Last Saturday we decided to take the kids to the City Museum. City Museum is a museum, consisting largely of re-purposed architectural and industrial objects, housed in the former International Shoe building in the Washington Avenue Loft District of St. Louis, Missouri. Brian and I were discussing that there really is not any other museum like this one anywhere else. It is really unique. And, well, a little bit crazy. Yes, several times while we were there I wondered why I had decided to take the kids there! It is just so crazy! If you’ve been there, you’ll know what I am talking about… if you haven’t, well scroll down and see some of the photos I took! Crazy. Did I mention this place spends a lot of money on insurance? Uh, yeah. They do. It can be a fun and safe experience, but if you have younger kids… keep them close. And, if you do not like heights (like me!), the outside might make your heart flutter and your head spin. Brian and I actually went here over a year ago by ourselves when they turned off the lights and you explore the place by flashlight. Uh, let me just say… its a totally different experience going here with kids. I might just add, it sort of makes it an even crazier experience. 🙂
Just check out the top of the roof of the building. CRAZY. Unfortunately (or maybe it was a good thing), the roof top does not open until May. I have never seen the roof… and, this visit was the first time I had seen the aquarium (yes, they even have an aquarium!) and outer section of the City Museum.
Here are the kids waiting while Brian got us tickets and signed our lives away.
Here I am with the kids in the lobby. We are on a HUGE spin top. Ignore my roots! I am due for a trim and highlights… But, the kids are cute!
The first thing Nathan wanted to do when we got there was go down the roller belt slide. See the rollers? You slide down this 3 story slide and touch the rollers to slow you down (if you want to slow down!). Autumn tried to be brave, we got ALL the way up there, but she got scared and wouldn’t go down it. Nathan went down several times! I took my BIG camera with us to the City Museum, because I really wanted to get some photos of how beautiful this museum is on the inside (and out). I had a lot of fun snapping pictures! It was totally worth lugging it with me…
The City Museum is not cheap. $12 pp then $8 extra pp if you want to see the aquarium. I really wanted to see it, so we paid the extra $8 pp. It was SO worth it!!! And, I got this ADORABLE photo of Nathan next to this turtle. I love how they are both looking at me when I shot this… Nathan was a little nervous next to the turtle. They had a bouncy ball in with the turtle and you could throw it to him and he’d hit it back. He would also eat romaine lettuce leaves. The turtle was almost as big as Autumn, sooo she did NOT want any part of being in there with him!
They had a couple of really beautiful birds in the aquarium, again… loved that I brought my big camera! Not sure if he/she was happy with me for taking a picture, though!
Autumn looking in the tank… Sadly, we lost Leprechaun Nickel AND her yellow bow later that day 🙁
Brian and the kids by the sting ray tank. The sting rays were REALLY friendly… We had three of them come right up to us… I couldn’t bring myself to touch one. Eek.
Autumn just hanging out inside a concrete shell. There was a tunnel at the very top that she had just come out of… Brian helped lift her down and she wanted her picture taken (for once!).
Brian and Nathan inside a spiral metal tunnel. There are tunnels all over the City Museum and they creep me out! I am just not sure I’d like to climb up and around in them way above the ground. Brian is 6’3 and he had no problem going in some of the easier ones with Nathan. We saw one girl that got scared in one up in the ceiling and her Dad has a really hard time helping her calm down so she could get out! Uhh, nopes, not for me! We even saw a lot of people wearing knee pads!
After the aquarium, we wandered around the inside of the City Museum some more… we found this cute train that only the kids could ride on.
All aboard! The kids are waiting to ride… doesn’t Autumn look a little nervous?
She took Leprechaun Nickel everywhere with us! Even on the train! She is just so cute.
While waiting for them to go around on the train ride, I took this photo of an electric train set. Nathan has two electric train sets in our basement still that need a little dusting off!
We found a really neat chalkboard/craft area and I snapped a photo of Nathan by a spongebob chalk drawing that someone had done. There were some really good drawings on the board! Nathan is holding the craft he did, the hand is singing ‘Love’.
I even love their HUGE chalk bucket! The kids had so much fun digging in there to get different pieces of chalk.
After that we found BIG BOY. Ha! The kids don’t even know who he is, but they wanted their photo next to him!
After that, we went in this crazy rollerskating/ramp room… we spent a lot of time in there and I was so busy watching the kids I did not even have a chance to pull my camera out! I was getting rather hot so it was finally time to go outside! That is when the really crazy, craze, craze started! Look at this ball pit. Its not even just a ball pit, its a bouncy ball pit!
We did not stay in there long (Nathan didn’t even go in… him and Brian went off to other things!)… but, again– SO glad I brought the big camera (so glad I didn’t break it, too! at this crazy place!) Look at this colorful shot I got of Autumn amongst the bouncy balls!
Ok… so what were Brian and Nathan up to while we were in the ball pit? THIS! YES!! They were 6 stories up in THIS! Do you see them?! Autumn wanted to go on there, I told her NO way! I wasn’t sure if I even liked Nathan up there! And, you know what Brian did while he was 6 stories up in the metal tube? He knocked his cell phone off his belt! YES! CRAZY to the extreme! And, it fell 6 stories down to their outdoor restaurant and smashed! Boo! We were not expecting that expense (still not cheap even with insurance to replace it!). :(((
Just so you can imagine how high up they were, look at THIS. All that climbing to go down a slide. Uh, so not worth it to me. Nope! There was a lower slide that did not involve a tunnel that I actually had to let Brian take the kids up, because I was just getting so nervous of being up high. I am such a baby. 🙁 
This was the bravest I was outside. I went up into an airplane… I couldn’t even sit in the back of it, I was feeling so sick! Here is a picture of Autumn in the back of it, though! Oh, do I hate, hate heights! I did not realize how much I hated heights until I chased Autumn around on some of this high up stuff! I also banged my head quite good, too, trying to follow her (she is much braver than I am this high up!) and I really thought I was going to pass out! I grabbed hold of her and we sat down while I rubbed my head after hitting a nice slab of metal. OUCH.
Anyway, that was our fun little experience at City Museum! I think I’ll stick to the INSIDE stuff! And, leave the crazy stuff on the outside to people that love heights! Of course, Nathan wants to go back again soon, I said oh… maybe in 10 years. 😉 haha, j/k!
