Day Six {Friday}

{Warning: beware of a lot of pictures! And as usual, click any picture to enlarge}

Today was a very full day. We began by going out to what Hannah and James call "The Ruins" for a photo-shoot. Those two children are packed with fun and just cannot keep something serious like a photo-shoot . . . serious. :) They spiced it up just a little. We did manage to get some good shots, though.

From there, Jessica, Rebecca, Melody and I headed to the place which I most looked forward to: the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, most commonly known as the St. Louis Arch. It is a very impressive architectural structure.

But, "duty before pleasure," so we ate lunch first.

Before entering the arch, we had to take a few pictures with it. As James once put it, "You've gotta touch the arch." So we all "touched the arch" just for him. It was extremely windy!

 Once in the arch, we split parties. Jessica and Rebecca stayed down and Melody and I took the nice ride up and up and up. This being my first experience at the arch, it was pretty amazing. The worst part is looking down and realizing that yes, you are indeed 630 feet above ground! But we managed.

When our arch tour was completed, we walked back out in the heat to take even more group pictures.

The Mississippi river is extremely high. What used to be walk-ways are now flooded with muddy water.

As we learned about the arch, we got the impression that the real memorial is actually the bridge: the gateway to the west.

We briefly visited City Gardens in front of the old state capitol. It was really neat to see how the arch hovered over the capitol.

We were kind of shocked to see pink water in front of the capitol! It was not something you'd like to fall into . . . at all.

There was also a neat "waterfall" that flooded the steps: another great place to take pictures.

 Topped with blended floats and Sprite, our outing was complete.

Day Five {Thursday}

Today we visited Forest Park, the site of 1904 state fair. It contains many features including the art museum, history museum, science center, ice-skating rink (winter only, of course), memorials, and the St. Louis Zoo.

It is a huge place and very easy to get turned around in – especially if you are a few girls. :)

Like we did at St. Charles, we dedicated the beginning of our trip to more pictures. Our location was around the Grand Basin below Art Hill.

{Click to enlarge}

Melody found a very tempting dandelion and just couldn’t resist.

Aunt Amy, Hannah, and James met us around noon for lunch. In such a large park as Forest Park, it is ridiculous to think that it was a challenge to find someplace to eat lunch. But, due to construction, gnats, and little parking space, we drove around for a while before settling on the benches at the skating rink.

Meanwhile, I snapped a couple of pictures of my cousins. Tomorrow, if the Lord permits, we will have a little photo-shoot with Hannah and James.

From there, we searched for parking once more and hiked a little distance to the St. Louis Zoo.

We had a lot of fun looking at the different animals. James took the job of navigating us through the zoo with his trusty map. For the most part, he was really good about keeping us on track.

I think we all agree that our favorite section in the zoo was the Sea-Lion show (Note: we were drilled that they are not seals, but sea-lions). The sea-lions were really cute and entertained us with their various tricks. You ought to look at the picture full-sized to fully appreciate the sea-lions.

Our long trek in hot weather left us dreaming of a swimming pool (or Johnson’s Shut-ins), but since that was not available, we satisfied ourselves with slushes.

Tomorrow, we plan on taking a break from the heat and visiting a place that is air-conditioned. Check in tomorrow (or, if we’re negligent again, day-after-tomorrow) to see our thoughts of a break from the heat. :)

Day Four {Wednesday}

 {A day late, again!}

Today was a very uneventful day comparatively speaking.

Besides playing games or resting all day, Jessica, Melody, and I went to Lacefield Music store with Uncle Mark, Aunt Amy, and Hannah. We spent an hour or so playing around on the grand pianos and having a great time.

In the evening, we went to Wednesday night Bible Study and spent more time fellowshipping with the members of Bayless Baptist Church.

Tomorrow, however, we look forward to exploring Forest Park - where the St. Louis zoo is located. Lord willing we'll have more pictures for tomorrow!

Day Three {Tuesday}

Today we took a tour of Historic St. Charles. It is a unique city with old buildings, gift shops, restaurants, history, and landscaping sprinkled throughout.

