Next installment --- Thursday 4/3

Thursday morning we woke up to rain! The "locals" were all complaining about the "cold" weather. When we went to the car, it was a balmy 50 degrees with a slight drizzle. It was WARM!!! We had a school field trip planned for the Missouri Botanical Gardens scheduled for 10 am and we were hoping the rain would subside. We brought our umbrellas and school notebooks with us and headed to the Gardens. They were awesome! They have a Japanese garden, a Chinese friendship garden, a Victorian garden (complete with hedge mazes), rose gardens, tulip and lily gardens, a rainforest in a climatron dome and numerous other gardens, fountains, reflecting pools, sculptures, and buildings.

A fish sculpture in a reflecting pool and the Climatron:

Pictures from the rain forest:

Victorian maze:

Path leading to the Japanese Garden:

Another Victorian Maze

(Kyler got lost in this one!!!! -- notice Avery running in the top left hand corner):

A nice shot of the popcorn trees:

We saw TONS of plants, some favorites being a cacoa tree, a pineapple tree, a manderine orange tree, the zigzag cactus, cashew plants, fig trees, many many flowers, birds and squirrels.

When we were done at the Gardens, we went back to the hotel for lunch and more importantly, to pick up Grant's wallet. We had asked Mom and Dad on Wednesday to overnight it to us, so Grant could drive, and it was already waiting for us at the hotel on Thursday! Talk about quick service! Thanks Mom and Dad and FedEx! We decided, since the rain had picked up, we would stay at the hotel for the next few hours and let the kids play at the indoor playground and kiddie pool while I did some laundry. Grant was going to go to the temple, but got on the wrong freeway and got lost and didn't ever make it in time for the session.

We took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner that night and they had a blast! Zadyn was glad Chuck E. Cheese himself was not there, she thinks she's scared of him! We went back to the hotel and went swimming again. Our favorites for the day: Avery liked the rain forest and Kyler getting lost in the maze. Kyler liked the mazes at the gardens. Zadyn liked going in the maze. Mom liked watching Kyler get lost in the maze and Grant getting his wallet. Dad liked the Climatron rain forest and Kyler getting lost in the maze!