Visiting Cousins in St. Louis Part I


At the beginning of June, our entire family plus Grandma made the trip to St. Louis to see our cousins. I had a conference that I had to attend right after the weekend in St. Louis, so it worked out perfectly for us to squeeze in some much-needed family time with my cousin Marty's family. Marty and his wife have two sons, Connor and Hunter, aged roughly 3 and 1, and Connor and Hannah's birthdays are practically on the same day (one year apart).

Anyway, we were supposed to arrive on Friday night, but a series of powerful wind-damaging (almost tornado-like) storms were barreling down I-70 right in our path, so for the first time ever we stayed in a hotel halfway between Indianapolis and St. Louis. We arrived the next morning at my cousin's house, and Moira and Hannah were very excited to play with their cousins.

Snack time with Connor

Baby Hunter-what a cutie1

Don't you love Moira's wincing smile?! 

After naps and a playground visit, we had a small, belated birthday party for Connor and Hannah. Their birthdays are at the beginning of May, but nobody seemed to mind that they were having another birthday party in June! Moira enjoyed being a part of the festivities as well (as you will see in the video below). 


Playing with toys after the presents have been opened.
The next morning we headed to the St. Louis Zoo, one of the best in the country. It's part of St. Louis's enormous Forest Park, and it was a beautiful, cool day to spend at the Zoo.

Walking into the Zoo

Love this one of the two cousins
Once we were in the Zoo, we headed straight to the Hippopotamus and Elephant exhibits. Everything in this Zoo is so lush, and the exhibits are on a very large scale. You'll see in the photos how hard this Zoo has tried to ensure the habitats are realistic and comfortable for the animals.

We forgot a stroller, so Hannah took turns on our shoulders. Yay for big and little cousins!

Hannah walking through a large tree tunnel

At the hippopotamus exhibit

The baby elephant

More shoulder action


The kids learning about wetlands


Moira in a mock cave setting

My crazy cousin Marty after the exhibit!

Hunter was there too! He just doesn't get out of the stroller as much!
I just want to say very briefly that I feel so fortunate to have so many wonderful guys who are amazing fathers, dads, uncles, godfathers, etc. in my life and in the life of my children. I love these next two photos of the dads hanging out with their children.

Alan and Moira

Marty and Connor
After we walked around the habitats for a while, we decided to ride the St. Louis Zoo train. The cousins all had a great time on the train. Hannah threw a fit when we had to get off :)

Moira and Hannah

Connor, Hunter, and Katie
We had so much fun with our cousins, and I do hope it won't be too long before we see everyone again!

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