Missouri Trip!

This past week we went to Columbia, Missouri to visit the DeLeeuws!  We flew out last Wednesday, and Audrey did great! We were super worried about how Audrey was going to do because we had a flight to Denver and then another from Denver to Kansas City, and then a two hour drive to Columbia.  She won the hearts of everyone sitting around us by waving at everyone, including the steward, and then she napped all the way through both plane rides! When we finally got to the DeLeeuw's we were exhausted because we'd woken up at 4:00 that morning, and we finally arrived at their house at 6:00, it was a long day of traveling!

 

On Thursday we hung out at the pool.  Bill and Jessica have a pool right by their house, that has a great kiddie pool! The boys loved playing in the splash part of the pool, and Audrey loved swimming around in the little pool. The DeLeeuws had an inflatable plane that Audrey loved cruising around the pool in.  Luckily, Alex didn't like it, so Audrey had it all to herself.

 

On Friday we headed over to St. Louis.  We first stopped off at Pappy's for lunch, which is a pretty popular BBQ place that was featured on Man Vs. Food.  (The picture of Audrey on the pig is at Pappy's)  We were excited for good barbecue, but pretty nervous once we got to the restaurant. It was a tiny building packed wall to wall with people, with music blaring so loud you couldn't even have a conversation! We probably waited at least half an hour just to order our food, and apparently that was pretty fast, because when we left the place, the line was out the door, wrapping around the building!  The food was pretty tasty, but it was just too chaotic inside, so it wasn't a real kid-friendly environment. We decided that if we ever go again, we'll just get the food to go! 

After lunch we headed over to go see the Gateway Arch.  It is a pretty impressive arch, it's actually the tallest man-made monument in America.  We got to ride to the top of the arch, but getting there was pretty crazy. We waited in lots of lines (the boys said it was like Disneyland) but the babies were getting pretty tired of waiting in lines all day, so that wasn't very fun. When you finally get to the end of the line you ride in a tiny pod up to the top, we called them washing machines because the pod was probably only four feet tall!  The ride up to the top took about four minutes, and then I was actually kind of disappointed at the top because there are only tiny windows to look out of to see the view. The view was pretty neat though.

 

While we were at the DeLeeuw's, Audrey and Alex took turns wearing the grumpy pants!  Sometimes Audrey would get really grumpy, so we would take her on walks. Here we are walking on the Bear Creek trail which is right by their house. We loved how beautiful Missouri is! There are so many trees! We also loved all the animals we saw! While on our walk we saw lots of bunnies!

 

Saturday was my birthday! Jessica made me a delicious birthday cake! It was a raspberry cake with raspberry frosting with a chocolate ganache drizzled on top! yum!  For my birthday Jessica watched Audrey, and Tyler and I were able to go out to lunch!

I love this picture of Audrey! I was just sitting there holding her talking to Jessica, and I didn't even realize that she had started to dig in to a cupcake that Zachary had got at a birthday party!  Yummy blue frosting!

On Sunday they took us to Devil's Ice box, which is a little cave that you can explore.  Audrey was wearing the grumpy pants that day, so I just stayed out with Jessica while the boys explored the caves. 

On Monday we left the DeLeeuw's and spent the evening with Tyler's uncle, who is a mission president in Independence. That night they took us out to eat at Bass Pro Shop, which is just like Cabellas.  Look at that giant catfish!

The next day on the way to the airport, we stopped off at Liberty Jail. By this time, Audrey was ready to be home, she cried and cried the whole time! Poor girl!

 

Audrey did great on both plane rides home too! Thanks Bill and Jessica for letting us come to Missouri!!