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Explore St. Louis


Hi there! Long time, no see! It’s been over a year since my last blog post. When I logged back on to start typing up this blog post, there were so many new updates to WordPress- I had to completely relearn how to use it. Even though it’s been a learning curve, I am really enjoying the updates. It actually has me considering getting back into blogging a bit.

Anyway, for now I’m sharing about our recent Staycation we had in St. Louis. Full disclosure- We partnered with Explore St. Louis for this staycation. Though it was not a sponsored trip (I did not get paid to share about our staycation,) we were hosted- which just means that we did not pay for it. We are so very grateful for this opportunity! My whole family had the best time!

Day 1

We were very excited to be staying downtown in the Hyatt Regency. We had three adjoining rooms. The hotel itself was beautiful and such a great place to stay. However, the view was definitely the highlight. We had the perfect view of the Arch right out our window. We enjoyed spending time in our rooms in our downtime. I actually wish we would have had more time to just hang out and relax in our rooms!

I mean, how amazing is this? Such a beautiful view! I have a full room tour on my Instagram. You can see the videos on my “Day 1 Staycation” Story Highlights.

City Museum

After getting checked in, we headed over to the City Museum. If you’ve ever asked me for things to do in St. Louis, there’s a good chance that I recommended the City Museum to you. These first sets of pictures below are what you see as you enter the museum. There are so many areas to explore. Tunnels going through the ceiling, under the floor, and everywhere in between. With the Covid restrictions, there are areas that are blocked off right now, but we still found plenty of areas to explore.

There are multiple floors in the museum as well as an outdoor area and more on the rooftop (not sure if it’s open right now.) We tried to go outside but the door we usually use to go out there was locked. So we didn’t make it outside. It was also around 90 degrees that day so I didn’t really try very hard haha. But we did see people playing on the outdoor structures so I would assume some of that area is actually open.

We ended our evening back at the hotel. We attempted to eat dinner at Brewhouse (located inside the hotel.) By the time we got down there, we realized the kids were way too exhausted to sit still in a restaurant so we ordered it as carryout and took it back to our room. Definitely the right decision! Delicious food, eaten in front of hotel tvs- because… I mean, what a luxury, right?

Day 2

Union Station Aquarium

Day 2 started at Union Station. It was our first time visiting since all of the new additions. We went to the Aquarium first. Because we were on a schedule, we only had about an hour here. I do wish we had another hour or so. Our kids love to stop at each station and hear the workers share about the creatures. There were a couple of areas for kids to color/create art work. But we just didn’t have time for them to stop for that.

It is a smaller Aquarium. But we really enjoyed our time there. They loved petting stingrays, seeing the very rare blue lobster, getting “kisses” from the fish, and seeing the sharks. We all hope to go back again to see everything at a more leisurely pace (and hopefully see the sloth next time around!)

St. Louis Wheel

Union Station also has other things to do, including The Wheel, a carousel, a rope course, and mini golf. We did the carousel and The Wheel. I have to be honest, up until the moment we got on the Ferris wheel, I had firmly stated that I would not be getting on it (I’m slightly terrified of ferris wheels.) But I did it for my kids. Kai didn’t want to ride so I was going to stay with him. But no one wanted to go without me. So Don was the lucky one to stay on the ground with Kai. I will say this was a better experience than any other ferris wheel I’ve been on. It’s enclosed with air conditioning and music. The kids absolutely loved it! I tolerated it haha. But I got the cutest video/picture of Evangeline and Primrose comforting each other since it was so “scary.” (Spoiler alert- they weren’t actually scared haha)

Soda Fountain

Lunch was at Soda Fountain, also in Union Station. I’ve been wanting to try it since it opened. It truly didn’t disappoint! Everyone loved their food. The BLT I had was honestly one of the best I’ve ever had! And we couldn’t leave without trying their amazing, over-the-top shakes! We were so full from our lunch so the 2 shakes were plenty for us to share. It was such a fun experience! We loved our waitress- she was so sweet…not only to us, but to the tables surrounding us. And we met the owner- who was also so, so sweet! As we were leaving, the kids said “we HAVE to come back here!”

