Celebrating Halloween

The kids were excited to be in the Moline Halloween Parade again this year.  Three of the kids were going to walk with Hy-Vee (local grocery store) thanks to our friend Stephanie.  Alex would march with the Wilson Marching Band.  We were blessed with another beautiful, sunny day!

Unfortunately, Will had just had foot surgery so wasn't able to be on his feet for long periods of time.  He loved getting to ride in the back of the van - reloading water bottles with Stephanie!  After Hy-Vee walked by, I quickly headed to the end of the parade to see both groups again...

On Halloween night, we headed to Becki's parent's house to trick or treat around their neighborhood.  It was a great night and the kids loved being out.  Kaitee stuck around with Grandad - finishing up homework and helping hand out candy.  Her trick-or-treating days have come to an end (her choice). 

St Louis Mini-Vaca

One place I've wanted to take the kids for the past few years is Grant's Farm outside of St. Louis.  The few times we have visited St. Louis, we haven't had an extra day to visit the Farm.  The last weekend of October promised to be another warm weekend with no rain.  We took advantage of the weekend and headed to St. Louis. 

 

Our first stop of the trip was Forest Park.  We could have easily spent the entire day here - exploring and learning!  Forest Park is free!  It is large - over 1300 acres and was host to the 1904 World Fair. There are museums, a planetarium, outdoor theater & zoo as well as places to eat, lots of hiking and beautiful scenery.  This is a must see if you are ever in St. Louis!

 

Round Lake

 Pagoda Circle

 The Great Basin

 

The Planetarium

Will:  Look!  This is how a T-Rex DABs!

 We had two other stops during the day.  One was Turtle Park (which we visited in 2011, wow! the kids have grown!) and the other was Tower Grove Park.  Because of the sunny day with warm temps, everyone was out!

Turtle Park 

Tower Grove Park

We really wanted to visit the Arch but the grounds and museum were under construction.  While we could've visited and enjoyed the view from the top, we decided to wait and enjoy everything together - another trip.

We called it a day and headed to our hotel for a pizza dinner, swimming & sweet dreams!



 Sunday, October 30 - the last day of the season for Grant's Farm!  We were blessed beyond what we could ever have asked for!  Another wonderful day and sparse crowds! We hopped on the tram and enjoyed the tour of the grounds. 



 



We passed a restored "Hardscrabble" - the log cabin built by Ulysses Grant.  This site gives a good history of this particular home/time in Grant's life. Without making an effort to do so, we visited two of Grant's homes this year!



We enjoyed our time at the Tier Garten - feeding animals!  We also got a glimpse of the Busch Family Estate!

Will & Alex took their turns at feeding the Parakeets and goats (Maddie & Kaitee opted not to). 

This next series of pictures had Matt & I laughing for a long time!  Will tried for quite a while to get this goat to eat...with no luck.  He just wasn't interested (probably full!).  He finally got the goat to start eating, to which Matt & I could imagine the goat's thoughts..."oh fine, I'll eat.  I'm going to pay for this later!"

While Will is feeding the black goat, this brown goat shows up (he's been following Will around the whole time).  You can see Will's frustration with him while he points his finger and says no.  Then you see the goat cock his head and look up at Will innocently (or dumbly??) and Will can't help but start laughing.  In the end, the brown goat doesn't drink anything but walks away!

Feeding the Parakeets

 

Checking out the Camels & then Going for a Ride!

We walked around a bit more before boarding the tram and heading back to the entrance.

This was the saddest little mule we've ever seen!  He was trying to
blend in with the wall!

We ended our time visiting the stables and Grants National Historic Site (across from the farm).  Unfortunately, we only saw one colt out in the pastures...and a few full grown Clydesdales in these stalls.

What a fun weekend!  We look forward to heading back in a few more years to visit the arch!  We couldn't have asked for a better trip for the family.  Maybe next time we can take in a Cubs / Cards game while we walk around the downtown area a bit.