Our wonderful Missouri trip

We recently went travelled to Missouri (Oct 10 - 14). It was a father's day gift for Daddy. Growing up, he's always loved going to Old Iron Works Days at Meramec Springs and I thought it would be nice for him to share the experience with his kids.

I have to give the day to day of how everything went. We flew thursday night, caught the 9pm flight out of Phoenix. We picked the kids up from daycare and headed over to the airport. As you know, Ian loves planes and the airport. He was so excited and not only does he love the aiport, but riding the shuttle bus from the long term parking lot to the terminal. He even told me "Mommy, I'm having fun". Note to self, if you want to make Ian happy at a cheap price, take him on a bus. Anyways, he was great at the airport but Hannah of course wanted to run around everywhere and not stay in our arms. She got to be pretty cranky. Can't blame her, it was past her bedtime. We finally boarded the plane and as soon as the plane starting moving, Daddy gave her a bottle and she slept the entire flight. Can't say the same for Ian. He turned on his Dora the Explorer DVD and stayed up the entire three hours of the flight. We finally arrived in Missouri and Ian was so happy to see Papi and Granny.

On friday, we woke up, got dressed pretty late and headed over to the St. Louis Zoo where we met up with Katie and Ellie. Ian fell asleep in the car and we had to wake him up, so as you can tell from the pictures there, he was grumpy. He later perked up and especially enjoyed the train ride around the zoo. Hannah had a good time looking at all of the animals and we let her run around a little bit.

Saturday was Old Iron Works Days. We had to be up and out of the house by 8 - 8:30, no small feat for this Marler family, but we made it. The Freeds and the Hesemanns met up with us there. Meramec Springs has a playground there with all of the same equipment as when Daddy was growing up. The kids had a blast there. Hannah loved going down the slide and running around the playground area. She was also obsessed with the tires in this one structure and putting rocks in it's hole or sticking her finger in the hold and pulling out stuff. Ian rode the spinning saucer over and over and over again. Good to know he doesn't get Mommy's motion sickness. The park breeds trout there, so Papi was showing the kids how to feed the fishes. Ian had fun playing with the fall leaves and throwing them in the spring. Next year, I'm guessing Ian will be going on his first fishing trip. The park was beautiful and the weather was comfortable, so we spent a full day there. The kids were exhausted by the time we left.

On sunday, Granny and Papi had a big picnic in their backyard. All of the aunts, uncles, cousins, and grannys came to see the family. It was wonderful seeing all of them. Unfortunately, Ian hadn't had a nap that day, so he was anti-social and ended up falling asleep while everyone was there. The Marshalls stopped by and we got to finally meet Liam Marshall. He was a cutie. I think we met Hannah's future husband. The other unfortunate event was Mommy's city girl came out and she had to go inside after getting eaten by several mosquitoes. Despite those events, Hannah had fun at the picnic. She got to meet everyone and chase around all of the older cousins.

On monday we drove up to the Freed's house in O'Fallon. The kids were extremely excited when they saw all of Ellie's toys and all of the stairs they get to climb. Later in the day we visited the Chesterfield Pumpkin Patch. It was Ian's first visit to a Pumpkin Patch, so he was running up and down the long trails of pumpkins and trying to pick them up. They had a few tractors there so he and Ellie kept trying to drive them. Hannah had fun sitting in the wagon and also playing with the pumpkins. We then came back to a scrumptous early Thanksgiving dinner prepared by Granny.

The next was flying home day, so we kept it low key and let the kids play. I have to share our experience with the flight back. We took a 6pm flight and it was a pretty full flight. As always, we bring all the snacks and milk in the world. Ian didn't have a nap that day but we let Hannah have a 3 hour name earlier (big mistake). Ian fell asleep pretty fast on the flight, but Hannah...oh boy. We were for once, the family, with the screaming kid. She screamed and cried at least 2 out of the 3 hours in the flight. We tried everything in the world to get her to stop crying. Boy did we get looks. Don't believe her ears were hurting. She just didn't want to sit. She wanted to walk around. She ended up falling asleep when the plane landed. I think next time, Hannah will be getting a little dose of Benadryl before the plane ride.

In summary, it was a great trip. What made me the happiest though was seeing the kids bond with their cousin Ellie. They really enjoyed playing with her and I'm sure they can't wait to see her in December for Disney World!