Totally Cheating ....

Greetings from the future ...  September 2019 to be exact, hehehe.

I've been busy catching up on all sorts of photo projects that I've been meaning to do for years!  Printing pictures, updating picture frames, finally finishing Ryan's k-5 shutterfly book, and yes printing blog books.  I just ordered 2013-2015.  I'm going to spend some time backdating posts into 2016 so that on my next round of book printing, I'll have even more content and memories to share :)

I'll insert some pictorial highlights of the year here at the end of 2016, and hopefully one day soon, these memories will also be printed out and proudly displayed on the fireplace bookshelves.  I love that all three of my babies enjoy reading these books, and I look forward to finally providing some new material!

Enjoy my Ryan, Abby, and Chloe!  Mommy loves you!!

summer 2016 midwest roadtrip pics

In no particular order, here are a few random favorites from our roadtrip.  I think I may need to combine the written posts with some pictures and make a shutterfly book.  

This was such a fun adventure!

  

 

 

 

Happy Anniversary my Dear!! I love you!
Remember that year I threw up in a sidewalk trash can after our anniversary dinner?! There's no one else I'd rather have by my side when I'm sick in a random city far from home!
Oklahoma City, May 31st

Memphis pictures - Friday, 5.27 and Saturday, 5.28

  walking around the city, first views of the Mississippi River.

 a fun play area along the river

Dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe

coolest kids' meal plate ever 

the Great American River Run - half marathon 13.1

Memphis, TN 

Mud Island River Park!  fun place!

 We found ourselves!  Ryan's hands are on Mud River Island!

back on the mainland, ready for an awesome airshow!

Day Nine - Independence, MO

Day Nine - Saturday, June 4^th 2016, Independence MO!

This morning we woke up in Kansas City.  We had another continental breakfast before packing up and hitting the road.  We drove about 40minutes into Independence, Missouri.  In addition to all the Oregon Trail history, Independence is also known for being Harry Truman’s homestead.  We drove through the Main Street area and past Truman’s house.  There is also a lot of Mormon history here, and there were several museums and buildings dedicated to that.  We started our day at the National Frontier Trails Museum.  We saw a 15minute video about the different trails that jumped off from Independence – the Oregon, Santa Fe, Great Salt Lake.  Despite being made in 1990, the video was fairly interesting and informative :)  There’s so much history to immerse yourself in.  Reading excerpts from journals and seeing real pictures of real pioneers, really brought it all to life for me.  I’m sure the kids were a little bored, but I know they did have fun packing their wagon.  Everything was ¼ scale, and they had a list of suggested items to bring along.  As the wagon started filling up, the light would turn yellow and when it turned red you knew you had more than your mules could pull.  We also enjoyed seeing the display about the Santa Fe Trail.  There was a huge mural of the Plaza, and it looks very much like it does today – the Palace of the Governors, the huge church.  Another highlight was the rock where you could sign your names.  We had read about Independence Rock and how the travelers would sign their names and dates as the passed by.  There was a large rock with a binder of paper, and they all took turns signing their names too.  Good thing Chloe learned to write her name in the last week or two!

After the museum, we headed outside for a covered wagon ride, yay!  We rode along with a newspaper journalist from 1849.  He was quite a character, ha!  He asked us about our journey to Independence all the way from Atlanta, and he even tried to convince Coleson to head out to California to find riches.  The Mayor was also wandering around, as well as the mill owner’s wife.  That’s about all though, honestly the reenactment wasn’t all we had hoped it would be.  But we did ride in a covered wagon.  And we learned that mules were mostly used to pull the wagons.  They don’t sweat and work as hard as horses do.  Horses were used on the trail of course, but were mostly for riding alongside the wagons and keeping cattle in line. 

