Missouri: Day 1

I was going to drive across the country with my two boys, but my lovely mother-in-law reminded me that we had a paid buddy pass for the airlines that we have purchased last year. So I was able to fly directly to Missouri with the boys. What a relief! If feels so nice to be home and in a place where I have no other responsibilities other than to keep after my two kids. The afternoon we arrived I could hardly keep my eyes open. I was so relaxed. It has been a long time since I have fallen asleep at the dinner table!

Anyways, here is day 1 with Grandma and Grandpa. We went to the Butterfly House where we got to see a bug zoo and over 1,000 butterflies flying inside a tropical dome. The boys LOVED it.


The picture below: we were able to watch butterflies come out of their cocoons.


The dome was hot just like the jungle in Brazil. Sweat was just running down my face...it brought back so many memories of when my family went Iguazu Falls in Brazil. If we held still a bunch of big, bright coloured butterflies would land all over us.

I also remembered having to stop on the road heading home to a bunch of men standing in front of the car with machine guns. They demanded my Dad to get out of the car and walk into a tiny shack off to the right. I was sick to my stomach...I thought he was going to be killed. They asked for a certain amount of money. They took all the cash he had. The man then asked if we had money to get home on. My Dad replied they had just taken everything. The man smiled, shrugged his shoulders and said "o well." Luckily a native had already warned us to split up the cash and hide money it in different locations within the car so if something like this happened we'd be able to get home. My mother had taken his advice. We were able to get home.



We also went to the Carousal. The St. Louis Carousel is home to an original carousel created by the Dentzel Company of Philadelphia in the 1920’s. The Carousel was installed in 1929 at the Forest Park Highlands. When the Highlands burned to the ground in 1963, the carousel was the only thing left standing. The St. Louis County Historic Buildings Commission and Faust Cultural Heritage Foundation raised enough money to restore the carousel to its original beauty and installed it in a climate controlled building in Faust Park in 1987.

The boys LOVED it! We'll have to go again this week.







Uncle Ben got his drivers permit yesterday. Congratulations Ben!
One of my little monkeys. :o)