Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Joey and Meg vs. the Porcupine Mountains - Part I

So, I'm sure that you are dying of suspense over the "mystery water" shots, right?

Let's take a ride up North, shall we...

Destination 1: St. Louis...

Max and Gus... Bros 4 Life.

What better way to kick of a road trip than to spend time playing with family!  Joey and I hit the road on a Thursday afternoon, stopped by Lambert's (throwed rolls, ya'll!), and then landed in St. Louis to quietly crash in secret so that we could surprise the Gusbuster and baby Max (who didn't know we were coming) in the morning.  

Speaking of Lambert's, when you're there, you just simply have to hop in the Photo Booth...


Our first go round in Sikeston on the left, and our most recent excursion on the right...

Gus was SUPER excited when we surprised him the next morning and we determined to play hard with a day FULL of excitement and fun!

First order of business was a SUPER delicious (and green!) breakfast smoothie that my sister made for us.  I will definitely get the recipe from her to share because it was *delicious*!  Then, it was off to the Magic House!  

The Magic House is essentially a children's wonderland of play, imagination, and exploration.  It's great, and if you're ever in the area and you have little people with you, definitely hit it up!  Check it out...

 The GusBuster

 Max and Lindsey.  Isn't my sister beautiful!!! :)

 The floor reacted to the pressure of our feet.

The Goodnight Moon Room!


 The Mystery Water... 

... was a river that led to a "fishing pond"!

 Gus *loved* the fishing pond.



And Uncle Joey was good at settling conflicts between feuding fishing lines.


 Hanging out in the Treehouse... 




 Hmmm... I wonder who wrote that...

 Wheezer + Gusbuster = Buddies for life.

 In the middle row, from left to right: Lindsey, Joey, Gus, and Wheezer.  Unfortunately Max didn't make an appearance in this group shot, but it somehow didn't seem right to press a baby's face in what's probably a germ riddled "needle presser".  We didn't mind, though :)


Music Makers...


 LOVED the "Poet Tree"!!!




 Joey hard at work making a beanie baby.




 Gus considers presidency...

 ... or construction work which I think he liked better.



All tuckered out after a big, wonderful time.  Play hard or go home.

 After that it was lunch, a short nap, and then to the playground!

... the AWESOME playground!

After that, we had dinner at Lindsey and Blake's favorite little Mexican place in St. Louis and then we came home and swung in the little yellow swing in their front yard.

It was a fantastic time!

Later that night we met up with our friend Todd to hang out at his friends bar.  I totally forgot to bring my camera and hence did not get a picture of the awesome mural he painted on the wall of the bars backyard patio :(.  Next time.

We left St. Louis the next morning and began inching our way farther and farther North, to Destination 2...  

On the road we saw Mark Twain...



And our stop in the middle was one of the highlights of our trip:  The Field of Dreams... which was free (donations accepted)!


 Ray loves Annie

Corn!









Satchel Paige on the mound.


It was the perfect pit stop.  We hope to return sometime with the family for a baseball game or two.  I call catcher.


So that's Round 1, Destination 1.  Next up Destination 2 and 3.  Get ready for another onslaught of pictures... it was an epic vacation!


Happy Wednesday! 

3 comments:

Jeannie said...

Oh, so many things to say! Yay for Lamberts and throwed rolls!! That Magic House is amazing and I need to take my kids immediately. Joey is adorable with children! Your sister is gorgeous and looks like she did not just pop out a kid, so I hate her. And Field of Dreams!! What? I did not know that was a real place you could visit! I am so jealous you do not even understand. I want to be you.

Dani C said...

I would also like to be you. Please take me with you on next vacation fun times, because oh holy wow, does all of that look like fun!

Meg Travis-Carr said...

Ha, you guys crack me up :)! The picture fun is not over yet!

Jeannie, Magic House is SO cool, and so is St. Louis for kids, for that matter. SO many fun kid activities in St. Louis are free and they are ALL amazing! We should totally try to swing a trip up there... plus, we'd have our own personal guides to the city up there with the Hill family. Joey is ridiculously good with kids. It's pretty precious. Field of Dreams family style... let's DO IT!

Dani, I think you might be able to fit into the blue suitcase... what do you think?