glimpses of vacation (don't mind all the sweat)

We took off to St. Louis to play, explore, and spend time just the 3 of us. We spent portions of 3 days at 6 Flags Amusement Park and Water Park. Kenny and Carly rode every rollercoaster {multiple times}, and I was thankful for shaded benches, lemonade, and people watching {let me tell you there are way too many tattoos out there}. We found some wonderful places to eat {LOVE trip advisor app} including Genghis Mongolian Grill where you make your own stir fry bowls, El Maguey for Mexican, Fountain on Locust a "soda fountain" downtown and Dewey's for awesome pizza {so good that we ate at 2 locations}.

At the water park, there were a group of 4 tube slides that Carly was content to ride all day. On our first visit to the water park we rented a double innertube and she dragged Kenny until closing time {I went twice, enough for me}. On the next trip, we rented single tubes so we could watch Carly go up and come down an extra 15 times {or more, I lost count}

{Evil Knievel - first rollercoaster of the trip}

{getting soaked before we head to the car}

At the amusement park, Carly had her mind set on the rides that she was going to ride and more importantly the 2 rides she was not. Kenny nagged her on the first day trying to change her mind about Batman but she wouldn't. On the second day she decided out of the blue that she wanted to ride it - then they ended up riding it 6 times over two days.

{after riding Batman, the first time}

We went to Grant Farms and saw the Clydesdales as well the other animals they have there. We saw an animal show where it appeared a Macaw did math, we are still skeptical about that. We took a tram ride through deer park where they have lots of grazing animals living in a natural environment such as bison, long horn cattle, deer, zebras, donkeys.

It is a really pretty area with a neat German building with a courtyard to eat in. Since admission is free and you can buy a season parking pass, I would bet there are many locals who go there on a regular basis. But it was HOT. really HOT and possibly the favorite part of the afternoon was a stop at the snowcone stand. We made our way through 6 states while we were gone - Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky. Our last night we spent in Paducah, Kentucky. We chose it because it was a good stopping point before picking up Sofie, but it ended up being a wonderful little town. It had a great revitalized river front and downtown area. After driving, exploring, walking around downtown, we decided {or I decided} that we were not restaurant material. Maybe another time. {downtown Paducah}

{Grand Rivers, KY}