The wagon ride let us off in the Main Street square area of Independence.  We had lunch at Clinton’s, a soda fountain shop that I had been real excited about.  It’s old and was actually the site of Harry Truman’s first job.  The food was pretty good, but the atmosphere and experience overall just seemed a little lacking.  The kids had grilled cheeses, and Coleson and I shared a chicken salad sandwich.  And of course we all had to have ice cream when we were done with our lunches.  We tried to walk around afterwards, but there just wasn’t much to see.  I was surprised at how slow the town area was.  They sure advertise it well and play it up!  We walked the short distance back to our car; the covered wagon rides weren’t running at the time.  Back in the same parking lot as the museum, we wandered into an old train station.  The kids were itching to look inside, and we ended up getting an all-out tour from a sweet old volunteer.  He sure knew his stuff, although he did tell us the same story about the reclining chairs twice.  The station was a restored original, and it was full of fun things to look at. 

The last stop on our way out of Independence was a strawberry festival that we had heard about at the Vaile museum.  It was about a mile drive, and oh boy was it the place to be.  There was nobody downtown because they were all up there.  Coleson was done for by now, and it would have been hard to get a decent parking spot anyways.  So he dropped the girls and I off, and he and Ryan sat in the car in a nearby church parking lot.  While Coleson rested his eyes, the girls and I took a quick walk around the grounds.  It would have been easy to stay there for a while, but we were tiring fast, and I didn’t want to keep the guys waiting too long.  There were dozens and dozens of crafts booths set up with everything you could imagine for sale.  There was also a huge, empty parking lot area that was probably being used as a stage.  There was nothing going on at the moment, but there were tons of people sitting in camping chairs all around it, a tent with audio equipment, and I saw several young girls in dance outfits nearby.  Vaile museum was definitely where all the action in Independence was! 

We left town around 2:30 or 3:00, programmed our google maps app for home, and just like that our vacation was over.  Sad!  Coleson drove us three hours to St. Louis, Chloe and I each took short naps, and there was some movie watching on the DVD player.  I’m still not a huge fan of having it built in to the van, I definitely didn’t want it, but I suppose it is okay.  The kids don’t bug me about watching it around town, they know it’s only for trips, so it’s not ever been a fight or anything.  One big drawback for me though, is that the sound plays through the car speakers.  Way back before the portable ones died, I could have those playing while I turned the radio volume to the front and listened to my driving CDs.  Oh well, first world problems indeed. 

Our route home just happened to take us through St. Louis, one of our favorite stops.  We ate dinner at an Imo’s Pizza again, yumm.  Different location this time, and quite possibly even better, the toasted raviolis seemed a little less greasy.  The store had a totally different atmosphere too.  It was a little outside of town, much quieter, newer, lots of big windows.  We splurged on the girls this time and ordered them bread sticks.  For whatever reason, they really don’t seem to like pizza, at least not like Coleson and Ryan and I do!  The three of us put away the largest pepperoni they have.  While in St. Louis, we also made a couple of quick stops looking for a souvenir magnet.  We had managed to purchase six already on our trip, but nothing from our favorite spot.  I eventually found a cheap, boring, generic Missouri one at a Love’s gas station, but at least it is something.  Guess we’ll have to come back again someday to find a better one :)  We passed through the outskirts of the downtown area and saw the arch in the skyline as we drove into Illinois, another new state for the kiddos!  I suppose it counts, we drove through it for several hours, but we never actually stopped the car, and they ended up sleeping through most of the state!  We also passed through Kentucky, although I don't think that's a new one, pretty sure we drove through there two years ago on our way up to Ohio and Niagara Falls.  The drive home was uneventful, which is always a good thing when you’re driving somewhere.  There were a few rainy spots, but that's always helpful for washing bugs off the windshield.  We took turns driving and sleeping, and we made it home about 4:15am.  Which is really only 3am central, so not quite as bad?!  We brought kids inside, visited with Maya for a few minutes, and went quickly to sleep.  From what I can gather, the kids were up about 8:30 today – a little earlier than I had hoped, considering that’s only 7:30 central, and they had been sleeping later than that in the hotels.  But they didn’t wake me up, and I slept until almost 10, a whole five hours, so no complaints here ;)

