The 4th weekend

We spent the 4th at Jason's parents in St. Louis. There is so much to do there. The Botanical Gardens, the zoo, Grants Farm. And all are either really cheap or free. We mostly just hung around and ate food (the best part about time off), but each day we did something fun for a couple hours for Allison's sake. The first day we headed to the Botanical Gardens which is really close to their house. It is basically this huge piece of property with about every type of garden you can imagine. Debbie told me they have the largest Japanese garden in the US.

This is just Allie playing on their moose. It wasn't super sturdy, but she insisted. I was afraid she'd break it.

There were huge Koi fish at the Japanese garden. Allie and Jason fed them. They were pretty cute together. I got a ton of pictures of Jason and Allie, which is great because I really don't have that many.

She has so much fun up there!

Good family picture, except we were looking into the sun. The interesting thing about this picture is it is the same exact spot where Jason and I had our picture taken last time we were here and I was about 10 weeks pregnant with Allison.

There were a couple of fountains at the gardens. We brought her swimming suit just in case. This particular fountain doesn't allow swimming, but the one time she can't swim, she actually wants to. Jason just sat and played with her to keep her from going in to far.

More fountain fun!

The next day we headed to Grant's farm. It's this huge property in the middle of St. Louis where Ulyssis S. Grant lived. I usually love history but on this particular day I was more wrapped up in keeping my eye on Allie. There was a long tram ride around the farm with an announcer and everything. They keep lots of varieties of cattle, horses, deer and other exotic animals like zebras and ostriches. It was a lot of fun and good to be in the shade.

Allie did pretty good, but kept climbing all over things. The announcer was right behind us and she found him interesting!

It was pretty hot!

At the end of the ride there was a small animal farm a lot like Deanna Rose where you could walk around and see animals. They were more exotic though. I think they had monkeys. Anyway, we didn't stay long. It was hot and Allie needed a nap. Below are pictures of the various people trying to show here interesting things!

Monday we went to the zoo. Again, we didn't stay long. It was so hot and Dave (Jason's uncle) needed to get to the airport to fly back to DC. I LOVE the St. Louis zoo. It is free first of all, and there is SO much to see. It is really lush and green, and even when you're walking to see an animal you don't mind because it's just so pretty. The KC zoo is ok, but it so wide open with no shade that you feel like you're just walking on concrete all the time.

Not sure what we're looking at here!

Penguin exhibit. Not the greatest picture, but the room is really dark (also very cold).

Just loved the giraffes!

We had a great time. It was good to get away. Jason left yesterday for the UK. He's staying in a town outside London called Bradford. This was a really hard one. It's bad timing. We have just been wanting to hang out as a family since we've been go, go, go. He wasn't even supposed to go on this one since they hired another manager, but she had a wedding to go to, so once again, he packed for a two-weeker. It just sucks. I'm going to go to the farm for a few days and try and stay busy. I hope it goes quick. I miss him already.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!
Valerie