Day Four – Memorial Day Monday, St. Louis

Day Four – Memorial Day Monday, St. Louis

Sleeping all together the last few nights, I’ve confirmed that Chloe is indeed the earliest riser and the instigator in the ‘wake everyone else up early’ campaign.  The girls were up fairly early yet again.  They’ve been sharing a bed, and most hotels have had a pull-out couch for Ryan, and if not he’s got his nap mat and sleeping bag.  Our hotel was a Crowne Plaza, which I thought was awesome.  I don’t get out much.  It was fairly old, so it wasn’t as nice as it had once been and thus it was very affordable.  But I loved the location – a block from the base of the arch! – and the views and all the space in the room.  All that to say, it was too nice for free breakfast though.  However, when we checked in, they gave us two free breakfast coupons, and Coleson offered them to Ryan and I, thanks Dearie!  So Coleson took his early-rising girls on a breakfast date.  They attempted to go to a local diner, but it was closed, so they ended up at Starbucks.  Apparently the cashier was a sweet old lady who didn’t charge them correctly ;) and they enjoyed bagels and bananas.  After they left, I showered and waited around on my date for a bit, before finally waking him up.  I hate to wake a sleeping kid, but sometimes it has to be done.  Our breakfast was wonderful!!  Ryan had a great view of the arch from his side of the table.  And since it was a weekday and they weren’t serving the fancy buffet breakfast, our server let Ryan order pancakes off the menu.  I was totally happy with the small buffet – lots of fresh fruits which are always great when travelling, a muffin, yogurt, coffee.  It was really nice to spend some one-on-one time with Ryan.  We talked the whole time and stuffed ourselves on amazing food.

When we all met back up after breakfast, I attempted to take Abby up to see the rooftop pool since she hadn’t joined us last night.  Unfortunately everything was locked and didn’t open til later in the day.  Bummer!  So we checked out of the hotel and drove to Forest Park.  It’s a beautiful and huge city park, probably similar to Central Park in NYC.  Our trolley driver had taken us through yesterday and luckily for us had shown us the free parking spots and other useful tips.  Our first stop was the St. Louis Science Center which Ryan has been eyeing in the guide book for weeks.  What’s great about St. Louis is all this cool stuff is free!  We just walked right in.  The science center is across the highway from the park, so there’s this huge walk-through-inside-bridge with lots of windows and even a couple of glass-bottom spots.  We enjoyed looking straight down at cars going under us and using the radars to clock the cars speeding by.  The walkway also features all of the space displays, my favorite part of course.  Lots of NASA and shuttle and moon-walking stuff.  Once inside the actual museum part, the first area was full of interactive, kid-friendly things, and the kids built an arch from foam blocks.  Ryan loved the museum; I tried, but science and museums just aren’t me!  But we did it all and spent about three hours there.  Ryan programmed a Mars rover, mastered the Tower of Hanoi in no time [I love watching his brain work – he just gets this stuff and it amazes me!], and picked out a t-shirt from the gift shop.  And Mommy got the whole family into a photo booth for a picture :)

We drove just outside of Forest Park for lunch at Jack in the Box.  It’s a burger chain, but since we’ve never been, it counts as unique and different, right?  It rained just a little while we were inside, but fortunately it passed as quick as it came.  Bellies full, we headed back into Forest Park.  We first explored the turtle park playground, which was a collection of cool turtle sculptures that were built for climbing all over.  They had hollow mouths to hide in, slides on their shells, that sort of thing.  We then went into the St. Louis Zoo; did I mention how cool it is that everything’s free?!  We saw Abby’s favorite monkeys, Chloe liked the polar bear and giraffes, and Ryan found an 18 foot anaconda.  Yikes!  Abby picked out her souvenir for the trip, a stuffed monkey that we named Louie, only fitting since he’s from St. Louis. 

