Day 1

We're back from our vacation and getting right back into the swing of things.  We had such a great time in St. Louis!  It was a fantastic time as a family and we really enjoyed ourselves.  We had SO much fun that we took over 400 (400!!) pictures.  Don't worry, they're not all going to be on the blog.  However, we did want to share as much as we possibly can, so we're splitting our trip up into several posts.  :)

We left bright and early on Thursday morning to head out.  We drove to Columbia before stopping to grab some breakfast at McDonald's and let Reegan play in the playplace.  Our friends Adam and Becca travel down I-70 often with their two boys and said that this McD's had a great playplace...they were right!  It was huge.  So huge that Jason had to help Reegan climb up some of the levels.  :)  Reegan had a lot of fun right off the bat.

We pulled into St. Louis right around 12:30 and were able to check into our hotel* early.  Perfect!  We were hoping this would be the case.  We rode up to the 27th floor and got everything situated. 

*We booked our hotel on Priceline - this is the second trip we've booked using the "Name your own price" feature.  It's AWESOME.  The hotels we've gotten have been perfect and CHEAP!  I highly recommend it for anyone who knows the exact dates they want to travel.

Here's our view...

Reegan got her own bed for the trip!  She was really excited about the big beds.  The first thing she did was get her "friends" (Big Bird, Elmo, and Teddy) and climb up to the pillows.

Our plan for Thursday was mainly to head to the Arch.  Luckily for us it was a very short walk from our hotel!

The ride up was exciting for this little one!  (Jessica was not a huge fan of the little "pods" that you have to ride in, but it didn't bother Reegan at all)

Up at the top Reegan LOVED looking out the little windows!

She really seemed to get a kick out of being up so high and looking out. 

Stop #1 on the trip was a huge success!

After the Arch, we just took the rest of the afternoon to stroll around downtown St. Louis.  Jason wanted to go by Busch Stadium...

Then we found this park right in the middle of downtown.  So cool!  Reegan had fun running around and using up all of the energy she could.  :)

And she really liked the giant rabbit that was there.  She is so fun to watch these days.  She just gets so excited about new things and just loves to play, play, play!

We grabbed dinner down in Laclede's Landing - a restaurant/entertainment area by the river - at a place called Morgan Street Brewery.  The weather was beautiful so we sat outside and enjoyed our meal. 

Day 1 was a lot of fun!  We were off to a great start and ready for the rest of our long weekend.  Stay tuned for more...