Our first hour was spent taking a few pictures at and around the old train station.

Then we moved to Main Street and browsed through the gift shops.

{Click on photo to enlarge}

Just for you, Timothy, Rachel, Joanna, and Naomi!!

We finally decided to stop for lunch and chose Mother-in-Law House. It turned out to be really good {By the way, I got my infatuation for food photography from my brother :)}

After walking a little more through Main Street, we decided to head towards ‘home.’

But we had one last stop for the day...

Yes... here is actual proof that we mulled around in Bass Pro Shop. We have all decided that if there was ever hope of us saving up enough money, we would seriously buy a boat.

Until tomorrow, Lord willing...

Day Two {Monday}

{We are a little behind, so here is yesterday's post}

This morning we woke to beautiful weather and big plans. In celebration of Hannah's "Gotcha Day," we all packed up and headed out to spend the day at Johnson's Shut-ins, a rock formation along a river. The effect is a natural, God-created water park that shows off the beauty and intricate details of God's creation.

We had a nice long two-hour trip.

As soon as we arrived, we found a place in the picnic area to have lunch. In my opinion, sandwiches taste so much better in a park!

Near the picnic area was a small playground where Hannah and James spent their time waiting for us to get ready to go to the real attraction.

You couldn't see the Shut-ins until you were practically on top of them. The water and rocks were beautiful. There were tons of people there swimming, wading, and jumping off rocks into the deep parts of the river. We couldn't wait to get down there and start playing!

{Click on picture to enlarge}

It didn't take long for us to get in! We had thought that the water would be icy cold because of the severity of the spring weather up here, but were greatly surprised to find it pleasantly cool. The Lord really blessed us with wonderful weather and water conditions and we had a blast!


Some parts of the river were only a few inches deep, while others were beyond thirty feet. We stayed in the shallow parts, climbing over rocks and wading through the rushing water.

Sometimes you had to climb high to get to the next shallow water, and we had fun trying to keep our balance. Jessica made me proud by climbing and crawling with us the whole way! :-)

We all wound up getting pretty wet. Hannah and I went in totally; Hannah on purpose and me, well, I slipped and you can guess the rest. Amanda was the second person to slip; she didn't go down all the way, and only got half-drenched, so what was there to keep her from going in more? I still don't think she ever got her head under the water.

Melody was the last person to lose her balance and fall, but she was content to stay half-drenched. And, of course, Jessica didn't fall in at all. I must admit I was disappointed; I thought it would be a lot of fun to see her dripping wet, but I guess I should be content with her willingness to clamber over the rocks with us. She did manage to give me a second dunking by using me to catch her balance and making me lose mine! I didn't mind though, it was fun!

Jessica, Melody, and Amanda bought matching beach shoes

Every once in a while we would find still or very slow moving water between the rocks. These were often full of tadpoles and minnows. James was wading with me and suddenly shouted, "Look, a fish!"
I looked, and lo and behold, the biggest tadpole I'd ever seen! It had tiny legs and feet growing and was just fun to look at. I caught it and showed it to the others, but I don't think any of them thought it was as wonderful as James and I did.

After we had gone up and down the river for a couple hours, I decided I wanted to go across the shallow parts. In some places the current was fast, and you could get caught and brought down a little ways, bumping and scraping the rocks until you got back on your feet. I got Amanda to go with me, and we had to get a picture on the other side!

As you can see, some parts of the water were flowing so fast, we didn't go through. We saw a lot of people using them for fast water slides, though. It was fun to watch, but it hurt to try (Voice of experience speaking!)!

Here are all the adventurers. Aunt Amy was more than content to sit with her feet in the water and watch us.

By the time we were ready to leave, everyone was starving! So, a stop at McDonald's was decided upon, and everyone grabbed a cool and delicious snack.

To mark the end of a fun day, we all played James' favorite game: Headbandz. I thought it was fun, but difficult. We older ones had to submit to the fact that we weren't quite as good as the younger ones. James won, with Hannah, Melody, Jessica, and me trailing behind.

~Special thanks to Aunt Amy, who took most of the pictures at Johnson's Shut-ins.