Today has been all about laundry.  I had thought about making tally marks for the number of loads, but I didn’t, and I’ve already lost count, and I doubt I’m even halfway.  Boy, it sure is nice washing clothes!  Can you believe I’m saying that??  I don’t think I’ve gone this long without the ability to do laundry before; our road trips usually include visiting family, which comes with the added bonus of borrowing their washers and dryers!  And I finally freed our tick-infested sneakers from their quarantined grocery bags.  Lots of lysol spray out in the front yard away from the house, and then through the washer with laundry detg, bleach, and vinegar.  They might just be safe now!  Coleson and I also took turns going running, as well as napping, and Ryan and I went to the grocery store.  It was crazy packed on a Sunday afternoon, but it was certainly worth it to have a home-cooked meal at our own kitchen table – tacos and fresh southern caviar dip and veggies, yes veggies! 

So, anyways, there you have it!  Nine days, just over 2,700 miles, seven different states [I think.  We really only spent time in four : TN, MO, OK, Kansas].  Lots of memories, some good stories, bunches of new facts learned, plenty of pictures to go through.  And mostly, just a lot of family time!  I love that we really do like each other, and we can take trips like this.  I think there was only that one time along Route 66 that we actually had to pull the car over ;)  An awesome week with my awesome family!  Wonder when and where our next adventure will take us?!?     

PS, the Oregon Trail was about 2,000 miles and took an average of six months.  The trails were only used for a short amount of time before the trains replaced them.  And now, 150 years later, not that long in the grand scheme of things, we can do that same journey in a car in a matter of days.  Things to ponder.

                                                                                                                                                                                  

Day Eight - Kansas

Day Eight – Friday, June 3^rd 2016, Kansas

This morning we awoke in Woodward OK, everyone sleeping in until about 8:00 again, love it.  We had a yummy breakfast, complete with a breakfast bagel creation – scrambled eggs, cheese, small bits of bacon, all melted on top of a bagel.  Quite tasty.  We packed up and headed north towards Kansas.

The drive was pretty much the same – wide open views everywhere, cows, windmills, oil digger thingys.  And yet, it’s still beautiful and so peaceful.  We kept entertained by challenging each other to see who could spot a windmill next or an oil digger, that sort of thing.  We also played an ABC game.  You had to either find the letter in a sign [pretty hard to do when there are almost no signs] or find something outside of the car that started with that letter.  For example C for cattle, D for Daddy who rolled down his window and stuck his head out so that it would count, G for grass, and believe it or not Z for zebra.  There was some sort of random petting zoo, rescue something, I don’t even know, alongside of the tiny little county road, go figure.  We have also noticed that everyone around here, particularly in Oklahoma drives a white truck.  It’s true.  We first noticed it driving in and out of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.  No colors at all, except one rebellious silver pickup.  Once we crossed into Kansas, we started seeing a few different colors, but still mostly white.  

Tonight’s end goal and hotel location is Kansas City.  The halfway-ish point is Wichita, so we searched things to do in Wichita last night and found a few ideas.  With limited cell service and internet, we couldn’t find a fun lunch spot along the road, so we ate at a trusted favorite: Wendy’s.  Affordable, agreeable to all, and free frosty key tags.  We then went into the Old Cowtown Museum that we had read about last night.  It was really quite neat!  It was very empty, and probably would have been even cooler on the weekend when bustling with activity.  It’s a huge 1870’s town set on 23acres.  All the buildings are original, which makes it super awesome.  Most were moved around to get where they are today, but everything is completely authentic.  In fact, the grain elevator is still operational, and they claim it’s the only working one left in North America.  The houses and shops are filled with original artifacts and people dressed in character walk the streets and shops.  We even saw a reenactment of a gun fight.  Chloe and Abby both screamed, and it took some time to calm Chloe down.  We walked through a farm with chickens and cows and horses and a very loud sheep that kept baaing at us, and a goat that ate grass and flowers from the kids’ hands.  There was a jail and a saloon and general store and schoolhouse and train depot and everything else you could think of in that would have been in an old Western town.  Almost all the buildings are open and you can wander in and out exploring all sorts of neat things.  And again, all real, nothing fake or cheesy about it.  Cowtown was a great place to have stumbled upon!  The setting was very nice, along the Arkansas River.