River Boat Cruise and The Gateway Arch

After our morning at Union Station, we headed over to the Riverfront. Our hotel was walking distance to the Arch/Riverfront, which was a major plus! We went on a Riverfront cruise which is something I hadn’t had the chance to do since I was a kid. We loved the views from the boat!

We walked around the Arch grounds before going inside. For those of you not familiar with the Arch, there is a museum underground. And there are also trams that can take you to the top of the Arch for an amazing view. I put a poll in my Instagram stories- and the majority of people who voted didn’t realize you could ride to the top! At the time we went, those trams were still closed. But they are now open again, of course with new restrictions. The museum is free and my kids enjoy walking through. I’m linking my “Day 2 Staycation” Instagram stories in case you want to see how this day looked. And you can watch as the nicest worker at the Arch showed the kids a little “magic” trick. As we were leaving, the kids were all telling me how they enjoyed the trick he showed them.

Cardinals Nation Restaurant

By this point, we were exhausted. And we were still full from lunch. But we had reservations at Cardinals Nation Restaurant. From the moment we arrived, the staff was absolutely amazing! The hostess, waitress, chef, and owner. They went above and beyond to make this a special evening for us. We were literally right across the street from the stadium, where the Cardinals were playing. My only regret is that we went on a night that everyone was so tired and full. The food they brought out was so amazing! I honestly want to go back for those pretzel bites alone! Probably the best pretzels I’ve ever had! And everything else was just as amazing! I hope to visit again to fully appreciate it all. If you are a baseball fan, I highly recommend it!

I’m including a photo of the bathroom because the theming of the whole restaurant was perfect!

Day 3

Museum of Transportation

Day 3- our final day! We checked out of the hotel and headed to the Museum of Transportation. I hadn’t visited since I was a kid so I didn’t remember anything about it. Right away, everyone wanted to do a train ride.

There are tons of trains- some you can climb inside and walk through. There are also some other indoor areas with automotives. And a creation station for younger children. We enjoyed walking through the garden for a painted rock scavenger hunt. You’re encouraged to find painted rocks and then re-hide them before you leave. We had lunch waiting on us at our next stop so we didn’t get to experience everything. But it’s a fun place for anyone with an interest in different modes of transportation (especially trains!)

Magic House

Our final destination is a place we know and love dearly, The Magic House. We have been members for several years now and it’s a place we love to visit multiple times a year. Besides the train photo above, this was the only family photo we got. I propped my camera up on a table, used my remote, and got this one on the first try. I love it so much!

Something we really enjoy about the Magic House is that some of the exhibits change throughout the year. So we don’t feel like we’re doing the same exact thing every single time. On the other hand, my kids actually enjoy doing the some of the same things every single time! The play village is always one of our favorite areas. Primrose could probably spend an entire day taking care of the babies in the baby nursery!

We cut our Magic House visit short (compared to visits in the past) because we were so tired at this point. But we’re all looking forward to making a reservation to go again soon! I’m going to end this post with a link to my “Day 3 Staycation” Instagram stories. We had so much fun on our Staycation and we are all so thankful we were able to do and experience so much in our own city! Thank you to Explore St. Louis for this opportunity!!

I hope you all have a great week!! Before I go, I would love if you left any feedback below. I don’t know if there’s any interest in more blog posts- and if so, what type of things you would like me to blog about. But I’m open to hearing what you have to say!

Blog

Mrsjessicaroberts x Modern Piggy


Since my post last month, I’ve been kind of lost on how I should move forward with my blog. Should I catch up on posts that I missed (and now feel out of place?) Or do I just count these past months as a loss and just start fresh? I haven’t really decided what I want to do (if you have any input, I’d love to hear!) But for now, I want to share about something fun that I had the opportunity to work on a couple of months ago.

