So we left late morning on Thursday and headed to St. Louis. I have to admit, I was a little nervous about how Aubrey would do in the car, but she did pretty well on the way there. In fact, she pretty much slept the entire way. So by the time we got to the hotel, she was ready to party.
We hit the pool as soon as we got there. It was super hot, and this was Aubrey's first time in the pool. I absolutely love the little suit she has. I'm not sure how she felt about the pool, though. She was a little fussy when we first put her in the water. However, I think a big part of it was the heat and the fact that there were noisy kids everywhere.
Our hotel was part of the St. Louis Union Station. The lobby was so pretty, all old and ornate. We definitely loved taking it all in when we got there.
On Friday, we had big plans of walking from our hotel to the Arch. We left the hotel and started heading towards the landmark in the distance, but, after walking about two blocks in the 100 degree heat, we quickly changed our minds. So we went back, got the car from the valet and parked closer to the Arch. However, the five minute walk from the car to the Arch just about killed us and poor little Aubrey was sweating, so we took a few pictures and went back to the car.
Trust me, it was ridiculously hot out there. But we got our pictures, so that's all that matters, right?
So we nixed the idea of doing anything outside and headed to the St. Louis Science Museum. I think everyone else had the same idea we did because the place was absolutely crawling with kids. If I didn't have a kid of my own, I would consider this my own version of hell. Who am I kidding? It was my own version of hell. But since T is all Mr. Science and Aubrey loves observing things all around her, it was a fun time. When we got there, Aubrey was immediately drawn to this massive ball machine thing (I know there's a technical term for this, but...). She just sat there, her mouth open, eyes just watching the balls go around. It was the cutest thing ever. I think just that part of the museum would have been enough for her.
I couldn't even get her to stop looking at it long enough to eat some lunch....
We walked around, checking out all of the exhibits. T's favorite part was the space section. They had all of these promotional items and toys involving space. I was so stoked to find a Space Muppet Babies lunchbox, and T was all giddy to see a set of space Lego's he had as a kid. They also had some scale that would compute how much it would cost to send you into space, so I wheeled Aubrey onto the scale to see just how much it would cost. Better start saving now!
It was even hotter the next day so we decided to stop by and check out the Budweiser brewery. Yes, we took our daughter to a brewery. What can I say? It was indoors. And free. However, it did take all I had in me to expose my daughter to such crappy beer. But we couldn't really get tickets to Dublin on such short notice, so....
Here we are enjoying our free samples of crappy beer!
The tour was kind of cool. It was inside and outside, and there were certain spots where I sat inside with Aubrey while T checked out a part of the tour but I was okay with that...crappy beer, you know? The first part was pretty cool getting to see the Clydesdale's. So pretty!
It was a pretty cool tour, and it ended with two free pints of beer. Crap beer, but free beer. I mean, it was nowhere as cool as Guinness, but.....okay, I need to stop this :-) T and I then hit the gift shop where we each had to buy a crappy beer t-shirt. T got himself a Natural Light one while I chose the Busch Lite t-shirt. Hot stuff!
In between activities, we took Aubrey back to the hotel and let her stretch out and play. It was hilarious sleeping in the same room as her again. Well, not funny in that we had to go to bed super early, but she was so stubborn with not wanting to sleep. At one point I had to take away a toy from her pack and play because she wouldn't settle down. And she talks/babbles during the middle of the night. We must not hear that when we're at home with her in another room, but it was too funny.
So it was a great vacation. I know I'm not hitting all parts of the vacation, but these are the highlights Over all, it was a fun time, and it was a great first vacation with Aubrey! One of many more! Where to go next year....Dublin? Anyone?
That shot of her with the shades on is just too much, LOVE it!!! Hopefully you can redeem yourselves by taking her to a better brewery in the future, come visit Portland, we have a ton of great ones :)
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