Nashville, Tennessee

I didn't take tons of pictures of our time in Nashville. We arrived at Peter's house a day before Stephen and Mark's parents. On Wednesday, we went down to story time at the Nashville Library. The library was a gorgeous building downtown. After story time, Peter met up with us and we went down to the plaza by the State Capitol. We also got to check out Peter's office. We finished our excursion with some delicious cupcakes from a food truck. We had a low-key afternoon and evening. Mark's parents arrived after dinner, and Stephen and Sara arrived late. They apparently ran into severe traffic jams on the way down.On Thursday, we visited the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens which was lovely. The real excitement was Friday. We visited the Nashville Zoo, where Hannah and I got to pet a kangaroo. As we were leaving, Sara's water broke. Poor Sara. She got to stay in Nashville for another 3 weeks in the hospital waiting for baby Nicholas. He was born on July 3rd, the night before the were going to induce Sara. We had such a fun time seeing Peter and Stephen's families. Wish we could see them more often. Maybe someday we'll live closer.

Hannah - Nashville Library

Matthew- Nashville Library

Matthew and Lindsay

Jill, Lindsay and Kate

Tennessee Capitol Building

Mark and Hannah

Kate, Becca, Jill, Peter and Lindsay Robison

Matthew, Kate and Lindsay

Jill

War Memorial

Hannah and Jill

Peter's office

Eating cupcakes

Jill and Becca

Kate and Lindsay prepared for Grandpa's tickle bugs

Grandpa, Kate, and Lindsay

Matthew and Hannah - Cheekwood Botanical Gardens

Amy, Stephen, Mark and Hannah - Cheekwood Botanical Gardens

Petting a kangaroo - Nashville Zoo

Me, Matthew, Jillian, Kate and Becca on the train

Nashville Zoo

Me, Matthew, Jill and Becca - Nashville Zoo

Garrett, Lindsay, Kate, Christopher, Matthew and Amy

Saint Louis, Missouri: City Museum

The best part of Saint Louis was a museum called the City Museum. It's basically a gigantic indoor playground sculpted out of industrial materials. Re-bar was definitely a favorite. The building is huge, and there are no maps, so you just have to explore. Matthew loved the three story slide by the entrance. There were climbing cages everywhere. And if you find a random hole in the ground, it was probably a slide to a different area. Mark and I traded off with the kids and went exploring by ourselves. Here's an example of the museum: On the fourth floor, I found a whole in the wall. Crawling through it lead me to six spiral staircases all leading upwards. So I started climbing, and came to an entrance to the roof, where there is a Ferris wheel and such. There was also a 10-story spiral slide that took me down into a random cave area. I can't say enough how amazing this place was. Matthew could do a lot of the areas, but you had to follow him. Hannah really couldn't do too much. I think the perfect age would be 8-10. You should definitely add this to your bucket list.

View of some climbing cages and the 3-story slide

Matthew and Mark going down the 3-story slide

You can climb through an airplane

Matthew exploring outside

More climbing cages

Mark worked hard on a Lego house in the toddler area

Hannah

The treehouse area

Another view of the treehouse area

Hannah inside a whale

Hannah loved watching the turtles they had

We were rather sweaty by the end of the day

I know this is blurry, but Matthew's face is just so happy.

Saint Louis, Missouri: Gateway Arch

We decided to spend some extra money for a hotel downtown that provided snacks, dinner and a nice breakfast and which also made it possible for us to walk to the Gateway Arch. Of course, it was raining that evening, and the forecast called for thunderstorms all the next day. We decided that rain was better than thunderstorms, and we headed out toward the Arch. Right next to our hotel was the old Union Station that had been converted to a hotel. The trainyard portion was partially covered and had a few restaurants in it. After shuffling positions a bit, we decided the only way to make progress was to but Matthew in the stroller holding his black umbrella, and have one of us holding Hannah with the red umbrella. This arrangement left one of us exposed to the rain (Mark on the way in, me on the way out), but it was the only way not to crawl along at a snail's pace.

Luckily, there is a downtown "trolley" - a bus painted purple, that only cost $2 that started a block from our hotel and went right by the Arch. We arrive at the transit center where it starts, and there had just been a fight. The police were there, and I got to see one guy all bloodied up. The kids didn't notice, thank goodness, but it made us extremely wary. But our bus was sitting waiting just for us, so our timing worked out great. Unfortunately, there is tons of construction by the arch, so we had to go the longer route to get from our bus stop to a pedestrian bridge. And then of course, the South entrance that we came to was closed and we had to go around to the North entrance. We were soaked when we finally arrived. We took the elevator to the top which looked like a 50's style space pod all in white. From the top, we had lovely views of the city and of the Mississippi River. The kids had a blast looking out the little windows. There is also a free museum in the base, which we looked at briefly. All in all, we had a fun time, though we were definitely drenched by the time we got to our hotel.

Heading out in the rain

"We're going to have fun whether you like it or not"

The old Union Station is now a hotel

Mark went back to get Matthew's hat 

and grabbed Hannah's instead.

Hannah and I at the Arch

In the elevator

Looking out at the city

At the top.

View from the Arch

Mark and Hannah looking out

Hannah's peeking out

Matthew peeking out

Mark and Matthew

On to Nashville

Saint Louis, Missouri: Zoo

After stopping a night in Lenexa, Kansas and enjoying an evening at a local park, we headed to Saint Louis, Missouri, on Monday. We arrived around 1 o'clock, and went straight to the Saint Louis Zoo. The zoo itself is free, but parking is $15. However, the parking lot filled up with the car in front of us, so we ended up parking on the street for free. Being a free zoo, I wan't expecting much, and boy was I surprised. The zoo was fantastic. We only saw maybe half of the zoo, but it was fantastic. The landscaping was gorgeous, and all the exhibits and multiple viewing spots. The entire time we were there, Matthew obsessed about the train, so just before we left, we let him ride it. The kids had a blast, and I would definitely suggest going there if you have the chance. 

Matthew was terrified of the butterflies. 

Matthew may not like his picture taken, but Hannah does.

Hannah and the hippo

Baby Elephant

Love her face.

Hannah and I waving to Matthew on the train

Wait, did I just see Mommy?