Once Upon a Time

A long, long time ago there was a little girl named Harper who went to St. Louis with her mother. . .

Actually it only seems like a long time ago. We went to St. Louis the second weekend in December and a report about our visit has been delayed, courtesy of the flu of 2006.

It was the perfect weekend; just the right balance between outings for the kids and serious down time at my friend Erin's parents' house. Her parents were kind enough to open their doors to use because there were beds and rooms enough to accommodate two toddlers and two extra adults. That way we all got to stick together and no one had to sleep on the floor!

I am not planning on relocating any time soon, but St. Louis is a pretty awesome place to have kids. On Friday afternoon we took Harper and Calum to The Magic House, which is the St. Louis children's museum. There were sand and water areas, so Harper was pretty happy with that. She also enjoyed playing in some balls and with the push-wall-thing.


There was another large part of the museum which was not open yet while we were there, but that really didn't keep us from having fun. The only negative was that Harper was too engrossed in her activities of choice for me to get many good pictures of her because she just wouldn't look at me! Oh well, I guess that's how it should be.

As far as Harper was concerned the only downfall of The Magic House was the lack of livestock. Unfortunately, she thought we were taking her to see magic cows when we were saying magic house. Hee hee hee. She asked for the cows right away when we got out of the car. Oops.

Saturday, Erin's husband Brett returned from being out of town. He came over to see us at Erin's parents' house and after we introduced Harper she looked at him and said, totally unprompted, "It's nice to meet you!" Who is this kid?

We all traveled to the St. Louis Zoo on Saturday. The weather was lovely and we got in for free so we didn't feel like we had to trek across every square inch of the place. We just strolled leisurely to see a few favorite animals: seals, monkeys, a polar bear, and penguins. Harper was especially interested in some friendly monkeys. At one point an animal ventured pretty near the glass and she said, "My name is Hahper, dis is my fren Cama." Which translates to: My name is Harper, this is my friend Calum. Again, I have no idea where she gets this stuff. It was really funny. Probably the best part of was that she pointed to herself and then gestured toward Calum while she was saying it.

I got such a kick out of it that she repeated the introductions to the polar bear.



We ended the day at a Culver's for dinner. Harper had "yemonade" to drink. If you ask her about her trip she will tell you that her friend Calum tried to drink her lemonade, which he did. Apparently Calum's impressive table swiping techniques made a big impression on her. Rebound takes her food, but usually only if she puts it on the floor!

If Erin or her parents read this, we'd like to extend another huge thank you for all your hospitality! We would love to visit again someday.