Before heading out of town, we hit up one more spot from the guidebook, Ted Drewes frozen custard on old Route 66.  It was a cool, older place.  The place was packed.  We walked up to the window to order.  Their specialty is a concrete – custard that’s so thick they turn the cup over as they hand it to you.  Chloe had plain vanilla, Ryan had mint oreo, Abby mint chocolate chip, and Coleson had heath bar.  I went rogue and had a root beer float.  As we sat on a curb eating, the dark clouds were thundering, and it started drizzling as we loaded the car.  By the time I pulled out of the parking lot, it was an all-out thunder storm, we got out just in time!  It was a horrible five minutes or so of driving before we emerged on the other side.  We made a four hour drive to a Super 8 in Carthage, MO.  We stopped for Jimmy John’s halfway through.  Sometimes you just need a light and fresh sandwich!  Abby and Chloe both fell asleep in the car, and Ryan read a book. 

It’s been a great trip so far!  Off to find buffalo in Oklahoma tomorrow!! 

Day Three – St. Louis, MO!

Day Three – St. Louis, MO!

So we woke up in Perryville, MO this morning.  Our Days Inn continental breakfast was a little lacking, I was disappointed there wasn’t any fresh fruit, but oh well.  There was still hot coffee for Mommy and Daddy and syrup for Ryan.  Yes, he put it on toast.  Whatever.  We did, however, draw the line at drinking it.  After showers for all, we were on the road again.  We had lots of ideas for St. Louis, but no set agenda.  I had hoped to be downtown in time to eat lunch, I had found lots of tasty looking restaurants.  So we decided to hit up Grant’s Farm in the morning before heading into town for lunch and the afternoon.  I had thought Grant’s Farm would be a sort of glorified petting zoo, but I was wrong!  We had fun, but we had no idea what we were getting into! 

There was quite a line to get in the parking lot, followed by a very long line on foot into the park.  It’s more like Disney-world-theme-park-petting-zoo-on-steriods!  While waiting for seriously like thirty minutes in line just get in, we quickly realized this wasn’t going to be a kill-an-hour before lunch sort of stop.  Grant’s Farm is named after Ulysses S. Grant, 18^th president, who lived on the property.  The Annheiser Busch [beer] family purchased the land at some point and turned it into the park it is now.  As you entered the park, you’re herded on trams that take you all around the property and are actually pretty cool and informative.  There’s lots of animals to see, as well as Grant’s cabin.  Once on foot in the park, there’s lots of animals to see and things to do.  The park itself is free, but you pay for parking and odds and ends.  Trying to convince three kids that you can’t do/ride everything you see is always fun!  We eventually told them we’d do the paddleboating at the end, and they were a little better about not asking about the other choices.  There were two pretty cool shows.  The first was an animal encounters showcasing animals with superhero powers.  A beautiful red macaw was featured for his math skills.  There was a numbers board 1-10 and three audience members got to ask him math questions and he correctly pushed down the right number each time.  Ryan asked him 4+4 and he walked over and pushed down the eight!  Smart bird and brave Ryan!  If the trainers were cueing the macaw, we couldn’t figure out how.  Chloe’s favorite of course was the owl.  She loved him and clapped for him.  Another hit was the pig with super strength- he pushed a barrel with his nose.  The other show was an elephant show, which was pretty cool too.  Although standing in line for the show was even better.  The elephant was right across the fence from us spraying himself and taking an all-out bath in his water.  So cool!  We ended up eating lunch in the park since it was a much bigger ordeal then we had realized it would be.  Last was the promised paddle boat ride.  Coleson was happy to sit in the shade and be our photographer :)  Thanks Dearie!  The kids and I had a lot of fun paddling around the little lake.  Well, I paddled.  It’s a workout!  There was actually a sticker on the boat that said “Fast pedaling can cause rapid tiring of legs.”  A real, legit sticker right there with all the other safety warnings.  The kids all wanted to steer, which was of course a little scary, but at least we were moving real slow.  We did see one unidentified animal in the water.  I thought it was cool, I think it terrified Ryan.  I honestly thought it was a branch or something, it was pretty sizeable, but as we got within five feet or so, the whole thing disappeared and left nothing but bubbles.  Ryan jumped in his seat and declared it an alligator.  I can’t imagine, but we forgot to ask the park ranger type guy on the dock what it might have been.  Grant’s Farm was fun, overwhelming, interesting, tiring.  And boy were we thirsty.  I didn’t see any water fountains in the whole place and when we asked at lunch for a cup, we were told the soda fountains don’t even water.  Oh well, we survived. 

