After the zoo on Saturday we decided it was finally time to head up the arch! Like most things in life, if you don't plan ahead - you have to wait. The arch is no exception so when we arrived to purchase our tickets, the earliest available time slot wasn't for an hour and forty-five minutes. Luckily, there was an arch museum we could wander around to occupy our time. And then when we had seen all we really cared to see in the arch museum, we settle down to watch Aubrey run off some steam in a small open area lined with benches. She had a lot of fun telling a cute couple in the corner she was going to save me and then running to me and hugging me and then repeating the whole process all over again. Luckily, they seemed pretty amused with her antics. Of course, that game got immediately old when another little girl walked through the area with her parents. The two girls imediately sat down on the steps together and started babbling and then ran around hopping together for a good five to ten minutes before the girl's parents finally ushered her away.
Actually, all the waiting really took a turn for the worst after we had lined up with our appropriate ticketed time slot. From the time they admitted the ticketholders to the time we were actually in a car and going up the arch was about 45 minutes. This was 45 minutes that Aubrey was not interested in partaking and I have no desire to repeat. She did really well for the first 35 to 40 minutes and then fell apart in a complete puddle of despairation at the very end. As were were standing on the steps, waiting to board our cars to shuttle to the top of the arch, with no exit in sight, Aubrey just couldn't take the waiting anymore and did not want to stand still. She collapsed onto the floor in a crying fit and did not come up or cheer up until we were on our way up, at which point our bipolar daughter was completely happy - her face was covered with dirt from the soles of all of St. Louis, but she was happy.
She loved being up in the arch and looking at the city, and especially the river below. She didn't want to leave.
After the arch we made a quick stop at the hotel to make sure the girls were ready for the hockey game that evening. I was convinced that hockey games were really cold. You know, because they're an ICE sport. Turns out they aren't that cold. They actually aren't really cold at all and we may have been a little overdressed in our winter coats.
On the way to the hockey game we made the mistake of walking down Washington St. This is the main bar strip in St. Louis and Saturday was the designated celebration day for Sunday's St. Patrick's Day. Needless to say, the street was crowded with very sloppy drunk people, which was fine. But I'm pretty sure our adorable family probably caused some bad decisions that evening.
Martin: I know so many people are going to get back to their house and just make a family after seeing us today!
Aubrey absolutely loved the hockey game. Like, EVERY SINGLE PART. She is still talking about hockey a week and a half later and just this morning told me Uncle Andy with extreme excitement about the hockey game she attended. She repeatedly shouted Go Hockey! and Go Blues! and has become obsessed with rolling her arms. After two periods she was tired out from all the cheering and slept through the third period and overtime but then woke up at the hotel and got right back into the arm rolling. On Sunday morning when she awoke the first thing she said was I gotta tell grandma about the hockey game!
And Sylvia slept through all the noise and the entire game! Ingrid's friend, Joe, whom I wish I had a picture of, held her through the entire second and third period and overtime! I am officially calling him the baby whisperer as I have no idea how he kept her asleep for so long without screaming for milk. By the end of the second period I was telling Martin how Sylvia was a ticking time bomb at this point, but Joe somehow kept her cuddled up and sleeping for another hour.
No comments:
Post a Comment