We closed the museum down at five and headed north again.  The drive was extra pretty with the early evening sun, and we passed through a hilly stretch of terrain, the Flint Hills I believe the sign said.  It was quite different than any other area we’ve been through recently and was very beautiful.  The lunchtime Wendy's kids meals had come with small plastic cones for playing various little games, but in reality they're megaphones for already loud kids :)  My favorite was Abby belting out Lincoln Brewster's song, "there is power in the name of Jesus."  Our new-to-us van came with a free three month trial of xm satellite radio which has been great on this trip!  Our trio also attempted to pass the cones and clap to the Cup Song.  It didn't work too well, fortunately for them they have lots of cones since most ended up on the floor!  We stopped for dinner in Emporia, KS.  What a bustling downtown area.  There was a huge mountain bike race or convention or something going on.  We had planned to eat at a local Mexican restaurant that has great reviews online, but we eventually gave up waiting and walked across the street to Jimmy John’s.  Yummy and so much quieter and way quicker, which is good when everyone is tired.  The town had a really nice quaint feel to it.  I’m not sure if it’s always that way, or if it was just extra vibrant because of all the bikers in town.  There were lots of old shops along the main street, fun window displays, sidewalk chalk drawings all over, people walking everywhere,  and just a really neat atmosphere.  Fun place!

The last stretch of our drive was maybe an hour and a half.  I drove while Coleson read our library book about the Oregon Trail in preparation for Independence tomorrow.  Kinda crazy to think that most of this trip came about because of the one book that Abby randomly set her heart on at the school book fair [Ranger in Time].  We’ve had so much fun learning about the Oregon Trail and life in the 1800’s.  I wonder where we’d be tonight and what we might have done if we hadn’t planned our trip around ending up in Independence tomorrow for the reenactment!  Ryan wrote an awesome postcard to Nana today that summed it up pretty well:  “This trip has been a good one so far.  You should do it.  It’s fun learning a lot about the 1800’s.”  We didn’t intentionally set out to teach such an extensive lesson in American history, but it sure has evolved into one, and I’m grateful the kids are enjoying it!  I know I am!  Sad to think our trip is wrapping up!     

PS, Our hotel was a low-budget La Quinta Inn in Kansas City, about 40minutes from Independence.  It was fine enough, but certainly far from fancy.  I really was itching for a run and was sad that there was no fitness center.  I ran outside, but not very far, it was dark, and I wasn't brave enough to go more than about 1.75miles.  There were bunnies everywhere along my run though, which was kinda cool.  I bet you I scared up twenty of them.  In once spot, there was a group of four and in another place, there was five together. 

Day Seven - Oklahoma

Day Seven – Thursday, June 2^nd 2016, driving Oklahoma

Today [and I really mean today!  I’m caught up on blogging!], we had planned to venture west of OKC into the Black Kettle grasslands area.  But between the rain, our fear of ticks, and having already seen my buffalo, we were open to new ideas.  We spent last night researching, but still hadn’t really come up with anything.  This morning, Coleson and the girls got a head start on the breakfast, while I called up a local barn that I had finally found that advertised horseback riding.  Believe it or not, those seem to be hard to come by around here.   I suppose that’s because so many people have their own horses!  Even the places that do offer horse trails, are just that- trails, you bring your own horse.  The lady that answered was super sweet and apologetic, with all the rain, it’s just too wet and muddy and it wouldn’t be safe for riding.  That made complete sense to me, and also made me realize that most any outdoor activity would have the same limitations.  So we enjoyed our breakfast of waffles and bananas and hot coffee and checked out of our room, still without a clear plan for the day.     

