City Museum

This morning we slept in a little (well especially due to "falling back") and checked out of our condo and then went to City Museum. Jason and I had been here a very long time ago, well before kids, so we were excited to check it out again. We had a lot of fun here, but of the things we saw here, I am most excited about bringing the kids back here when they are a bit older. There was tons of stuff that our kids were a bit young to enjoy.
We spent a lot of the time in the area for little kids. This was nice because our kids could play without having to be around the bigger kids who can be a little rough. Joshua just loved the ball pit.

Clara liked the ramps and slides and even Hannah got in on a little ramp action.

There was one slide that was a little "scary" in that you had to crawl and climb and it was a twisty slide so you couldn't see the bottom from the top. Both Clara had Joshua had to be coaxed up there. I think Clara actually enjoyed it more.

After the baby area, we went on to the rest of the museum. There was one room that was called "The Skateless Park" because it had a lot of the ramps and things you might find at a skate park, but it was made for running instead of skating. This made me very nervous because it was full of big kids and Clara insisted on fully participating. Both kids are low on awareness of things like turns, which most other kids assume you are going to follow the rules, so I was very worried about them getting mowed over. However, Jason did a good job of watching them, plus they were lucky so they ended up okay. And pretty tired out.

After that, the kids rode a train. Well Joshua rode it for the full three rotations. Clara rode it for about 5
feet until she protested, and the "conductor" stopped the train and let her get out. I don't think she understood the concept and was like, "Wait, why are my parents being left behind". She wasn't too thrilled that Joshua stayed on either, but she got over it.

Next, we took a break to eat lunch and watch a circus. There is a youth circus based in St. Louis that performs in a ring in the museum. It was nice because it has glass walls for at least half of the circle so I could easily keep the girls outside and they could watch, but not disrupt. Jason and Joshua went in for awhile and Joshua seemed impressed with the hula hooping and tumbling and other things like that.
After that, we thought Clara was about at the end of her rope, but Joshua really wanted to go outside (and Jason did too) so we hoped she would last awhile. That didn't really happen. Luckily Jason and Joshua did get some fun climbing time. The outdoor area is a giant metal structure of elevated tunnels and walkways that children and adults can climb through.  There are even two old planes which are part of the structure.  But some of it is elevated pretty high, and Jason said his (very mild) fear of heights was triggered.  Joshua was pretty brave about it.  Jason had to coax him a few times, but it worked out well.   City Museum is such a unique and cool place that both kids and adults love, as there's really something for everyone. If it were in Kansas City, we'd go very frequently.  Unfortunately Jason and Joshua's time in the sky-high human-sized gerbil maze was cut short when we had to make a speedy exit as Clara went into total meltdown mode. I would have liked to stop by the Arch to get some photos on the way home, but that was not really possible because she desperately needed to sleep at that point. All the kids were tired out from our adventures and we had an event-free drive home. This was a super fun little trip, and I am glad we went, and I look forward to future trips.