Showing Flat Stanley Around STL

Today is the first day of a long, five day weekend.  Five days! Five days that I can spend focusing on family...not having to split my energy between life at home and life at work (though truthfully, as mom with a full time job, you never really aren't thinking about what needs to be done at home).

Anywho, thanks to the fact that the boys holiday schedule matched up nicely with my work holiday schedule, I get to have five whole days where we really don't have to be anywhere.  There isn't much we have to do.  Don't get me wrong, there is a LOT to do around the house (you should see all of the unpacked boxes we still have in the basement). There is all the painting I want to do this weekend,  but we don't have to really be anywhere.

Our niece in Texas recently sent the boys a letter with Flat Stanley inside.  Are you familiar with Flat Stanley? He's a little kid who got flattened by a bulletin board, and now gets to travel all around the world learning about new places.  The boys were thrilled to have Flat Stanley visit us for a while. 

So, for the first day of our FIVE days, the boys and I decided to take Flat Stanley out to see some of our favorite places in St. Louis.  Naturally, when we got to our first stop, I realized that while I remembered the good camera, I'd conveniently left the battery plugged in on the charger in the kitchen.  Doh.  So the photos are from the iPhone.

We started out early at Soulard Farmer's Market.  I love the Market.  And, because it is only five minutes from my office its easy to run over at lunch if I need to grab anything we might need at home.

They have the best fruits and veggies here. Plus, the prices are often better than the grocery store.  85 cents for an avocado? Yes please.  Last I looked, they've been ranging between $2.50-$3.00 at the grocery store.

They've got nuts.

If turkey isn't your thing for Thanksgiving, they have you covered:

My favorite stop is the Soulard Spice Shop.  The smells here make me happy.

From Soulard, we ran over to Busch Stadium to introduce Flat Stanley to Stan the Man Musial.  Texans will appreciate this, right?

Next stop, the Gateway Arch.  Christian hadn't been up to the top since he was about 2, and Connor has never been.  So up we went.  We arrived to the Arch right as they were opening and managed to hop onto the first tram to the top.

Connor was a little nervous on the ride up, so he held my hand most of the way.  At the top, the view was great, even on a dreary November day. Hey, there's Busch again!

After a spin through the Museum of Westward Expansion, we set off to the Seminary to say hello to Martin Luther (and Oma and Opa).

Finally, we ended our morning at one of the boys favorite places: Oh Lolli Lolli, a Itsy Bitsy Candy Shop.

Full of treats and tired from the days adventure, the boys are now sound asleep. If today is any indication of the rest of the long weekend, it's going to be good.