Back in April I released a bow collection with one of my all time favorite bow shops, Modern Piggy! So I thought it would be fun to walk you through the process and show you some pictures of all of us wearing the different bows from the collection. (Psst- if you scroll all the way to the bottom, I’m sharing about the sale today!!!)

 

I was first introduced to Modern Piggy a few years ago when I came across one of their giveaways on Instagram. I ended up winning shop credit through that giveaway and that’s when my love for Modern Piggy began. Over the past few years, I’ve been a frequent shopper (maybe too frequent if you ask my husband 😂) because of the amazing quality, beautiful styles, and of course I can’t leave out the free shipping. In that time, I’ve gotten to know the shop owners, Becky and Camille, and have had the opportunity to collaborate with them a couple times. It’s always been so easy to work with them because we truly do reach for our Modern Piggy bows pretty much every single day.

At the beginning of this year, I got a message asking if I would like to help design a collection for the shop. I’m pretty sure I immediately texted my bff (a fellow Modern Piggy super fan 😂) because I was so excited. It was a pretty immediate “YES!” 

From there, I was asked about patterns, colors, etc. that I would like to see in my collection. My first thoughts were “What did I get myself into? I have no idea what I’m doing!” But it wasn’t very long before so many ideas started popping into my head and I started bombarding Becky and Camille with emails.
I knew from the start that I wanted my collection to be fun and unique, but also versatile enough to be worn over and over again. The bows we reach for the most often are basics/neutrals so I wanted to make sure the bows in this collection could still fall under that category

After sending some ideas to them, they created a mood board and showed me some fabric swatches that they thought fit the look I was going for. They were so amazing to work with! Even though we were only communicating via email, they seemed to know the exact vision I had for the collection. All the fabric swatches they sent me were just as I had envisioned. So from there, they ordered the fabric and sent it off to their amazingly talented seamstresses. Modern Piggy photographed all the gorgeous product shots seen on their website and IG. And we went out to shoot some different lifestyle pictures. And then after months of behind the scenes work, the bows were released!


Everything that goes into designing a collection takes so much thought. And then there are so many nerves when it’s time for the release (is anyone even going to like these?!) It’s amazing to me that these women do this over and over and over again, along with everything else that goes along with owning a business (and somehow they never seem to run out of ideas!!) They truly are amazing at what they do and I now have a new found respect for all that goes into the business. I’m so grateful I had the opportunity to work alongside them.

So now I would like to walk you through each of the bows in the collection.

The Clementine bow, named after my 2 year old, is a caramel color that was inspired by the Modern Piggy camel leather bow. I love that color as a neutral and thought it would be beautiful presented in a fabric bow. It is also the color I chose for the bowties for the boys. It pairs well with so many different colors and prints!

The Evangeline bow, named after my 6 year old, is a vivid pink velvet bow. Pink is a favorite color in our house so I knew I had to include some shade of pink into the collection. Modern Piggy already has so many good shades of pink so I tried to think of a pink they didn’t carry that we wanted in our own personal collection. This color is fun and vibrant and it’s such a fun pop of color that goes with so many outfits!


The Primrose bow, named after my 1 year old, is a fun leopard print that I had already been asking Modern Piggy to create before we discussed this collaboration! In our house, leopard is a neutral so I knew it had to make its way into this collection.



The Eloise bow, named after my 2 year old’s middle name, is another “neutral” print. The simple black and white design pairs well with many other colors and patterns. It’s the perfect mixture of neutral and fun!

The whole process was just so fun and I’m so thankful to have had this opportunity! If you happened to make it this far, Modern Piggy has my collection on sale TODAY, June 25th! Every Tuesday they have a Midweek Markdown, marking down a select bow style for 20% off for one day only. So today, everything in my collection is 20% off (and free shipping for U.S. customers!!) So you can click HERE to hop over to their site to shop! Thank you so much to everyone who has already purchased from this collection and thank you for all your support!!