We headed west and jumped on the old historic route 66 for a while.  It was pretty and fun and all, but it can get a little boring, especially if you are 8, 6, or 3.  We saw some nice countryside and a cool old bridge.  We stopped at a fun old picnic area, complete with little metal overhangs at each table.  We sat and finished our Ranger in Time book and read a couple of the Blessings book devotionals.   Love that the kids brought that along too and ask to read from it!  Abby scaled the metal posts of the overhang and Ryan played his little football kicking game [think those paper footballs that you flick with your fingers].  He’s got a tournament type championship thing going on that he’s been keeping track of on hotel stationery.  After a bathroom break, we drove just a little farther to Weatherford where we ate lunch at Lucille’s diner.  The food was quite good, classic American.  I had a Route 66 burger complete with lettuce, tomato, pickle, etc, it was thick and huge and delicious!  Coleson had a patty melt.  They had the same jump the pegs game that Cracker Barrel has, so the kids enjoyed that.  It was a fun stop. 

We then began meandering our way up towards Woodward, OK, where tonight’s hotel is located.  We pulled over at a city park area that caught our eye and went on a walk.  We sampled some blackberry looking and tasting fruits, except they were growing off a huge tree instead of a bush.  But they were still yummy, whatever they were.  The kids enjoyed playing on a section of exercise equipment.  And then it rained on us.  And since it’s Oklahoma and you can see for miles, you can also see the rain.  So neat.  We took the opportunity to use the bathrooms with the added bonus of getting out of the rain for a few mins.  The rain halted temporarily, and we walked some more, although we did get rained on a second time.  It wasn’t too heavy or anything, just extra annoying in flipflops.  Our sneakers are still tied up in plastic grocery bags with ticks crawling all around in them.  I’m kinda scared of that bag, and I don’t really know what to do about it.  I wish I could spray them and wash them and air them out, somewhere far far away from us.  But I can’t.  So we walk in flipflops.  Anyways, back to walking in the rain.  It was a nice stretch of the legs before sitting again.  The drive to Woodward was not quite two hours.  It was a great drive.  Lots of backroads without any painted lines, some parts barely paved, middle of nowhere, nothing in sight.  My eyes just love seeing nothing and everything all at the same time.  It’s so hard to take it all in.  You can see forever here.  We saw hundreds and hundreds of windmills.  They’re huge and white and only have three blades.  They put them in rows in the windy areas, and you’ll pass through dozens of them.  It’s almost freaky.  As Coleson said, it makes you think of that movie Contact.  We saw bunches of them the other day too, driving from the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.  I really love the classic older windmills though, and I even pulled over so Coleson could take some pictures for me.  There’s also wheat everywhere.  So pretty and golden.  And really cool to me were the bales of it all rolled up spread out across the fields.  Dots and dots of wheat bales ready and waiting.  It’s just so totally different out here.  Having the day to drive and explore and really see the countryside was fun. 

We made it to our hotel about 4:30 probably.  We checked in [they gave us chocolate chip cookies upon arrival!  best hotel ever!], and much to the delight of our three little people discovered another indoor pool, hooray!  I tell ya, we could just spend a week in a hotel with an indoor pool and continental breakfasts, and they’d be happy as clams :)  Awesome Daddy took the kiddos swimming while I typed blogs.  Typing these can be a bit annoying and very time-consuming, but I do enjoy looking back on them, and hopefully someday the kids will appreciate them too.   And maybe I’ll even print them into a book of some sort.  Great plans and aspirations.  So, I typed Tuesday and Wednesday while they swam.  And since it was after six when they returned, and they were pretty much done for, I drove over to Subway and picked up dinner while the family took warm showers.  It was raining while I was out, but it was so different than any rain back home.  It was still relatively bright and sunny out, and the rain barely even got you wet.  It was a light rain that just sort of rolled off.  I didn’t mind it one bit.  And oh boy was it fresh.  It smelled so clean and good and fresh.  It really made me want to find a grassy field and stretch my arms and dance in a circle like you see in movies.  When I returned to the hotel, the fire alarm was going off.  It was crazy loud.  I wasn’t overly concerned since I hadn’t noticed anything from the parking lot.  Everyone was still in the room – the girls had just gotten in the tub when it went off.  It didn’t last long, and by the time the time we made it to the lobby to investigate, it had stopped.  There was a fire truck in the parking lot by then, and when I said something to the front desk lady, she offered that she had been making some cookies.  Oops ;)

