St. Louis Trip 2016

We took our annual trip to St. Louis to visit my family.  It was really hot and humid so Joseph and the big kids went on some outings, but the babies and I stayed home.  It didn't help that Annika ran a fever one morning and then the babies suffered from terrible diaper rash the rest of our trip.

On Monday, Joseph and the big kids went to Elephant Rocks State Park and explored.  Joseph said he would have enjoyed it much more if he hadn't been trying to take pictures so he could explore easier.  The kids had a lot of fun there.

Monday afternoon they changed venues and cooled off at Johnson's Shut-ins State park.  Apparently it is a large rocky area with little waterfalls and small rivers running over the rocks where people climb and cool off.  The kids had a fun time here and it is on their list of things to visit again when we are next in St. Louis.  (Their list expands every year we visit.  Pretty soon we'll have to stay a month to fit everything in.)

Tuesday was another full day of outdoor fun.  Joseph took the kids to a water park which was really just a glorified swimming pool with a few different slides.  My kids really aren't in to real water parks yet.  

They came home and ate a quick dinner and then headed off to a Cardinals baseball game.  The Cardinals were playing the Reds.  It was really hot and Rebecah was quite bored so they only made it to the 4th inning.  Rebecah has decided that she won't go to another baseball game.  Let's face it, baseball can be a little slow especially if you aren't really into the game.

Wednesday was a day for Joseph and me.  We attended the temple with my mom and Heather.  It was a wonderful time. 

Playing "Life" as a family.

Kimball and Joseph put together this 3-D puzzle of the Neuschwanstein Castle.
 It made Joseph and me miss it all over again.  

Thursday we were going to visit the zoo, but we all decided it was too hot so we went to Suson Park instead.  The kids played on the playground for 30 minutes and then they were hot and ready to visit the farm animals before heading back to my mom's house.  

We didn't get any pictures, unfortunately, of my mom, Heather, or Chandra, but we had a great time with them.  We were glad Chandra could come over 3 days to spend time with us.  She and Christian were a huge hit with my kids.  Annika is still talking about "Channie" on a regular basis.  

Here are a few pictures that I got from Heather of my kids with Christian.  Christian is so sweet.  He is about 10 1/2 months younger than Lincoln and Annika, but outweighs them by a few pounds. They got along great.

One last shot of Lincoln that Joseph took during church.  Lincoln was sad that I
was holding Annika instead of him so Joseph had to take him out to the hall.