Too Long in Writing and Too Many Pictures

I realize that I have not updated this blog since our vacation last year.  I still take lots of picture though.  We just got back from a week-long vacation in St. Louis.  I took over 1300 pictures, but did not get one with me in it!  Rather than try to cover everything in one post I am going to show pictures from the different places we went.  Some place I took alot of pictures (city museum) some none (laser tag).  I do not edit my pictures with photoshop.  These are straight from the camera.

These are from the botanical gardens in St. Louis and are some of my favorites:

 Even the trash was pretty:

City Museum - St Louis

Last weekend we went to St Louis to make a kid exchange with Nathan's mom.  We went to the City Museum.  We had never been there before because there are so many good free things to do in St Louis that we never went to the things that cost money.  It was actually pretty cool.  It was basically a giant artistic playground/jungle gym.  It would have been a blast to go to when I was in high school/early college (when I was significantly skinnier and more flexible).

 It was almost impossible to keep track of kids there.  There were tunnels under the ground and in the ceiling.

 The artwork and sculptures reminded me alot of the "Dragon Park" in Carbondale and I wonder if the same artist might have had a hand in it.  Most everything there was made of salvaged materials.

  All the floors were elaborate mosaics.

It was really a beautiful place. 

 

There was a lot of concrete sculpting going on. This was in the "caves".  The caves led to a 10 story slide made out of a garbage chute.

 There was also a large section that was all architectural ornaments off of old builds.  Lots of gargoyles and such.  Iris thinks that we need some for our house.

This is a great place if you have kids old enough to listen really well, and kids young enough that they are smaller and pretty fearless.  I saw several experienced patrons wearing knee pads.  Knee pads, really good shoes, and lots of training before you go (My quads were screaming after 30 minutes of constant climbing, crawling, scooting, etc.) are essential.  The kids really liked the place.
Now the kids are gone for a week, I am off to enjoy the silence.....