Back to St. Louis

A bunch of us here in Iowa managed to all have our husbands off at the same time for a few days and plan a small trip to our old stomping grounds, St. Louis.  Some of you may not realize what a huge deal this was, but all of our husbands are residents and they NEVER have time off at the same time.

It was so much fun visiting some of the places we used to frequent during our 4 years there for medical school.  I loved to many thing about living there and visiting was a good reminder of our good times there.

 Brady is making full use of his headphones while watching a movie.

Have I mentioned how much I love my car?  Love.

 My two Dinosaur loving boys.  Brady could have played here forever, but the person monitoring the area was getting a little annoyed at his rough play with the dinosaurs so we had to move on.

 I love Grant's Farm.  This place is so much fun for especially little kids.

 

Brady was loving all the baby goats.  I'm not sure he know exactly what to do with all of them, but loved them.

The Gang

Both Eliason's, and the Redd's

Some of the Dad's (including Bryce) opted out of Grant's Farm in order to make sure and get to the baseball game on time...

Which took us to the following...

It wouldn't be an official visit to St. Louis during baseball season without going to a Cardinal's game!

 

  

 This was SO random!

We went to medical school with the Ziegler's and had no idea they were in St. Louis too.

Another friend tipped me off when we got there so I texted Jamie that night and asked if they were there, yes.

Are you going to the baseball game tomorrow?  yes.

Where are you sitting?  Extremely close to you guys!

We were so excited to re-connect!!!  We hadn't seen them since we all graduated, but kept in touch.  The Ziegler's were the first friends we made when we moved.

Bryce and Kylie served in their mission together and saw one another on the first day of class.  Small world, I know.  We also happened to live in the same apartment complex so it was meant to be.  Friends from the start!

Landon and Brandin

This picture makes me laugh so hard!

These two have been friends since the very first day we moved to St. Louis.

Brandin is just over a year YOUNGER than Landon. :)


The ZOO

FAVE

It would be pretty much against everything we believe in to visit St. Louis and not pay a visit to Ted Drewes... or 3 visits in 3 days! :)

 

I think it's safe to say we made good use of our time while we were there.

I Love Lake Powell

We haven't gone to Lake Powell since Chase was about a year and a half.

Everyone in my family is busy with their own families and half of us live away from Utah so Lake Powell took a major back seat for the Dickinson family vacations.  My dad even sold his houseboat time-share and all of his water toys, which I'm sure was actually one of the happiest days of his life.

Well, the golden child of the Dickinson family (I'll let you decide who that is) decided it was time to start back up in the Lake Powell tradition and being the favorite that he is, my dad agreed.

This time we rented everything and it was AWESOME!  I highly recommend it!  Anyone who had ever been on this trip with my family in years past, I am sorry!  There was no houseboat to get off the bouie without dropping the pin, no instructions on how to flush the toilet 10 times a day and still having problems with it, now houseboat to have perfectly clean at the end, and no pooper to empty only to have spill all over yours brothers friends either!

It was SO much fun!  Even Tom enjoyed himself a little! :)

What's not fun about going off a slide off of the back of the houseboat?

 My older brother Ken and Barbie, I mean Beth, and Crew

 

The following pictures are the kids on the tube being towed behind the seadoo.

I don't think these things quit running the entire time we were there.

  

 

 

 

A little wakeboarding action...

 Chase's birthday happen to be on one of the days we were there so we did a little celebration Lake Powell style...

roasting a marshmallow with 7 candles on it...

 Birthday presents from the marina which included a Lake Powell hat and T-shirt...

 and a family birthday photo.

 The original Lake Powell crew.

The Dickinson's and the Cuthbert's minus a few and having added a lot.

 Landon and Chase wanted to bring home some pets they found on our trip...

um, NO.

 We even had a baby on board.  My nephew Ben.

The captain

Thanks Dad!  We had a blast and can't wait to do it again, and again, and again!

Maybe we'll eventually start paying for ourselves to go too! :)