Another weekend of Fun!

The cupola on top of the Grant's Farm's horse stable

We're really having a blast now that the weather has finally cooled down. It's like we're doing an entire summer's worth of fun in just the weekends in August...and next weekend gets fun too! (But you'll have to wait for that).

Anyways, the only thing bad about the cooler, drier weather is that Old Hickory's pool is freezing, so with only a few weeks left, I hope we'll be able to get another swim or two in.

So Saturday was again absolutely perfect here, dry, cooler and with the zoo out of the way (last weekend), it was time to go to the next animal themed attraction in St. Louis, Grant's Farm.  We hadn't been to the farm since at least last fall, so we figured it'd be the perfect time to take in the animals, hear the tour, see Bud the Elephant and get our two free Budweiser samples from the hospitality room!

Everybody's ready for the Tram ride through the Deer and Animal Park...

We sat in the front seat, so Aidan got to see out the front window, they got a kick out of see ahead rather to the sides.

Not as many animals out as we expected, but here's a fallow deer that mozy-ed on by us.

And a big 'ol Longhorn cattle

We bought the "fun" pass which meant two bottles each of milk to feed the rampant goats. We stayed outside the fence this time because those goats are mean. I'm serious, they were jumping up on people and pushing your hand aside and such.  Mean little bastards if you ask me. I don't blame the boys for not wanting to go in. In fact, the pic of Mookie below was the only time he'd let me get him close to the goats. 

The carousel is certainly a fav.  Especially when Aid gets to ride on the beloved dragon horse.

Mookie was rocking the pink, pretty, pretty princess horse too!  Sweet!

We did the Animal Encounters show this time, which was OK.  The Macaw did a few flybys so that was neat.  

And big guy Bud the African Elephant did his routine as well.  Check out two legs balanced on a 1' wide beam.  Bud weighs 15,000 lbs.  Pretty agile huh?

The boys finished up the morning with a cool cherry snow cone after lunch.  Their favorite.

But you can't forget about the Clydesdales...well, gaging by Ethan's body language, we probably could have forgone the Clydesdales. Oh well, the picture is for posterity...and this little Clydesdale's moment on the blog.

Sunday was nice as well.  The morning was cool, so we packed the bikes into the Pilot and headed to Laurel Park for a little bit of playground and bikin'.

Sometimes the Mooks needs a little push up the hill...but that Aidan is off to the races!

Mickey Mookie....

McQueen Aidan

So after nap, the boys, Mommy and I decided to check out a new (new to us, rather) attraction in the Greater St. Louis region. This is one that I had been looking forward to for some time, but the weather and timing never quite matched.  We took the boys down to Glencoe, MO to the Wabash, Frisco and Pacific Railroad.  It's a miniature railroad that careens through the forests of Castlewood State Park (well close to it) right along the Meramac River.  It was so cool.  We rode on an authentic scale model REAL steam engine train on a 2 mile, 20 minute journey through the woods.  The boys loved it.  The sounds, smells and clickity clack of the volunteer run service was really neat. Check out WFPRR here. 

Waitin' for the train!

Check out that steam engine!  Cool as heck!

We got our ticket, ticket, ticket for the train!

Mommy and her two little railroad engineers ready to go!

Another Steamie waiting at a siding for us to pass by. 

The bluffs to the Meramac River bottom are quite tall and beautiful!

Another passing steam engine.  It's real folks, real steam, real boiler, real firebox.  REAL COOL!

Blowin' off some excess steam. I think that if they would let this thing go, it would really haul the mail.  But the track is pretty winding, so we kept it fairly slow.  Also, it wasn't like there was much to hang onto on our cars....Mommy kept a good grip on Mookie. 

I'll tell you, this was pretty neat.  They only run on Sundays, but we'll be back for sure (plus it's only $4 per ride and kids under 3 are free).  Whoot Whoot!

Afterwards, the snow cone dude was conveniently parked next to the train station, so the boys had snow cone #2 for the weekend.  All the starts well ends well with these two, I'll tell ya :)

Have a great night, 

Ty, Emmy, Aidan and Ethan