Anheuser-Busch Brewery

On Tuesday afternoon my parents took the boys to the zoo while Mike, Lindsey, Jason and I toured the Anhueser-Busch Brewery. It was really cool. I'm fascinated by factories and the magnitude of what they accomplished. As we were touring I kept thinking, "I need to find some youtube vidoes on how these machines were invented, how they work, how much they cost..." I know, totally geeky. Anyway, the buildings are full of amazing, historical detail and the campus was beautifully manicured. Of course, the beer samples at the end were tasty. Thanks, mom & dad, for suggesting/enabling our afternoon double-date!




Is the tour over? Where are the free samples?

Science Museum

As an extra treat during our vacation, we had a chance to hang out with some of Mike's extended family. Mike's cousin, Emmit and his daughter Julie, and his uncle Emmit and Aunt Marilyn traveled for about an hour to meet us in St Louis at the Science Museum. It was so great to spend time with them. We had fun checking out the exhibits (including building a model arch and playing an electronic harp without strings) and had a nice lunch together. Aunt Marilyn treated all of the kids to a penguin before we left, and our boys have been carrying them around non-stop. We'll savor the memories of this visit for a long time.

Good Enough for Obama

The president recently selected Pi's pizza as the best. We checked it out when we were in St Louis. YUM! We agree. Griffin tried to pass the time with toys, but eventually couldn't wait any longer. He just dove right into a plate of Parmesan cheese. Apparently the cheese is really yummy, too.

Grant's Farm

After church on Sunday we checked out Grant's Farm. Its a 281-acre ancestral home of the Busch family and is home to more than 1,000 animals representing more than 100 different species from six continents. We rode around "safari style" in a little train and saw many animals. We also caught several animal shows and the kids rode the carousel. We ended our visit by sampling the free beer and eating cotton candy (Gram introduced the boys to it....Noah loved it, Miles - not so much). Gram also bought each of the boys an owl which they now tote everywhere. Awesome adventure spot!

A boy and his pop checking out the clydesdales.












Seriously, our entire family is snap-happy (I think everyone was snapping Noah's first bite of cotton candy).


Or Jason's :)


The only free sample Noah would get his hands on.


Its so great to be on a trip with these girls.

The Arch

No trip to St Louis would be complete without a trip to the Arch. I thought the boys would find it cool...and figured it would be something that they would definitely remember about our vacation. We didn't go up in the Arch, but we did check out the underground museum. Miles was more impressed with the fact that we were underground, than in the actual contents of the museum -- but it was still worth the trip.







One of the benefits of being a part of a camera-happy family is that there is always someone ready to take a quick family picture for us. :)

Graduation Picnic

Gotta love a good picnic, especially one with cake.

Botanical Gardens

St Louis has the most amazing botanical gardens. We spent a couple of hours there on Saturday morning and I was itching to go back every day afterward. If we lived in St Louis I'm sure it would be a weekly destination for us. The flowers were beautiful, the children's play area was far more than impressive and it was just plain nice to be there.










We used a combination of purple and white irises in our wedding & I loved the reminder. Hope to hang out there again someday.