This day didn't start out too well. Mostly because it started at 12:30 that morning. William woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. My mind is fuzzy on all the details. (I think I blocked it out, so I would still claim him as my child.) But I know for the longest time, we just let him cry it out. It became apparent that wasn't working after 45 minutes or so. We tried bringing him in bed, but he just wouldn't fall asleep. And I just couldn't let myself relax with him in there with us. It went on for quite a while. Finally Shane thought to give him some Tylenol. After 20 - 30 minutes, William drifted off to sleep. By this time, it was 4:30. I don't know why we didn't think to give him Tylenol right when he woke up. I don't think he was crying at first. I think he was just talking and talking in the pack and play. If that ever happens again, he's getting the Tylenol right away. Amazingly, Bethany slept through the whole thing. Once she's asleep, she sleeps like a rock. So that was one thing to be glad of. Needless to say, we didn't hop right out of bed in the morning.
When we did get up, we got ready and headed down for breakfast. Funnily enough, the shirt I had planned for William to wear that day said, "Dad's Best Friend". Well, after the night we had, nothing could be farther from the truth. We had a yummy breakfast at the hotel and said good bye to Grammy and Papa who had to head back for a wedding. Then we loaded up the cars and set out for our destination that day: The Magic House.
The GPS managed to find this place with no problems and we were there just a little bit after they opened. Before we even got inside we saw some amazing sand sculptures. It was themed after their traveling Alice in Wonderland exhibit.
We had a little bit of a line, but we didn't wait too long. Once we were all paid for and given our stickers, we set out to explore. One of the first stops was the bubble room.
This was a pretty cool exhibit where you felt inside the cubby hole to guess what kind of ball was inside.
We skipped over a few exhibits that were just over the kids' heads. They involved math and other things. They definitely looked neat and I'm sure we'll be checking them out in the future.
Next we came to the Children's Village. In hindsight, we should have ended here and spent the majority of our time here. Bethany loved it.
First stop was the grocery store. Bethany was in heaven. She wouldn't stop moving long enough for me to get a good picture.
Grandma took William into the toddler area to have some fun.
Bethany was taking our order at the pizza parlor.
Meanwhile, William was enjoying the toddler slide.
We moved on upstairs to some other cool exhibits.
Down the three story slide.
A hair-raising experience.
She loved this too.
She sees the green boat.
"Daddy will you get the green boat for me?"
"Just send it down the river." Who's supposed to be playing here?
The bridge was a hit.
One more look at the sand carving.
The Magic House was really neat, but it was also really crowded on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. It wasn't as great as I was expecting. We had a good time, but the crowds and lack of sleep the night before, kind of put a damper on things. If/when we go again, I feel like we'll enjoy it more because: 1. We'll go on a less crowded day. 2. I kind of have the layout down and we'll end in the Children's Village so Bethany can spend lots of time in there. The morning felt rushed because we were trying to make it back to the hotel in a timely manor for William to get a decent nap.
After The Magic House, we were going to stop by a cake shop I had found on the internet that makes Gooey Butter Cakes. It was called Gooey Louie and sounded delicious. We put the address in the GPS and looked and looked with absolutely no luck. However, we did find gas for 3 dollars and 50-some cents. That was way cheap compared to home. So even though we never found the gooey butter cakes, we did score some cheap gas. We ran through the Arby's drive through, and after one French fry, this is what I see in the back seat:
We got back to the hotel and tried to put William down for a nap. Amanda and I went to the outlet mall and did some power shopping in two hours. I got some good things for the whole family. Shane and Grandma took the kids swimming after naptime, but it was questionable if William ever settled down for a nap.
After we got back from shopping, Shane and I got ready and headed to the wedding of a college friend. The whole purpose of our trip to St. Louis. It was a really lovely wedding, and they are such a refreshing couple. They are so others focused and are so sweet. We had a good time, but didn't last long into the reception. That short night was catching up to us.
While we were out, the kids found a way to have some fun in the hotel room.
One more day left in our exciting adventure. Find out how the trip wraps up.
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