So by the time we finally left, it was nearly 3:00 and our day’s plans were a little mixed up!  But that’s the fun of a roadtrip.  We headed about thirty minutes into St. Louis and saw our first views of the Arch.  Wow.  It’s just right there in the skyline with all the buildings.  Pretty neat.  We went straight to a trolley tour – the last one of the day started at four.  The kids had been so excited to ride one, especially after seeing them in Memphis.  Our tour guide was great and really knew St. Louis.  It was super informative, and I really feel like I know the city, and I know how to get around.  I’m glad we went and that we went early on in our St. Louis adventure.  But, I’m here to tell you, 90minutes in a trolley with three kids is waayy too long!  At least for the girls.  They were climbing all over me and each other and the whines really kicked in the last 30minutes or so.  But overall, it was a fun experience and hopefully they’ll remember that and not that it lasted so long! 

After the trolley, we went straight to dinner.  Trips make me hungry!  Something about being active and burning lots of calories combined with not having easy access to my pantry and all the afternoon snacks it holds :)  And thirsty!  We went to Imo’s Pizza, one of the restaurants I had circled in the handy-dandy tourist guide that I had ordered and mailed to our house.  I’m cool and old school like that.  In my humble opinion, it didn’t disappoint at all.  Imo’s is a local chain that doesn’t appear to have changed any in the last thirty years, which only makes it that much more awesome.  We ordered at the counter – the largest pepperoni pizza with an appetizer of toasted ravioli of course.  And we splurged on two cokes.  And let me tell you, those Cokes, after a long hot day and served with pizza, hit the spot.  Toasted ravioli appears to be a St. Louis thing, I had never heard of it before.  Supposedly a drunk cook knocked the ravioli into boiling grease and the rest is history.  Quite tasty.  And the pizza is St. Louis style.  A thin crust cut in squares.  We ate all 16” of it.  Pretty impressive, especially considering it took lots of begging and bribing to get the girlies to eat the two pieces that they did.  It was a fun dinner and I even got to sit next to my hubby in a booth across from the kids.  It’s only fair I finally got a chance to sit next to Daddy, right?! 

After dinner, we checked into our hotel in downtown St. Louis, right near the Mississippi river and the arch.  It’s a crowne plaza and we’re on the 21^st floor!  It’s a really nice and spacious room with quite a view.  Tonight it was Coleson’s turn to leave his phone charger in the car, but at least we could get to the car and not worry with all that valet nonsense.  And since we were back outside anyways, and only a block from the arch, off wandering we went.  The arch is quite impressive!  It’s 360 feet tall and 360 wide at the base.  You know, I’m still not sure why they built it, I keep meaning to look that up and forgetting, but I do know it’s about fifty years old.  There’s lots of construction going on at the base, it’s going to be very nice when they’re done, with lots of grass and easier access over this huge highway.  It was a beautiful night to be out walking and exploring and taking pictures.  We even went all the way down to the Mississippi to stick our hands in it. 

Our hotel has a rooftop pool.  Coleson has no interest in rooftop.  And I wasn’t sure what it entailed, so I didn’t want to take three kids up alone.  Abby had been saying her belly hurt, so she went back to the room with Daddy to get a drink of water, and I took Ryan and Chloe up to see what there is to see.  Amazing.  The arch is right there.  And the river and all the bridges and boats.  And it was pretty much dark by then, so everything was extra pretty in lights.  There were a ton of people in the pool and it felt relatively warm on our hands.  Ryan really wanted to swim, but it was way too late for us.  As it ended up, it was close to 9:30 before the kiddos got in bed [10:30 EST].  Since I’ve mentioned Coleson’s dislike of heights, it’s only fair I should mention that I don’t like elevators.  I will do them, but the thought of being 21 floors up with nothing below us makes me pause.  I’ve seen enough movies and tv shows... And I'll leave it at that since my kids will probably read this post :)  So I convinced Ryan and Chloe that it would be fun to walk down the stairs from the 30^th floor pool to our room on the 21^st!  And I actually thought it was fun.  I should also mention that this hotel has an escalator in the lobby and a revolving door out into the city, and yes, we’ve used both. 