We had a very nice evening in.  Sandwiches, apples that we had bought along the way and not eaten yet, Cheetos from our snack bag, and more cookies.  We watched Spy Kids #892 on Disney, and despite not having seen Spy Kids #1 or 2 or 3, it was still about as good as a made for TV Disney channel movie can be.  It was cute and relaxing and fun to be together.  After goodnights and snuggles [“why you all laying on my foots??” –Chloe], the kids quickly fell asleep.  They haven’t given us a single peep or bit of grief about bedtime.  But I guess that’s what long, action-packed days will do!  And they’ve been staying up a lot later then at home.  Even the girls are getting better at sleeping in too.  I think it was close to 8:00 before we rolled out of bed this morning.   

Everyone’s fast asleep, and I’m happy to report that I’m caught up and current on my blog posts!  I’ve been typing them in word and posting whenever I can get internet, so some of the lag-time has been because I can’t post what I’ve written.  But some of it has just been because I’ve been behind.  Hopefully, I can maintain now.  Good night from Woodward, OK!  Sweet dreams to all! 

Day Six - OKC

Day Six – Wednesday, June 1^st, Oklahoma City

Good morning Oklahoma City!  We enjoyed a yummy continental breakfast before heading to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, another recommendation from Mom’s friend.  Thankfully, Coleson thought to check for coupons before we left, and we were able to buy a groupon for admission that saved us over half the price, woohoo!  The weather was a little cloudy and overcast, so it was a good morning to be inside.  The first part of the museum was mostly art galleries.  The kids weren’t overly thrilled of course, but there was some neat and pretty stuff in there for Coleson and I to look at.  We then walked into a section focusing on the American cowboy and the rise of Western movies.  Abby lit up!  I must admit, I wasn’t expecting it.  She was enthralled.  This girl loves horses though, there seems to be something in her DNA, so I suppose it makes sense.  To be honest, we don’t really encourage horses, if anything we sometimes try to discourage.  Horse riding is actually one of the few things the urologist said we might want to avoid.  But seeing the way she comes to life when she sees the horses and ranches and cowboy things we’ve seen on this trip, we may have to just embrace her love for it and take a risk.  But that’s another thought for another day after we return home!  So anyways, she loved the Western movie displays, especially the one about the singing cowboy.  She even sat through a documentary about Western movies and was totally captivated the whole ten minutes or so.  On a random note, the documentary was narrated by Sam Elliot.  We’ve been watching his comedy show, The Ranch, on Netflix.  After a quick walk through a couple more galleries, we headed to the Kids’ Corral area.  It was a fun place.  There were trunks of dress-up cowboy clothes and boots.  Ryan and Chloe sort of tried on some clothes, and Abby went all out.  Turquoise boots, chaps, a vest.  A hat would have perfectly completed the outfit, but they didn’t have any, and after experiencing lice I suppose I understand why!  Abby wore her get-up all over the kids’ area.  There were saddles to sit on, a campfire play area, a miniature log cabin.  I loved watching all three of them have fun.  Eventually, we made our way outside to the grass gardens area.  There were some statues, including an enormous Buffalo Bill, and a small stream with huge goldfish/koi/some sort of beautiful fish.  A few more displays inside, a stop at the gift shop for postcards, and we were on our way.

