St. Louis Arch

We parked downtown St. Louis and headed to the arch. But first, a pic of our big daddy with his sign.

Two southern belles walking on the cobblestone streets.

Adventurers!

We followed the Lewis and Clark trail from Oregon to St. Louis.

We did it backwards. 

Sadly, they are working on the arch, so the nice route i wanted to walk didn't really work.

We had to walk all the way around because they had the steps blocked off.

So we walked along the river and enjoyed the sweltering day.

We got our tickets and walked around till it was our time.

Addie was nervous, but excited to go up!

It was middle of the day and the lighting was terrible. 

But we tried anyway.

We played and ran around. Daddy and daughters.

And took lots of pictures.

They've torn the whole yard apart. The whole place was a mess.

The girls finished wearing their hats and Delaney thought Matt should wear them. #dadlife

Precious baby of the family.

Finally it was time to go inside.

We perused the bookstore and watched the actually very interesting movie.

Then we got in line to wait for our tram to the top.

We waited and waited. It was a busy summer day.

We made friends in line, and then one of the workers told us all about the arch and asked questions and everything.

Waiting for our tram!

It takes 4 minutes to get to the top and they constantly go up and back down.

Everyone was a little nervous.

Matt found his birthday on our door! We had a lot of wait time.

And finally our pod came. #stillnervous

Frankie is pretty brave. Heights don't bother her.

Everyone else though...

Ready to roll!

It's not too bad. Lots of noises and jolts and adjustments. I was anxious too.

And finally, at the top!

The air conditioning at the top wasn't working, so that, coupled with the crowds and the slant of the floor was super disconcerting. 

But we were good. I immediately got back in line for the tram to go down because it was so crowded, I knew we wouldn't get on right away. 

Then Matt and I took turns taking them around.

They were super brave looking out the windows!

They took lots of pictures.

It's a very cool monument!

We got back in a pod about 15 minutes later. Lanes does this cute thing with her hand on head and stomach still. 

Everyone was more relaxed on the way down.

More pictures! And Laney actually smiled!

Love this one.

It was hard to get good pictures because of all the construction.

We'll just have to come back. We brought the big kids here back in '09 on our way to Chicago.

The clouds were amazing. 

We thought about doing a riverboat cruise.

But the times didn't work, and we wanted to make tracks. 

So we followed the water back to our jolly green. 

And grabbed some snacks before we headed out.

Fun stickers from nanny kept the girls busy this afternoon.

That evening we got gas in Illinois, and it was just gorgeous.

I wanted to take some fun pictures of the girls, and I have a thing about roads.

There was one car several miles away, but they were so worried!

They bolted as soon as I gave the green light.

Silly gooses.

I love America. So much beauty!