Memorial Day Weekend...day one

A few months ago I got the idea into my head that we needed to go out of town for Memorial Day weekend.

I looked at several places that were within an easy driving distance (and "easy" might be different for us than for others, we consider anything under 10 hours "easy"...I know, we're insane). And this is where we ended up...

Yep, St. Louis, MO. I had actually never been and obviously, the girls had never been there either. After doing my research, I decided that St. Louis was going to be the most economical vacation and it would offer a lot of good memories for our family.

We left our house Saturday morning, about 10:30 and hit the road.

We drove straight to the arch and stood in a LONG line to go to the restroom...

We didn't take the bucket car to the top (the main reason is because Matthew is not happy with heights) but did walk around the museum under the arch.

Several of the exhibits had motorized robotic "people" discussing the history of St. Louis (I think, honestly I didn't really pay attention to what was being said). The girls were NOT excited about the robots...

I was able to convince Elyn to come and sit with me for a picture in front of the Indian "robots".

Then, we headed outside for some pictures...this one is funny because Elyn had just run up to me to tattle on Nora...who knows why.

Of everything we saw at the arch, the horses were the girls favorites...

And the helicopters leading the tours...

It was dinner time when we left the arch and were heading toward a restaurant that had been recommended to me. I plugged the address into my iPhone and we headed out...only to get lost. Stupid iPhone.

Thankfully the detour wasn't all bad. We ended up at Ted Drewes custard stand, another recommendation. We decided to forgo the actual dinner plans and make the custard a meal. It was delish!

We finally made it to our hotel and hopped in pool (which, honestly, was what the girls were the MOST excited about). No pictures though. Nora is quite the fish! She swam so well and was almost swimming across the length of the pool independently...we are so proud of her!

After a bath and a snack (apparently the custard didn't do a good enough job) we were all ready for bed! We had a big day the next day....the zoo!