Ollie's First Vacation

I am not sure I could put the last week into words and do it justice.  So many emotions right now - this trip was a gift in so many ways.  Oliver was an awesome traveler, he experienced so many new things and he somehow grew from a baby into a little boy over the last week.  We made so many wonderful memories.  The best part - being my baby's mama 24/7 with no interruptions.  It was just such a gift to us both I feel.  It reinforces my resolve to save money without shopping this summer to see what I can do to be with him more.  I just miss too much being gone at work all day.  But, that's already been established, so I will instead move on to talking about how fun the trip was.

We made our trek down and made it in under 11 hours - pretty amazing considering we got a late start and a certain young man had two blowouts on the way down.  We visited with just Mr. Monkey's grandmother the first night and got ourselves settled in.

The next day, Ollie got to meet all of his relatives from down there - and there are a few of them - who are pretty loud and boisterous (in a good way though) and he did really well with them!  I was worried that his stranger anxiety would kick in, but he did just fine.  We had a nice brunch and then went out for dinner as well.

Monday we pretty much chilled around the house and then in the evening we went out for Oliver's first ever baseball game - in a suite no less!  The Pants Monkey's aunt works in an industry that allows her chances for good seats so she was able to score some and it was awesome.  I would go to tons of baseball games if I had the chance to do it this way more often!  Sadly, the Cardinals lost, but it was still fun.  Aunt is coming up here in August and is going to see if she can get us a similar set up for a Twins game!

Tuesday we went to the St. Louis Zoo - wow, what a zoo!  So many animals and so much to see.  I just wanted to find the elephants for Oliver as they are somehow his favorite animal.  We found them - right when he fell asleep.  I took a video and showed him later and he did seem to enjoy it!  In the evening we went and had some decent barbeque for dinner - Ollie was a little cranky at dinner but went right to sleep when we got back to the house.

Wednesday we visited the Missouri Botanical Gardens - I can't do it justice in words and I have way too many pictures to share - it's simply beautiful.  We had a lovely day there - they have a super cute Lego exhibit right now too.  It might have been one of my favorite things we did there.  In the evening we had take out Italian food from the family's favorite restaurant down there.  It was the only night Oliver had any kind of meltdown, I think he was just getting soooooo exhausted from everything!  Fortunately it was short lived and he was back to his chipper self by Thursday morning.

Thursday we got a treat - we were able to take Oliver for his first swim.  It's the only moment of the trip I didn't get pictures of, but I'm not even that sad about it - I was too busy living that moment with him.  He is a natural fish, he had so much fun splashing around and kicking his legs.  He giggled tons.  I can't wait to take him again very soon.  In the afternoon we visited a winery with some of the relatives and we had a lovely time there and of course, bought some wine to take home with us!  Because we noshed on cheese and crackers there we decided to skip dinner and instead just go straight to dessert at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard - so good, so rich and so worth it.  We always make a stop there!

Friday sadly we packed up to come home, at the last minute before we left town to go down, we found out that the Pants Monkey would be leaving for a business trip today (Sunday) so we decided he needed the extra day to get laundry and errands done for that.  Oliver was a little less happy on the trip back, but overall did very well and I have never seen him smile so big as he did when he saw our house and the kitties.  He had a fun week but he knew he was home and he was so happy to be there!

The Pants Monkey's grandmother was a very gracious hostess

It's bittersweet in a way, the first vacation is one we'll never have again - but it was everything I could have hoped for and I can't wait for future vacations to come, I know there will be many.  I also have a few blog topics for upcoming posts after our trip - so it served me well too!

It's hard to get back into the groove, especially without Mr. Monkey until Wednesday, but we're doing pretty well overall.  And now we dream of the next adventure.