Like most trips we've been on lately, the words "we are never taking her anywhere again" were uttered several times.
Obviously we are taking her on an 11 hour car ride to the beach in a month, so that's not entirely true, but I do not see any more major league, or any baseball games, sporting events, etc in her future for a while. At least until she's 4. Museums, unless specifically kid oriented, probably not on the list for a while either.
We spent this weekend in St. Louis and met up with our friends Danielle and Chris from Wisconsin and their daughter Abby who is all of about 1.5 months younger than Mallory.
We've been dying to get them together, and although they got along fine, they really didn't "play" together, but I don't know that we really had time to play anyway. When Abby was being good Mallory was having a melt down and when Mallory was good Abby was having a meltdown. That's pretty much how the whole weekend went, lol.
On the way up to St. Louis on Friday, it just so happened that the Red Power Roundup was going on ON THE WAY to St Louis from Elkton. How did we get so lucky in planning that out just so???
We left way to early Friday morning to head up to around Carbondale, IL to Duquoin, IL where the festivities were to be held. They had a nice fair grounds for BFE Illinois.
The short of it:
- It was Hot
- We met Ben's parents there
- There were a lot of Tractors
- Mallory's behavior was fair to good
- She really liked dancing to the music
- We got to meet the guy who writes and illustrates the Tractor Mac books and got autographs and new books
- It was hot
- There were tons of tractors
- None of it was very exciting to me, but Ben and his Dad really enjoy it, so we cope : )
- Ben and I were both on the phone for work more than we would have liked
- And, it was hot.
- Oh, and we saw some of our cousins from Frohna, MO there too.
Here's some of the pictures from the Red Power Roundup:
We left there mid afternoon or so and headed to St Louis to our downtown hotel. Traffic was no problem until the last 3 miles to the hotel where it was then really annoying.
We got checked in and settled and decided we wanted pizza so we walked to a place called Pi for some really good gourmet pizza. Ben got meat and all the stuff he likes and I got all the healthier and weird pizza toppings I like. And Bean liked it both!
Pi was a hit and we walked back to the hotel, gave Bean a bath and we all fell asleep at like 8:45 because we were so tired from the heat and getting up so early. Yep, we really know how to live it up in St Louis on a Friday night : )
Saturday am we met up with Chris, Danielle and Abby at Grant's Farm. I'd never been there and Ben and Dani had been but a long time ago. It was nice, got a "train" ride, saw some animals, got FREE beer (best part bar none) and the kids got to feed the goats which was totally hilarious. Mallory I'm pretty sure just thought they were some kind of dog and just kept trying to hug them like she does mom's dog!
Feeding the goats, $1 for a bottle, those were some fat goats!
Hugging it like it's Katie the dog
They had a free animal show and Mallory loved the birds, squealed at the top of her lungs
We were right in the flight path for the birds of prey when they let them fly, Mallory ducked and then squealed again!
Free Beer!
Our $5 purchase, Ruby the stuffed Snake....Mallory keeps saying SSSSSSSS. I found it rather hilarious that she would wear her snake like a boa.....
Big horses!
After Grant's Farm we headed back to the hotel for an afternoon of napping before heading over to the game at 5 since it started at 6:15. Mallory fell asleep on the ride to the hotel but then proceeded to never fall asleep again. Mommy did, Daddy did but Mallory did not. She got several hours of "rest" but no sleep. That was the precursor to the rest of the night : )
We had great seats, got to meet Red Bird the mascot, and of course Mallory still loved him, you know, with her odd attraction to huge stuffed animal/mascots. Remember the Chick-Fil-a Cow incident?
The game was pretty slow until around the 6th and 7th inning, and for the most part the kiddos were pretty good till then. Some little attitudes here and there, but nothing major.
Then, in perfect timing, just as the game was getting good, meltdown in sued and she and I headed out for a little walk. So we missed the 12 runs the Cardinals got in the 7th inning (a record breaking inning by the way) because someone was hot, tired, cranky, and just generally unhappy.
Which it is a lot to expect a 2 year old to sit through a baseball game, but we were going to try. So it wasn't looking to get any better, her attitude not the game, so we left at the 8th inning.
Here's som pictures of the good times at the game:
Walking to the Stadium
Yay, we got to meet Red Bird before the game
Abby and Mallory in their shared seat at the game
I will be good, I promise!
Back to the hotel we went. I needed a margarita after all that, lol! And of course the "we will never take you anywhere" was muttered a few times, but always knowing that we say it for lack of anything else to say about toddler meltdowns and hissy fits.
Sunday morning we met for breakfast and then walked down to the arch just to look around again. Nothing exciting, just going to be another hot day!
Then we headed home and I was really glad to just be home at a decent hour!!
So, for the next month we will not be taking Mallory anywhere, but the beach will be a different story in itself. Heaven help us on that 11 hour drive!