After getting ready for bed, we read a few more chapters in our family book – Ranger In Time, Rescue on the Oregon Trail.  It came from the school book fair, and something about it caught Abby’s attention, it was the only book she wanted.  We’ve just about finished it.  Later on in our trip, we’ll visit Independence and learn more about the start of the Oregon Trail.  Planning pieces of this trip around things the kids want to do too has been really a new and fun thing.  I love that they’re getting involved, and we can tie in things that they’ve been learning about and bring it to life for them.  Tomorrow is Forest Park, still here in St. Louis, and Ryan is really looking forward to the Science Museum after seeing it in our travel guide!  Nighty night!

Day Two - Memphis

Day Two – Memphis

I awoke even before my alarm for race day.  Sleeping-in in a hotel doesn’t seem to work well.  I got ready, said my goodbyes, and walked along the Mississippi at dawn, not a bad way to start the morning.  So pretty and peaceful.  My race started at 7am.  It was actually a really fun and enjoyable race.  The first few miles were through the downtown area that we had walked the night before, so that was pretty cool.  Next we headed north to a slightly more residential area.  And then we came back south along the river which was really cool.  I stopped a couple of times for water and a cold towel.  However, I did not stop at the beer station at mile ten!  And the fact that it was at the bottom of a tall bridge made it even less appealing!  The race ended at the river park area where it started, and I got a burst of energy at the finish line seeing my hubby and three favorite little fans waiting with high fives!  My pace was actually a little slower than my first half, but I felt so much better.  It was an awesome run.  We wandered for a few minutes collecting water and bananas and snacks and even a hot coffee from a food truck for me, how cool is that?!  A short sit on the curb, a few Kodak moments, and we headed back to the hotel.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to my awesome hubby for getting the kids ready, and fed, and to the finish line!

Back at the hotel, we changed into bathing suits, and headed off to find the pool.  Sadly, it was outside, and thus rather frigid.  The kids hung out on the steps forever, but eventually Ryan and Abby got in and swam.  Luckily for me, Chloe never got past the steps, which means I didn’t have to get in either!  She’s been doing really well with her swim lessons, which means no more puddle jumper, which means a summer full of swimming for Mommy!  But I did sit on the edge and stick my feet and calves in the pool, I felt just like a real athlete icing after competition.  Back upstairs for a much-needed shower for me and packing up real quick.  We checked out and got our car back from the valet, yay!

We found a parking deck, and it was off to Mud Island River Park for us.  We rode a monorail over the water, which the kids all loved.  The park was awesome!  It’s a replica of the Mississippi River that you can play and splash in [if you read the above paragraph closely, you might have noticed that only I showered, not the kids.  They just stayed in bathing suits.]  You’ll have to check out my pictures, it’s kind of hard to explain.  There’s bridges and dams and cities and everything, and then it dumps out into this pool area, aka the Gulf of Mexico.  The kids walked and walked it, but a special shout-out goes to Ryan who walked every twist and turn and was very proud to have walked the whole Mississippi river.  Which is pretty impressive, Coleson read somewhere that it’s about half a mile long.  We munched on various snacks we’ve accumulated here and there over the trip, mostly from my race, while sitting on the banks of the ‘Gulf of Mexico.’  We also walked the grassy areas of Mud Island itself and looked across to the race/ park area that we were at earlier in the day.  Certainly a fun place to go if you’re ever in the Memphis area!

In my race packet was a wrist band for free entry to a festival later in the day.  The festival itself wasn’t overly appealing, it didn’t appear to be family-friendly [beer, music, etc] and tickets for the rest of our crew would have added up quickly.  But we did see that the festival included an airshow!  So we changed the kids into dry clothes, parked for free at the Memphis welcome center area, and walked to an open, grassy spot along the water.  While we waited on the show, we explored the riverbank a little, checking out beautiful flowers and Abby rode a ‘horse’ made out of driftwood.  Our seats were pretty much perfect.  Close enough to have great views, but not too crazy loud.  Chloe did cover her ears a few times, but she did great!  No crying at all.  The last plane was the best by far.  He was totally crazy, flying up and down and around and upside down.  All while leaving a smoke trail, so we could see exactly what he was doing.  He would get so close to the water and then shoot up by Mud Island, and then go straight up to the sky.  And twist and turn and do it all again.  So fun!  Well, actually, he wasn’t the last plane.  There was a huge FedEx jet guy that came by real slow and close, we were pretty confused by him – too big to be part of the show, but definitely not in a normal flight path.  And then we decided he was the sponsor plane and it was a marketing fly-by!  FedEx seems to have a large presence in Memphis, I had run by the FedEx Forum, some sort of sports center.  I’m really glad we heard about the air show and stuck around, so cool!!

