Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Vacation!

The Farns' family has been in some serious need of gettin' out of the dang city and stretching our legs. Lucky for us, there is a whole house full of more Farnses just a few hundred miles away! So, we took an extra long Labor Day weekend and Wednesday evening and we made our way to St. Louis to visit family there.

Have I mentioned another perk of this apartment is the time it shaves off of our trips south out of town? Seriously, it took an hour and a half off of our travel time (but only 19 miles off the distance--the traffic is that bad).

And us coming to visit is fun for them, too. All the fun of getting to hold and play with another baby without having to actually raise one! Sweet! That puts a smile on everyone's face.

We decided to hit the zoo on Thursday. For those of you unfamiliar with the zoo in St. Louis, it's amazing. And free. We wanted to go for us, but we were curious how Kendra would react to the animals. Unfortunately, her sight isn't developed enough to let her see things far away, so she was completely oblivious to most of the animals there.

Lucky for us, though, there is an up-close-and-personal penguin exhibit. She loved it! We thought it was pretty cool too, these guys were close enough you could reach out and touch them (but there is someone there to make sure that you don't). However, I found out the hard way that it also means they're close enough to totally splash you with nasty-smelling penguin water. Yuck. I smelled pretty bad for the rest of the day, but it was totally worth it!


Grant really liked the bears. I think it's because he feels akin their lifestyle of holing themselves up in dark, dark caves to sleep.


On Friday and through most of Saturday, the menfolk headed out to combine their two main hobbies: hiking/camping and tarantulas. The hunt was on to capture a tarantula in the wild!

There aren't any pictures because Grant forgot a camera and they were totally thwarted in their quest and came home soaked through, sleep-deprived, sore, stinky and empty-handed. So sad... While they were out, I met up with my Dad and Michelle in a rough half-way point between St. Louis and Kansas City, where they live. I don't have any pictures of that either, because I know they both hate having their picture taken--but it was a lot of fun. Kendra cried every time Grandpa held her, but she made up for it by being exceptionally adorable and giving plenty of smiles and sharing other forms of cuteness.

The rest of the weekend was fairly event-less, but we all had such a good time together!

Mmmmm, fists! It's quite shocking how large the items are that she can cram into her mouth these days.


I'm not sure who had more fun playing this weekend, Kendra or her cousins. I felt like such a party pooper every time the youngest came up to me and asked, "Where's baby Kendra?" and I answered, "She's sleeping..." Such disappointment!

And I better post a video for good measure! Most of us were in the other room watching clips on YouTube of comedy skits by Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry and other British funnies when I noticed Kendra was being thoroughly entertained and cracked up by something else.




We think this footage speaks for itself: Kendra totally needs some siblings!

We'll just have to get by with trekking it down to see her cousins (and Grandpa!) just as often as we can manage until then... Oh, golly darn! But I seriously doubt any additions to our family will impede our desire to come visit. :)


4 comments:

Jacqueline said...

How adorable. Looks like Kendra was the main attraction. And she looks totally happy with the attention. Win-win for everyone. I am glad it takes less time to go there now.

Unknown said...

This is indeed a cute little girl. It is nice to see her with family. She will be the older sister and so won't have older siblings to play with her. Cousins will have to fill that bill!

I loved the pictures, especially Grant and the bear!

Love you lots.

Grant said...

Bah, her eyes work fine. She could see the animals pretty much as well as you and me. It turns out she just wasn't as interested in them as we were because everything is new and interesting to her (hand rails, flowers, signs, etc.), so the animals were not particularly so. Remember, most zoo animals just sit around the whole time...and they aren't particularly brightly colored.

Danielle said...

I got your text message and wondered if you were visiting Heber. I kept meaning to write back. ::hangs head in shame:: But I love those girls. When I was younger, I lived for family reunions because of all the babies to hold! :)