St Louis 2010

Lots of fun on our trip to St Louis. Here are a few pictures. Lots more to share in the next few days!

City Museum Part two

Thank you City Museum for seeing my post. We love you! Here are a few more pictures from the wonderful day we spent last week.

Raita with is mom and Harvey

Freya traversing the pool of water
I know this picture could have come out super cute but this is what I got...
Sorry but being the claustrophobic and acrophobic person that I am, I tend to stay on the ground and out of tight places. But I can take pictures!
Jonah in a tight place that you won't find me in
Freya finding her way down a tight place
Looking up from the cavers. Not sure what these use to be but they sure are magnificent to look at!
The ball pit is a riot, they are big rubber balls, not those little plastic ones found in your local Fast Food place.

Great iron work that I actually climbed up!

St Louis City Museum

This is probably our favorite place to go when we visit St Louis.

Such an artistically fun place to spend the day.

When people ask us what the museum is, I find it hard to describe. There are tunnels, 7 story slides, caverns, giant whales, sculptures to climb in and on, a skateboardless park. Things pop out at you from nowhere and lead to somewhere. A school bus and airplane appear to hang off the building but are completely safe to climb in. It is basically the epitome of the most elaborate playground taken from a Dr Seuss book that is roaming around a child's mind put into reality with recycled steel, wood and the help of very talented adults.

Freya in a tunnel just bellow a ceiling with Grandma Norika following. You just never know where the tunnels will lead you.
Hall of mirrors

Giant....Hamster wheel?

Skateboardless park, even Raita had to try his hand at it.

There are a few artificats from the City which is where I guess the name comes from

Giant SlideIn this picture are Chloe in the thin white slide, Freya on the big white slide and Jonah running amok.

Jonah in a giant birdcage? Too bad he found his way out....
Raita and Freya walking on water:
Way more pictures to come in round two....

Fishing in St Louis

One of the best parts of our trip was hanging out at the lake with all the kids. They swam, they went in boats, they fished. It was really great.

Here are a few pictures of ours kids and their cousins during a fishing excursion.


If you look closely you will see a rare sight, whether it be in nature or captivity; big brother helping younger sister. Amazing!


Chloe putting a worm on
Cousin Michael wormin' up

Chloe reeling in the big catch of the day

Cousin Marissa showing off her catch
Freya loves her some worms
Lisa and Marissa fishing from the canoe
I love this picture of Jonah

Well, we went on an unplanned road trip to St Louis for Christmas. I haven't been able to get back into the groove of things since then.

I could write a book on our trip but I will give you a few highlights instead.

All eight grand kids in matching jammies Christmas morning.
We drove 14 hours Christmas Eve to arrive in time for Christmas morning. We showed up at about 4am Christmas morning. I was exhausted but it was so worth it to have our kids spend this holiday with their cousins.















Raita and I took most of the kids to the frozen golf course and goofed around. We didn't realize you weren't supposed to go on the golf course. OOPS, don't tell anyone.

















Sibling rivalry still exists after 30.......














and the girls still like to do pyramids.














Grandma Noriko and her two seven year old granddaughters.
















The City museum is a must if in St Louis.




























And finally, we went on a family hike.