And of course a day of sun and fun left us thirsty and hungry again.  We crossed the bridge – the kids’ first trip west of the Mississippi!! – and ate dinner at a Cracker Barrel in East Memphis, Arkansas.  We hadn’t really had a good meal that day, combined with burning lots of calories, and boy was some southern comfort food tasty!  I was super proud of Abby for ordering, and eating, chicken and dumplings!  I had a chicken, rice, and gravy special, soo good.  Ryan played the pin jumping game all meal, and even left just one pin two different times, woohoo. 

After dinner, we drove straight north up 55, basically paralleling the Mississippi on the western side.  It was a fun drive, albeit pretty boring for Coleson I’m sure.  Flat, flat, flat.  And straight.  Farms and crops everywhere.  It was neat to see something totally different then we’re used to.  It messes with your depth perception for sure.  And the crop rows will make you dizzy if you try to look down them while driving by at 75mph!  I worked a bit on a new critter for Abby [if you’ll remember our last summer’s roadtrip when Chloe’s went missing and Abby graciously saved the day by sharing hers].  Chloe slept the whole three hours or so that we drove.

And so now, here we are in our small town Days Inn in Perryville, MO.  We’re about an hour south of St. Louis.  Off to the Arch and all sorts of more fun tomorrow!  Nighty night from the flat, farm lands of the Midwest!       

PS - Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!  We love you! :)

Day One - Memphis, TN

Roadtrip 2016

Day 0ne – Memphis!

School’s out and we’re on vacation!!  Let summer begin!  We’ve had a crazy, busy week what with school ending festivities, my parents moving, Chloe’s daily swim lessons, prepping for vacation, so surprise, I wasn’t as packed and ready as I should have been.  I woke up about 5am to get ready.  Fortunately the kids are getting older, which means less just random stuff.  And since we’re not staying in one place long, no need for lots of toys and accessories.  Coleson and I commented on how light the trunk of the van looked when packed!  We did forgot a couple of things, but nothing we can’t live without.  I would have liked to have brought scooters and baseball gloves, but if that’s all we left behind, we’re doing just fine. 

We hit the road about 8:45am [EST, our whole trip will be in Central time though!] with a Starbuck’s stop on the way out of town.  We headed north through Chattanooga – google maps said it was about a few minutes faster to go west through Birmingham and then up, but we are on a roadtrip and all, so you gotta pick the scenic route.  We stopped once for gas and ate pb&j’s in the car.  The kids did really well, could have something to do with an hour plus of Paw Patrol on the DVD player.  But otherwise, they looked at library books and chatted. 

Our hotel in Memphis had a valet, which we’re never big fans of [we had to tip the guy extra to go get my phone charger out later in the evening].  We settled in quick before heading out on foot.  We explored where my race would start – nice to know where to go and how long it would take to get there.  We hung out at a pretty cool park area along the Mississippi, complete with a giant wooden catfish play sculpture.  Abby climbed everything.  She’s got uncanny upper body strength.  We then walked to Maggie Moo’s to share some ice cream – mint chocolate chip for Daddy, Ryan, and Abby.  Vanilla for Chloe and I, although I did talk her into M&M mix-ins which she ended up not liking and eating around.  A little more walking, including Beale Street.  Total sensory overload there, and super glad we went in daylight like Lolly said to do.  We picked up my race packet from the Peabody and watched the duck parade.  If you ever go to the Peabody to see the ducks, be sure to bring small children.  We got to sit up front, right along the red carpet with the girls in our laps and Ryan next to us.  The ducks are cool and cute, but it does go really fast! 

