No better time to recap a weekend like they day we are heading into the next, am I right?
Summer is (unofficially) here! Memorial Day has always been a kick-off to summer in my mind and we loove summer around here. School’s out, work slows down, warmer weather, pool days, getting together with friends/family to cook out…it’s just the best. This year we used our extra-long Memorial Day weekend to head to St. Louis with some friends to start this summer some classic family fun! Traveling with a one and almost three year old is not without it’s challenges (lugging a cooler around everywhere so the baby has milk, so fun) but it was so nice to get out of town and enjoy some time with my boys without the distractions of home.
We packed up and headed out early Saturday morning so Cam could get a good morning nap on the way. St. Louis is such an easy trip from where we live, it takes just under three hours to get there which is the perfect amount for a weekend or even day trip if you are up for it.
We hit the zoo right as we got in to town. The zoo is “free” but you do have to pay $15 for parking and then of course we bought lunch (but you can bring in your own food). We also bought an Adventure Pass (which was half off the listed price with proof of our membership to our zoo at home) that lets you do all the extra attractions for one lower price. A storm rolled in during the early afternoon so we didn’t get to do everything, but I would still recommend the Adventure Pass! The first thing we did was see the sea lion show and it was adorable.
Camden is at such a fun age to do stuff with! He is such an easy-going guy who loves to people watch, is still content to (mostly) sit in the stroller, and LOVED watching the animals! (He has propped his feet up on the stroller like this since he was super small. Why is everything he does so adorable?!)
My boys. Melt my heart.
The penguins were by far the biggest hit of the entire zoo for Cam – he would have stayed in that freezing enclosure pointing at those things all day if we hadn’t had to move along for all those other obnoxious zoo visitors 
We spent the morning and early afternoon exploring the zoo but when we kept hearing thunder around 1:30, we decided to head back to the car before the sky decided to dump on us! We checked in to the hotel to have the boys “rest” but of course they were restless with the excitement of being in a new place so we had to figure out a back up plan, stat. On the suggestion of a friend we headed out to Monkey Joe’s which is an inflatable place – aka the perfect place for two small kids to kill a few hours indoors. They even had a toddler area where we could get in and play with Cam that was virtually empty of any other kids. It was a pretty impromptu stop and luckily I had a pair of newborn socks in my diaper bag (lol) but our friends didn’t have socks for their little one so my friend took off her no-show socks and basically tied them around his foot. It looked ridiculous but it totally worked and we were cracking up all night long when we looked at him. Parenting makes us so resourceful!
By the time we were all over the play place we were starving so we asked Siri to tell us where the closest Mexican restaurant was. Amigos Cantina was just a few minutes away in a really cute neighborhood and I would recommend it if you are in the area! Probably nothing you need to seek out, though.
After that we went back to the hotel and crashed. All of us. The next morning we got up and had an awesome hotel breakfast (I could really care less about a nice breakfast unless someone else is making it for me, ha!) and decided to head back to the zoo that morning to see what we missed the day before. We explored for a few more hours before getting in the car to head home where Cam slept almost the entire way. Amen.
Monday we headed to my parent’s pool to let our little fishy swim! The water was FREEZING but he still had a good time running all over the place exploring and giving us several heart attacks. Why are all the things they can play with/do to hurt themselves so attractive to babies?!
If you are worried that all I do is think about vacation…you would be right. I CAN NOT WAIT.
As hard as we tried we still left my parent’s house with our first busted lip which of course happened in the last actual minute we were there. This boy got his first Popsicle out of the ordeal though, and I didn’t hear him complaining much after that.
Monday night we had a cookout with family and I made this salad from How Sweet Eats. Aka my favorite salad of all time. So yummy!
I love weekends that leave you with a full heart! It’s crazy how much joy one little boy can bring a person, but this kid is just that – a JOY. He is so curious and content and just loves to be out and about doing stuff. I’m sure the independent toddler stage will come soon enough, but right now we are enjoying every second with our laid back boy! I’m SO excited to take him to the beach (29 days! Eeek!). Parent life is awesome.
Hope you all have a great weekend!
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Linking up with Katie, September Farm, Meet @ the Barre, Liz, and The Slaughters.
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