#7 st. louis

our big stop on the way home from utah was to visit the city museum in st. louis, missouri. i have wanted to visit ever since i saw my friend's (jolynne) pictures from her visit (i think jennifer gardner recommended it to her). this place was insanely fun. they give you no map when you go in and tell you to just go around and explore. it has three stories with cages and slides that go back and forth from story to story. (one slide will take you down three slides.) we had a blast despite the fact we were all sweating like pigs from the mugginess and heat of the day.



here are two pics from the outside of building and you can see where you can climb through things. you can climb up to that fuselage and they were working on a cage/steps that would take you to a school bus hanging off the roof.

my girls loved climbing over this "pond" of water.

close-ups of the cages both inside and out of the museum that will take you to floor from floor.

this slide that had a practically 90 degree slant to it was the biggest hit for my girls. lily especially loved it and needed a lot clearance at the end to slow down.

optional way up the slide.

love this pic with grace at the top and lily flying down at the bottom.

there was another room filled with skateboard-like ramps that you could slide down. who knew that concrete could be so slippery and smooth? you can see me helping push fritz up one of the steep ramps; he insisted on going up the hard way. in the blurry pic, you can see me pushing jake up and down a ramp. he enjoyed this greatly (although it was a little taxing on me and i think i got him stuck on a set of steep hill-like ramps).

another section of the museum was a carnival theme with old pinball machines and arcades. here we are cooling off with a soda by the world's largest pair of underwear.

here are the kids asleep all together in the same bed at the hotel. it was the night before we went to the museum. it took two trips to the pool that night to tire them out after spending two days in the car. the museum also helped expand energy and we ended up driving through the night and being home by the next afternoon.