Archive for September 2010
Stories from last night’s overnight lock-in at the gymnastics center…straight from the source:
“When I first got there I so surprised at how it looked because it was so madness. It was trampolines and bars at the same time. We ran out and started to put our stuff down and ran crazy! We listened to the site leader talk about going to France to a big trampoline competition. They grouped us by age and that made it so all my friends were in my group. First they sent us to the bars area where I hung upside down and swang. Then we ate dinner. Pizza. I had pepperoni because all the cheese was gone. After, we went to the floor and we played a game called deer catcher. We went to tumble track next. It is made out blocks. The way to get on was by trampoline. Next up was “The Pit.” It was made out of tons of foams blocks. There was a rope with a knot at the bottom which I would swing on and let go to fall into the pit. There was a show from Shawn and the rest of the leaders. They did a tumbling and trampoline show. It was awesome! Next, dancing! We screamed as loud as we could. Whoever screamed the loudest got to be the winner. Bedtime! We got to watch Bee Movie but it kept skipping so we just went to bed. I slept next to the pit, but my friends slept in it. It was a fun night. We all got along really well!”
Sunday was International Talk Like A Pirate Day and the Children’s Museum was celebrating all weekend with costumes, music, and activities for the swashbucklers and bonnie lasses. When we first walked in, we made nametags with our Pirate names for the day. Mommy and I came up with “Flirty Rose” and wrote it with two different colors and all sorts of fancy decorations. Parker and Daddy were able to muster up “Cap’n Parker” and committed it to the nametag in black block letters. They said it was a pirate-y sort of script, but I think they were just being lazy. We won’t bore you with the usual run around of events, exhibits, and adventures. But, let’s just say that Mommy did a very good job keeping up with us given her less-than-enthusiastic outlook on the museum.
Next stop was the Circle Center Mall to do some dress shopping for Momma and the wedding we’re attending this weekend. It is a big, big, place, so we decided to divide and conquer. Parks, Daddy, and I went searching for toy stores, fountains, bathrooms, and vending machines while Mommy covered the dress front. Needless to say, we were very successful in our pursuits, but Mommy only got so far as “narrowing it down” before we returned to help her pull the trigger.
After shopping, we hit Harry and Izzy’s on the way out. It is owned by some of the St. Elmo’s people, but Parks and I stuck to our usual fare (butter pasta, chicken fingers) as opposed to going for shrimp cocktail or steak. Daddy, on the other hand, was the wild one with a BBQ Roasted Duck Pizza. Wha? Seriously, who eats this stuff?
Children’s Museum
Day 1 technically started out a little further North than St. Louis…Lafayette, to be exact. On Saturday, we kicked things off by helping Riley and Taylor celebrate their 5th birthday! We ate some rockin’ grub, unwrapped some rockin’ presents, ate some rockin’ cake, and danced to some rockin’ tunes before we smashed our guitars against our amps and packed in to the tour bus to head south.
Now, a note about Sunday morning…we’re on Central time which means that we’re up even EARLIER than normal. 
We rolled out of bed and got ourselves all polished up to hit the St. Louis Zoo! We had all sorts of energy and sprinted down the walk and around any sort of crack, barrier, wall, fence, or rock to the entrance of the Zoo. They had a special deal for the holiday weekend, so we all got hooked up with wristbands for all of the special stuff. That means we got to do the Children’s Zoo (playgrounds, petting zoo, etc.), the train, the 3D Dora & Diego movie, etc…and we sure got our money’s worth! That’s on top of all the animals and exhibits. My favorite animal was the bat eared fox. Parker says his favorite was the same, but I think he is just being a big stupid copy cat. My favorite thing we did was playing in the farm community. Parker’s was…PARKER…STOP SAYING YOUR FAVORITE IS THE SAME AS MINE! Ok, so, now he says his favorite was the train ride.
After the zoo, it was too late in the day to try to hit the City Museum, so we decided to light up the night (afternoon?) with a trip to the Anheuser Busch for a tour of how they make beer. It was super busy, so we had to kill some time in the gift shop and milling around the lobby of displays and beer stuff, but we eventually got our move on. We show how they make beer cold. How they make beer hot. How they make beer stinky. How they put stinky beer in bottles…all of that stuff. Then, when we were done, we got to go to the Hospitality Room where they had free fruit punch and pretzels! Man, I wish they would have showed us how they make that fruit punch…it was good!
Finally, the adults had their fill and, before they lost the legal right to drive, we decided it was wise to pack in and hit the street for some St. Louis style pizza. After some searching, we landed at Imo’s Pizza. We chomped some super cheezy garlic bread while they cooked our cheese pizza. I don’t know if you’ve ever had St. Louis style pizza, but it was wild. The crust is super thin and the cheese is…ummm…different. It was very good, but definitely a new experience for us, which is what our adventures are all about.
Now we’re back at the hotel and hanging with Ethan and Caden in our room. A little hide and seek while we watch Home Alone is rounding out our night while the adults fondly remember the brewery tour.