For dinner, we couldn’t really come up with a casual bbq place we could walk to – there was a really nice one close, and a casual one far.  So we went to Hard Rock.  It felt a little like cheating, like the touristy thing to do, but honestly I’m not sure if I’ve ever been to one.  We started outside, however the clouds were a little dark, so we moved inside, and sure enough it poured while we ate.  Inside was better anyways.  The memorabilia was fun for the kids, especially our music-loving, future-guitar-playing Abby.  She read the sign about Elvis’s guitar and was asking about him, guess we need to teach her some music history!  The kids plates were fun too, served in plastic guitars.  We were all thirsty and hungry, well except Chloe of course.  Fortunately we had a fridge in the hotel for her to-go box.  The rain was still coming down lightly, so we ran the half mile back to our hotel.  Chloe was in an old umbrella stroller, and Ryan & Abby were screaming and laughing.  It was actually a little fun!  I’m glad we didn’t try to wait the weather out, it was a steady rain the rest of the evening.  After putting the kids to bed, Coleson and I sat on our awesome balcony watching the people and city and rain, before going to bed fairly early ourselves.  It was a bit of a long day, and I’ve got to run in the morning!

Ryan's post!!

                                                  
         
                                                     Awards Day




Awards day is a day where all of the kids [almost all] got a medal, certificate, or a trophy. I got two medals. A reading and all o's medal. I got ten certificates. An art, four honor rolls, reading, completion, young authors fair, a merit roll for days at school, and accelerated reader. It was a good day.

"Heeyy worms!!"

Chloe has preschool on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 9:00-noon.  On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, she also has speech from 1-1:30.  This makes coming home or going out to lunch difficult; there's just not quite enough time.  So now that spring is here, we've started picnicking at the Woodmont playground in between preschool and speech.  We have a blast!  Pushing Chloe on a swing is the best.  She loves it, and she'll giggle and giggle and giggle. 

Last week when we were up there, there was a small bird pecking around the ground.  Chloe just thought he was the coolest thing ever :  "Hello birdie, hello birdie. Birdie, birdie, birdie. Hello birdie"  over and over and over :)  And then we started talking about why he might be pecking at the ground and how he was probably looking for food.  Imagine Chloe's cutest little sing-songey voice : "Heeyy worms, birdie want to eat you!" 

a few Chloe quotes

"Couper is my best buddy ever in the whole world." - regarding, of course, Couper West from preschool and soccer

Another Couper quote : Ryan and Abby were asking Chloe who her best friend was a few weeks ago, and she replied "God, and Jesus, and COUPER!"  He is apparently a part of the Holy Trinity around here?!?

"She running. I hope her be okay if her fall."  - I think the she in question here was Lyla Stone, I scribbled this note on the day Lyla spent the night with us. 

Here's an old one I had written down from early February : "Stop it water getting on there please"  She was talking to the shower about the tub toys and shampoo bottles that were getting wet :)

In the car on Wednesday, Chloe told me "I wish Daddy here in our car, I want talk to him." Such a sweetie!

She's still crazy quite and shy around strangers, but as soon as we're alone in the car or back home or wherever, she starts talking up a storm.  Her words and vocabulary have taken off, and she's got such a cute and funny personality that's coming out. 

Love you too, my Chlo-Chlo!

Maya the grasshopper

When Chloe gets going, she can be very hilarious :)  I had to start writing down some of the things she was saying to Maya the other day, just because they were so cute!  "Maya why you all covered grass? You look like grasshopper. Hop hop hop!"  "You funny Maya. You is grasshopper. Funny funny funny"

It's also not uncommon for her to throw herself onto Maya and repeat over and over "Maya, I love you, I love you Maya, I love you, I love you, I love you"

Octopus

So Chloe and I were driving home from Cumming along Trinity Church road.  It's a beautiful country road, and I pointed out a pasture of horses to Chlo-Chlo.  She announced something along the lines of "me no like horses, Abby like horses."  We then spotted cows and she decided "me like cows."  This was quickly followed by "me like cows and owls!"  We then went through what everyone in the family likes: Chloe and her cows & owls, Abby and horses & monkeys, Ryan and sharks.  She asked about Daddy, and I told her that I know Daddy liked pandas when he was little.  Mommy also liked pandas, as well as turtles.  And then out of left field, Chloe asks: "why no one like octopus?"  Say what??!!  Totally random; I have no idea where the idea of an octopus came from.  My Chloe cracks me up!!  Her speech and conversational skills are improving so quickly, and it's so much fun to hear what she's going to say next!

Christmas 2015 :)