Soccer in St. Louis

The girls had a few days off for the Labor Day weekend & since Sophie's fall activities haven't started yet, we decided to make a family trip to St. Louis, Missouri for the weekend! Technically, Sadie had soccer, so we all tagged along. We flew up Friday night after she got out of volleyball practice:

and then we had her first game Saturday morning:

That afternoon we went with our entire team & their families to:

I had heard about this & it was on our list of things to do when we got there so I was glad her team was going together so the girls could enjoy it with their friends:

This is a very interactive museum consisting of sculptures, slides, tunnels & so much more! It is built in in an old shoe factory/warehouse where they used a lot of the architecture & industrial objects repurposed. And it was even indoor & outdoor!

Bryan & I even had fun exploring - we even climbed to the very top airplane & made it to the cockpit:

I will admit that I didn't do any of the slides. They always hurt my back, but Bryan was a trooper & did them all with Sophie, even this one in the dark:

We actually spent the whole time there with her friend Maddison but somehow, she didn't make any pictures. Sadie ran around with her friends & somehow this is the only picture I got:

Sophie & I spent the last hour together while Bryan watched the Longhorn football game downstairs. She really wanted to go to the rooftop where they had a ferris wheel, more slides & a school bus that hung over the side of the building:

This is downtown St. Louis from the very top of the ferris wheel:

I took one last picture as we walked away so you could see the museum in all of its glory:

On Sunday, we had a lazy morning at the hotel & then we headed to another game around lunchtime:

It was hot & humid there but definitely not a bad as Texas:

Thank goodness there was a park at the soccer complex so these 3 played the entire time:

That evening, most families left to go home but we grabbed dinner & then went to check out the arch:

None of us had been here before so this was definitely a bucket list item to be marked off. We spent a little bit of time walking around the museum:

Then we met another family to ride the tram up to the top of the arch. We learned a lot of fun facts about the arch - for instance the tram takes 4 minutes to get up & 3 minutes to get down & it is a combination of an elevator, an escalator & a ferris wheel. It is a small capsule with 5 seats so we rode with another mom so the girls could all ride together & then we all met up at the top:

On one side was a view of downtown St. Louis. You could see inside the baseball field & the old courthouse:

The other side was the Mississippi River & the state of Illinois:

We couldn't believe how small the windows were:

If you can see the writing behind Bryan, it says 630 feet because that's how high the arch is:

Afterwards, we walked to the other side of the arch & met up with another family. We took another picture of the girls & then we let them run around & play until it got dark. It was perfect weather & it was really pretty at sunset:

That night, all those same girls met up at the hotel & went swimming in the indoor pool:

On Monday morning, we had a late start & then we headed to the zoo! Fun fact, the zoo is free there, so we didn't know what to expect. It was SO crowded, but we lucked out, found street parking right away & spent several hours walking around & actually saw a lot of animals:

Sadie's favorite animal is an elephant right now:

I don't know if you can see in the background, but those are the kangaroos, so Sophie was acting like one:

And then we found the giraffes & one actually came up to Sophie & ate a leaf out of her hand:

There were a few museums & parks in the area we had planned on going to, but after walking for hours in the sun & in the crowd, we were all beat, so we drove around instead. We drove across the river to officially enter Illinois. Then we found the Anheuser-Busch corporate headquarters & campus:

I had no idea how big it was! It was like driving around a college campus. Unfortunately, it was Labor Day, so it was closed. I don't think we would have gone on a beer tour, but it would have been fun to see the Clydesdale horses!

We flew home that night after a fun weekend, but quick side note - we ate some great meals in St. Louis! I didn't research restaurants before we went but we definitely found some gf gems in this city. A pub, calzones, Mexican & 2 amazing ice cream shops. Delicious!