Saint Louis ~ Thursday

Sherry suggested that we go to the Butterfly House on Thursday morning. Surprisingly, we had never been there, so we decided it would be a great idea. While we got ready to go, Sherry packed a picnic lunch for us. When we got to the Butterfly House, Caleb was very excited about the bugs that were on display. He loved looking at all of them. Here he is in the middle of about 500 cockroaches! There was a man in the lobby holding a millipede and Caleb got to touch it. He also got to feel a butterfly's wings and see a tarantula in a case. Notice that I took this picture from a few feet away. Sherry is braver than I am!As we were walking through the bug exhibits, I reached up to scratch my head and there was a beetle IN MY HAIR! I did the only thing I could: squeal like a little girl and throw it to the ground! I'm sure it provided a lot of comic relief to the volunteer workers who were watching! We went into the butterfly conservatory with strict instructions not to touch the butterflies. Have you ever tried to explain something like that to a 3-year-old? Not easy! We learned quickly that Caleb isn't a mosey-around kind of kid. He tired of the butterflies pretty quickly and Rudy took him out to look at more bugs while Sherry and I finished taking pictures in the conservatory. After the conservatory, we went outside into the garden. There are lots of beautiful flowers there, but we didn't see any butterflies. Caleb loved the trails, the pond and decided to dance under the event tent.

Caleb and Sherry also had fun climbing on the big caterpillar outside:

After the Butterfly House, it was time to head over to the park to enjoy our picnic. Fortunately, some nice people at a table next to us had some bread to share. Sherry packed a wonderful picnic lunch, but forgot the bread for our sandwiches. Oh, well - it all worked out!

After our picnic, Rudy let Caleb play on the playground for a little while. Then we went to 2 different malls in search of t-shirts to wear to the Cardinals game that night. We finally found what we wanted and headed home for a little bit of rest before leaving for the game.

We picked Jerry up from work at 5:00, then picked Virginia up at her house. We headed downtown for the baseball game and parked (thankfully!) in Sherry's office parking deck. We were only a few blocks from the stadium and got there shortly after the first pitch. Caleb was (not surprisingly) scared everytime the crowd cheered. He devoured a hot dog and some chips and enjoyed going for a walk in the concourse with Rudy. He came back armed with a bright red miniature bat, which he now loves dearly! He got so excited when he saw Fredbird dancing on the dugout and asked lots of questions about the ballgame. I think we have a lifelong Cardinals fan on our hands! Here are Rudy, Caleb (what a face!), Virginia, Sherry and Jerry at the game:

After the game, we walked back to the car and stopped to take a few pictures in the park. These cool arches are set up for the All Star Game next week. We thought they were a perfect photo op! (We even saw a wedding party taking pictures with them!) We were ready to get home but traffic wasn't in our favor. It took us over an hour to go just 5 blocks before we could get on the interstate. Once we finally maneuvered through the massive traffic jam due to lane closures, we were headed for the house and couldn't wait to get comfy and relax!