The weather was pretty gross, so we stopped at a Smoothie King for a to-go lunch and then headed back to the hotel.  We shared smoothies and ate our anniversary crème pies.  It was then off to the indoor, heated swimming pool.  The kids go nuts for a good indoor pool.  Chloe practiced her swimming, she’s going to be a fish in no time!  Now that she’s completed lessons with Ms. Elaine, there’s no going back [aka no floaties, so Mommy has a long summer of swimming with the kids ahead of her].  After showering, we ventured out into the rain again.  We went back through Stockyards City once more to do a little shopping.  Chloe picked out her trip souvenir - a super cute pink tank top.  It has a fun Indian print, but it doesn’t say Oklahoma or anything and it’s not all touristy.  She really wanted it though, so why not.  Most of the shops there were ‘real’ shops as opposed to souvenir shops, so it was pretty nice and expensive stuff.  We then drove a few more minutes towards the Bricktown district.  Chloe had fallen asleep, so we continued to drive around a little before coming back to park.  We went into Bass Pro Shops for a few minutes, mostly probably so we wouldn’t feel bad about using a free parking spot in their lot.  We then walked along the Bricktown canal waterway.  It was a fun and pretty walk.  There’s a water taxi that I had thought we’d ride, but it wasn’t even running so that made our decision for us.  It was still a little drizzly.  We stopped in a couple shops and ate dinner at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop.  It was really fun and yummy.  The shredded chicken nachos were the best, they even had feta cheese.  Oh, and the tortilla soup.  Quite a tasty dinner.

We were right across from the Bricktown stadium, home of the AAA Dodgers.  We had planned all along to go the game, and Ryan was so excited he was about to burst.  But it was getting late and we were tired and the girls were tired and buying five tickets just didn’t seem like a good idea.  So we finally decided that Ryan and I would go into the game.  Coleson took the girls back to the room where they laid in bed watching one of the Night in the Museum movies on HBO.  Honestly, we had both wanted to return to the hotel, but as it usually happens, I’m glad I made myself go out.  Ryan and I very much enjoyed the game.  Our seats were in right field and they were right there.  I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so close to the action.  Ryan intently watched the game and took it all in.  He kept close tabs on the second baseman in particular, he was even #2 just like Ryan.  I tried a couple of times to get Ryan to walk around the stadium, but he didn’t want to miss any of the game.  We eventually made a bathroom run and discovered a playground.  He was so cute – I could see him debating with himself, the game or the playground?!  But in the end, he’s still a kid, so he decided he wanted to go down each slide once.  And after doing so, it was right back to the game.  Once Coleson texted that the movie was over and he was on his way back to get us, we went into the team store where we purchased a magnet, and then somebody walking by with a stack of promotional type hats offered Ryan one.  It’s a really nice baseball cap, and Ryan has worn it proudly ever since receiving the free gift.  Coleson and the girls did a drive-by to pick us up and it was back to the hotel for us.  We left in the middle of the ninth, with the home team Dodgers losing 5-2 to the Iowa Cubs. 

Guess that’s about it for our day!  It’s been a good one! 

Day Five - Tallgrass Prairie Preserve

Day Five – Tuesday, May 31^st, Happy Anniversary!!, Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, OK

I’ll confess, I’m a bit behind on my posts, so it would feel even more like cheating then normal to say good morning from Carthage, MO since it’s already Thursday.  Shh, don’t tell anybody :)  So anyways, “today” we awoke in Carthage, MO.  Since I had not been able to take Abby up to the rooftop pool, we snuck out of the room a few minutes early to go on a Mommy and Abby walk.  There wasn’t much to see other than parking lots, but we enjoyed our time anyways.  We still had a three hour or so drive ahead of us, so we took turns grabbing our continental breakfasts and taking showers. 

