fourth of july fun family fest

We're back from our long, long fun trip to St. Louis for the fourth of July.  It's my favorite time of year in STL even despite the fact that it's usually 105 degrees and 90% humidity with severe thunderstorms.  Not this year!  We got lucky with gorgeous weather and enough time to fit in almost everything we wanted to do. We had SO much fun!

Given the kids' love (okay, for Charlotte it's more like an obsession) for animals, our trip was very animal-heavy.  We spent a fun morning at Grant's Farm with Aunt Zoe.  Colin got to feed some baby goats with a bottle!

Given that my little milkaholic chacha would have taken the bottle for herself, she had to settle for petting their heads warily.  

Colin even got to feed a camel.  I was thrilled that they sell camel food right next to the "camels may bite" sign...

and on our way to the biergarten we spotted one of the 250th anniversary St. Louis Cakes...

On the 4th we spent some time at one of my favorite places, the lake at the cemetery in E'ville where the kids can feed the ducks, fish, and turtles...

Charlotte ate more bread than she shared, but that's ok...

The kids played together on the awesome new playground in Township Park....

 and we spent a couple of afternoons at the Ginger Creek pool.. where Charlotte was much more of a swimmer than Colin :)

Had some time for leisurely "fireworks" in the driveway...  Mike and I were lucky enough to get away for two nights of real fireworks without the kids too!

Saturday morning we hit up the zoo and G manned Charlotte's stroller so she could be mobile while verbally harassing birds (a favorite pastime of hers)...

Colin got up close and personal with a hippo

and got to ride the train!

Charlotte had fun with the girls and G while the boys and Annie rode the train...

and mommy even got time with friends and a fun sibling dinner night!

What a great trip... we're exhausted but sad it's all over.  Hope everyone had an awesome holiday weekend too!

Even more pics of the adventure are here!  share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0ActG7Vs4cMWrvI