Our First Family Vacation

While it was short in both time (2 nights) and distance (just the other side of Missouri), the trip we took this past Memorial Day Weekend to St. Louis with the Hupe family was our first ever family vacation.

To be honest, I was quite nervous about going on a trip with two toddlers, not sure how they'd respond to the change in routine and whether the potential lack of sleep would make the whole trip quite difficult. Overall, the trip was a great success! The boys entertained each other fairly well, diffusing some of the potential effects of over-stimulation. Overall, Dawson got enough sleep to keep all of us happy. So I didn't spend the weekend battling an over-tired toddler while in my own exhausted haze.

Here's a recap of our weekend along with some pictures.

Saturday
Morning: Drive to Saint Louis
At a rest area along I-70, while walking from me and to Erin, Dawson managed to trip, slip and sit down right in a rather deep mud puddle. While he sat in the mud crying, I was both laughing and decrying our terrible luck. It was some work, but we got him cleaned and into dry clothes. I thought maybe that was a sign of worse things to come, but the rest of the weekend went fairly smoothly.

Afternoon: The boys ran wild, with their parents close behind, at the Magic House. We could've spent days in that place.

Dinner: We had some incredible pizza at Deweys Pizza.

Sunday
Early morning: Though he had slept pretty soundly on one of the beds in our room, Dawson woke me up for good at 3:30 in the morning. At about 5, I jogged through downtown, past the Arch and over the Mississippi and through the quit little suburb of East St. Louis. While I wasn't sure whether I should jog through East St. Louis and I had to cover my mouth to keep out the bugs while crossing the river, overall it was a beautiful and refreshing early morning run.

Morning: We took the boys to Grant's Farm, a much better option for toddlers than the zoo. As you might be able to tell from the picture, Dawson did not enjoy bottle feeding the goats, nor getting swarmed by the eager goats.

Early afternoon: Both boys and both dads took a nap.

Late afternoon: We let the boys get soaked at the City Gardens. That was a good time in a great downtown park.

Dinner: Dawson entertained half the people dining at the Old Spaghetti Factory

Monday
Early morning: No jog this morning as Dawson woke up about 8 times during the night, likely because the crib was too small. After breakfast, we walked over to the Arch.

Morning: As we pulled into the National Transport Museum, the boys broke out into applause at the sight of all the trains. Dawson was in heaven and kept running back and forth through one of the open trains.

Lunch: We went over to the West Loop neighborhood and had some "world famous" sandwiches at Snarf's. The food was pretty good, great college neighborhood.

Afternoon: We drove home, both boys took turns napping then waking the other one up from his nap.

Finally, for the benefit of a certain friend to whom I like to give a lot of crap for being from St. Louis, I must admit I enjoyed my time in the Gateway City. The highlight being that I avoided seeing a Cardinals game and getting murdered, two events that occur quite frequently in St. Louis.