, and had fun hiding carrots throughout the house for the Easter bunny, a family tradition we grew up with (this is minus Ellie and Parker, who went to bed early and exhausted)-

Lucas and Nolan, cousin buddies in matching PJs from grandma (Christmas gifts); these two (both 5 years old; Lucas is about 5 1/2 months older) became really close on this trip and spent much time together. Love.