St. Louis Part 3 - City Museum

To try to find an activity that is fun for 3 teenage boys and me a John is quite a task. We ended up going to the City Museum, a crazy playground/jungle gym/weird metal sculpture park. I'd never been but the boys love it, so we decided to give it a try. I can probably bet you've never been anywhere quite like it.

The City Museum include the Enchanted Caves, a giant ball pit, a Skateless Skate Park, an aquarium, and all kinds of tunnels and small places to crawl through. I am a small person but I wonder how anyone squeeze through some of those tiny places. But we all had a good time hiding in dark corners, climbing through trees, and avoiding climbing to the super high airplane. My knees were so bruised afterwards!

St. Louis Part 1: Ted Drewes and Presents

Since John was leaving before Christmas we went for a family dinner while he was still around. We went to Dressels Public House, a family favorite. I have to say, the pork dish that John and Matt had was the best thing on the menu, though my lamb dish was also good. Since we were downtown we continued John's education of St. Louis landmarks. Even though it was cold, we stopped for ice cream at Ted Drewes. I always get the Cardinals Sin...so yummy! Then Matt took us on a detour around the city...we won't call it lost seeing as he knew where he was most of the time.

Back at Mom's we had a mini Christmas. Everyone got one gift from me and John, and John opened his from the family. Best gift was the joint one we got from Mom, a huge survival kit. There's boxed water, nutrient rich cookies, first aid supplies. You name it, it's probably in there. We are so ready for the zombie apocalypse. Or a scary hiking accident. 

Yes, my "baby" brothers are all taller than me now. L-R: Harrison (13), Evan (17), me, Connor (15).

He's really full, but super excited about ice cream!

Look at all this survival stuff!

Seriously, it's nuts. The bag weighed 19 lbs (thanks airport scale!)

St. Louis Part 1: Dinner at 360

Christmas in St. Louis was a week-long affair this year. John came home with me for the first part of the trip. We took Mom out to dinner downtown at 360. It's on the 26th floor and you can see out across the city. There's a nice outdoor patio bar that you can see into Busch Stadium from. Would be great during baseball season! The food (other than the pizza) was nothing spectacular, but I'd go back and treat it more like a bar than a restaurant.

Busch Stadium!

Busch from the roof top deck.

Old Courthouse, from high up.

 

Only negative, a competitor of my company blocking the Arch.

Me and Mom

Love!

Gingerbread Village!

Because I'm totally in to any holiday themed event, I was pretty excited about the gingerbread house decorating. But I got lame and bought a kit, rather than make my own. Oh well, I'm a busy girl. John and I put together a seriously ridiculous work of art...Not entering and contests, that's for sure. But we laughed a lot, ate icing, and even named one of the houses (Bob) when I somehow made him a face out of the doors and windows. So yeah, it's not the most beautiful/professional village, but it's ours. Also, there's an evil snowman! Which, John insists isn't evil. "He's misunderstood." But check out those scary red eyes!

Quote of the event: "It snowed rainbows!" Which, wouldn't that be fun?

Company Holiday Party

Our company Holiday Party was once again at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I'm a little tired of planes (one year was enough) and was rooting for the National History Museum. Still, it was a good time. And this year I actually found my coworkers before the end of the night (it's hard with 1,000ish guests in a place that big) and so there were more people to talk to. Super sad that I was so busy chatting and drinking that I never ate dessert! What was I thinking?

Anyway, I think the highlight of the night was learning that 3 of my coworkers think John's foreign.

"He's hot and he's from England...or Australia?"

"Umm, no. He's from Southern Maryland."

"But what about the accent??!!" (best line of the night!)

 Me and Meghan

 Kyle photobombing....Erica and me

 Kyle and Erica

 Jason and Mary....I don't even know

 Yeah, last year's pic was soo much better.

 Love and airplanes :)

 

 The boys pretending to be pilots.

 No drinking and flying! (Kyle and John)

 Meghan, John, me, Mary, and Jason.

 Ladies man

 Cheers! (Kyle and Erica)

Something about this guy just made us want to say hi.

Elmer, the cool bartender, left his station after last call...bad idea. John asked Elmer to make his signature drink. "What's the Elmer?!" It's apparently a rum and coke with a bunch of extra limes. Thanks Elmer!

Quotes from John

I think I need to start a weekly/monthly "Quotes from John" post here because the man is funny. But, maybe it's only funny to me?

"Do you think my beard will ever be white so I can be Santa?" Love!

"Francis Ford Cooksey! (that's a plan on play on Coppola in case you don't know directors)" Nope, I had no clue about directors...

And then this happened:
Coworker: Where are you from?
John: Southern Maryland.
Coworker: *weird look* Hmm. I though I heard a slight Australian accent.
 
He's now on top of the world.