Day Trip to St. Louis

Wednesay, the Cernekas loaded up the Liberty with diapers and babies and hit I-70 for a road trip to the STL. Our friends Brad and Gene of Apex Ministries were at the Shrine for the Confirmation Rally, so we went to visit them and made a day of it. We started at Grant's Farm. Madeleine loved the tram ride through the deer park, and mooed at the longhorn cattle as we drove by. We bought a bottle of milk to feed the baby goats, but they swarmed Shannon and Madeleine, completely freaking her out and consuming the milk in mere seconds. Once there weren't hundreds of goats surrounding her, she was able to relax and enjoy them. Then she made it her mission to try and pet every single goat in the pen. She ran, manically, from goat to goat, patting them a couple times before moving on the the next one. I enjoyed watching her for a few minutes, then it occured to me that I was wearing flip-flops in a sea of goat poop. I'm not a germphobe by any stretch of the imagination, but when a goat made a puddle centimeters from my bare big toe, I got the whim-whams. We didn't have much time to actually spend at the Farm, so I suggested we move along and look at some of the other animals. We saw parrots, elephants, llamas, camels, lemurs, and some horses and ponies. We had some frozen lemonade, that Madeleine used as hair product at one point, creating a helmet-type treatment on her bangs that lasted until Thusday morning when I gave her a bath. Shannon and I enjoyed the "Anheiser Busch Hospitality" - Amberbock, Bud Select, and a decent Hefeweizen that I didn't know AB even made.

Madeleine, Shannon, and their new friends

mmmm...frozen lemonade

mmmmm...beer

After Grant's Farm, we head to the Shrine to visit with Gene, Brad, Orin, and Erin. We had lunch and then hung out at the hotel and talked for a couple hours. We don't get to see Brad and Gene very often and it was cool to have a chance to visit. On our way home to Fulton, we met my brother Chris and sister in law Maggie for dinner at the Trailhead Pub and Brewery in St. Charles and had a great time. (Shannon has an interesting story about that meal that I won't put here, but if you see him you should ask him about it!)

It was a very good day, and a fun family trip. The kids were great, and I think Madeleine had a good day. Noah's day is always good if he gets to eat, sleep, and poop, which he did in fine form.