Day 23: St. Louis

On Tuesday, we said good-bye to Grandpa who had to fly to D.C. and tries to get the boys outside before the heat overwhelmed us.  St. Peters has a great City Centre.  In fact, David and I had our wedding reception there.  We started on the playground, but were only there for a few minutes before the boys decided they would rather explore the paths and the streams.  They climbed down the bank to get a better look, much to David's chagrin as some small children tried to follow them.  Then it was off to see the lake and the fountains.  About this time, I thought it might be good to occupy with something constructive so we took another try at geocaching and this time found the capsule.  We decided it was time to leave soon after when the sprinklers came on and the boys went right at them.

We stopped for lunch and a quick trip to the bookstore on the way home and took the long way so we could see a few of the changes in St. Peters, including a new high school and a new library.  In the afternoon, my dear friend L and her kids came to visit.  I was excited to meet little 8 week old W who makes Mr. 0 look like a giant.  Mr. 3 had a grand time with B, her 3 year old.  They were so fun together, racing each other, playing together, and having the best conversations.  Is there anything better than a conversation between two 3 year olds?  It was so nice to see them and we appreciated being able to host them at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  After being in the car so much, having time to just sit and chat while the kids play was the perfect way to enjoy the afternoon.

Day 22: St. Louis

On Monday Mr. 0 and I were feeling better but the germs had caught David (luckily they'd weakened so he was doing okay).  Mr. 9 and Grandpa headed to the golf course while the rest of us took a walk and tried to geocache at the park down the street.  Even though we never found the marker, we had fun exploring. 

After lunch, Grandpa and Mr. 7 worked to build a remote-controlled Piper Cub airplane offered to use up some of his credit at the Boeing Store and the boys had a great time picking out treasures.  Mr. 7 and Mr. 9 pooled their resources and got a remote-controlled helicopter that takes pictures.  Just what a ninja-spy-detective needs.

We took the ferry across the Mississippi to Illinois for the experience and found cold drinks and snacks waiting for us at the little restaurant on the dock.  We sat out on the terrace overlooking the river, enjoying the view and the company.  Mr. 0 ate as many sweet potato fries as we would give him and we agreed the homemade potato chips were delicious. 

After dinner, everyone went out to fly the Piper Cub except for me and the JV team.  Mr. 0 came as close to crawling as he's come - if you put him on all fours, he pushes up on the feet and tries to bear crawl.  He is also working on his army crawl, using his elbows to drag himself where he wants to go.  It's exciting to see him really developing mobility, although he may very well skip crawling all together and start walking next week.  He loves to stand, cruises, and tries to let go of your hands to walk (he can't actually walk so just falls over, but he really wants to).

Day 21: St. Louis

Sunday morning I woke up with a cold.  Mr. 0's cold to be precise.  He had caught a cold the last day in Denver and was still recovering during the drive.  By Sunday morning, I was not feeling well.  Mr. 0 and I muddled through the morning at church and then we all came back to the house for an afternoon of just hanging out - just what we needed.  The boys had a great time playing and rediscovering all of Daddy's old toys, Mr. 0 took a 3 hour nap, I slept on the couch in between loads of laundry, Mr. 7 and Mr. 3 sewed with Grandma, and Mr. 7 worked on an airplane with Grandpa.  I did venture out to buy some groceries and a movie for the night (What's in the Bible Volume 8) but other than that Grandma and Grandpa's house was just what we needed.

Day 19-20: Glenwood Springs to St. Louis

After a late night, we woke up early to say good-bye to Nana and Papa, aunts, uncles, and cousins who had to drive to Denver for an early flight. There were hugs all around (happily we'll see them all in the next month or two so it wasn't too sad) and then we headed back to our room to finish packing. The boys have developed a newfound love of watching golf on TV so they alternated between golf and a show on the history of corn while I repacked our belongings and David tried to keep a fussy Mr. 0 happy. It took much longer than we had hoped and so we didn't get on the road until just before noon. Another round of good-byes and we were off. It had been a great week reconnecting and we're already looking forward to the reunion in 2014!

For the first 2 hours, everyone was happy. We ate peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch in the car (we've been eating them regularly as the boys are not fond of fast food except chicken nuggets and I told them we could only have those once per week), read books, and caught up on journals. On one of the steeper downhills, Mr. 7 suddenly had to go to the bathroom and Mr. 0 woke up hungry so we pulled off and realized the brakes on the left were smoking. We pulled out the owners manual and, with the help of Google, decided it was just overheating given the steep grade we had just gone down. To be on the safe side, we decided to try to find the nearby Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. We did not find any sheep but it did give the car time to cool down.

Past Denver we stopped for coffee at Becca's Cafe (how could we not stop) and, when we opened the door, discovered the temperature had risen to 100 degrees with leaving the mountains!

With our late night on Thursday and late start, we knew we weren't going to make it as far as we'd hoped so pulled out our smart phones to find a hotel. Having phones that we can use to look at where we'll be in a few hours, search the hotel reviews on Trip Advisor, compare prices, and then call to make reservations has made travelling so much easier. It's hard to know how far we're going to make it and not having to decide ahead of time has been really helpful. We ended up at the Sleep Inn in Colby, Kansas which had a great pool, good wifi (even in the bathroom which is where we hang out after we put the kids to bed), free breakfast (including fresh waffles), and comfy beds. What more could you ask!

The next morning we stopped at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History to check out the dinosaurs. We had 10 hours to drive and debated whether the stop would be worth it but knew we all needed a break before spending the day in the car. The museum was great - the boys loved the animatronic dinosaurs!  There were lots of cool fossils including the fish within a fish discovered by Sternberg. 

We spent almost an hour in the Discovery Room where there were all sorts of animals models, real snakes and lizards (including a whole nocturnal animals area), books, and more.  Mr. 0 loved standing up against the tanks watching the snakes and lizards.  And Mr. 0 showed me turtles just like in Minn of the Mississippi (another great book by Holling Clancy Holling). 

Just as we were leaving, we came across a wooly mammoth skeleton.  We had been discussing in the car the difference between a mammoth and a mastodon.  We pulled up Wikipedia and quickly learned all sorts of interesting information including that mammoths are more closely related to elephants.  So we were excited to see a mammoth.  Mr. 3 looked at it and told me that it was actually a diplodocus.  I tried to tell him that it was really a mammoth, but he seemed highly doubtful.  It's amazing how much you know when you're 3!

Back in the car, we stopped to see the bison herds before getting back on the highway.  More sandwiches, more books, more journal writing, more games.  By the end of the afternoon we were all starting to get rather cranky.  Mr. 0 was fussy and didn't want to nap.  Mr. 3 needed a nap but wasn't interested in taking one (actually Mr. 7 as well).  So David googled "best ice cream place on I-70 in Kansas or Missouri" and after eliminating Ted Drews in St. Louis (great ice cream but a little too far as we were still in Kansas) decided to try this old-fashioned ice cream shop in Lawrence, Kansas.  It was delicious and the perfect break.  Google saves us again!  

We spent a little time walking along Massachusetts Street (yes, Massachusetts Street) and found a great little bookstore and coffeeshop.  When we finally got back in the car, we started up Star Wars for the boys and the miles flew by.  We actually reached Grandma and Grandpa's house a half hour ahead of schedule with only one stop for the bathroom.  We were definitely excited to see Grandma and Grandpa and to enjoy a few days of R&R.