We drove southwest into Oklahoma in search of buffalo!  Oh, and the turtles, I can’t forget the turtles.  I had felt bad about not stopping to help the first one I saw.  But then I lost count of how many more I saw.  And they actually moved quite quickly for turtles, so I guess they’re okay!  There were dozens of them on and along the big highway.  We drove through the small town of Bartlesville, OK, which was a pretty cool looking small town.  We stopped at a Food Pyramid to stock up on lunch supplies – fresh bananas, cheese & crackers & pepperonis, cookies, drinks & candies, applesauce squirties, a gallon of water to refill our bottles.  The drive into Tallgrass Prairie Reserve was beautiful, and the last thirty miles or so was on small gravel roads.  It was awesome!  We had thoughts of Jurassic Park as we went through various fences and saw different warning signs.  We stopped at one overlook and turned off the car.  The silence was heavy and wonderful and amazing.  Nothing but birds and crickets.  And our kids.  We did see a group of three buffalo sitting in the grass pretty far back from the road.  But that was all we passed before we made it to the visitor’s center.  The docent had only seen those same three as well, and he said there’s usually herds of them on his way in.  I was still optimistic though.  We looked at a few displays, checked out the bathrooms, toured the old ranch house with a sweet docent who didn’t actually know anything about the house ;), and then purchased a few souvenirs.

Stopping for lunch supplies was a very good move, we were in the middle of nowhere!  We picnicked at a table near the visitor’s center, alongside a creek and pretty trees.  After an enjoyable lunch, we headed to the trailhead.  I had been really excited about this trail and the open prairie views.  However, before we even started, we found a tick on Chloe’s leg, just above her sock.  Coleson quickly got it off, and we didn’t think too much about it.  The docent at the gift shop had warned us about ticks, and we bought and applied his bug spray.  We had no idea how right he was!  The trail started along the wooded area by the river.  Ryan liked being in the shade.  It wasn’t long before we started noticing more ticks.  And more.  The views were amazing, however we were becoming more and more distracted by the ticks crawling up our legs.  At the turnoff for the buffalo viewing trail, we had to turn back to the car.  We had picked probably five ticks off each of us by then, with the most being on poor Chloe.  She was crying, err screaming, by then and I was holding her.  We pretty much ran to our car where we began to strip off socks and shoes.  We dumped things into baggies and sealed our socks up.  We pulled ticks off them as we put them away, and even so we still saw two more working their way up the inside of the bag.  So gross.  Unfortunately, a huge group of hikers appeared [we had been the only car in the lot].  They were prepared and well dressed.  And prevented us from properly checking each other for ticks if you know what I mean ;)  But we did the best we could.  I still have the creepy crawlies and I’m still humming Brad Paisley’s hit – “I just want to check you for ticks.” 

After our tick experience, we drove around the park some more in search of the buffalo.  Remember my desire on last summer’s road trip to see the seals?  This year it was buffalo.  We drove and drove.  According to the info page I printed from their website : “it is a rare visitor who does not see hundreds of bison near – and often blocking – the roads.”  I was beginning to fear being the rare visitor!  We did see some amazing herds of free ranging cattle and lots of birds and even two deer.  But the bison were elusive.  And then finally, we could see a herd of bison in the distance.  [we had learned that the cattle are more colorful.  This distant herd was all dark dark brown].  We went faster trying to get closer.  And sure enough, there was a huge herd!  And they were in the road!  I was sooo happy.  There was already another car there, blocked from passing.  We opened the windows and the sunroof and hung out of the car like the tourists we are.  It was the coolest thing ever.  I could have watched them all day.  Beautiful beasts with the bright blue sky and green grass spreading out forever behind them.  I’d say it was exactly what I’d been hoping for, but it was far better!  So exciting.  Feeling content and happy, we attempted to beeline it out of the park in hopes of making it to Oklahoma City in time for dinner, and possibly even a shower at the hotel first.  But exiting the park took forever [remember all those gravel roads?!].  The gps didn’t understand that almost all the roads in the park are private or closed or grown over.  Eventually our goal became simply to exit the park :)  I’m sure we lost some time, but we made it out, and found real roads to take us to our next adventure. 

As we closed in on OKC, we stopped for gas, bathrooms, and to change clothes.  It started raining as we got closer to the city.  Not too bad at first, and we saw a beautiful rainbow.  It was really cool - it started bright on the right side and we couldn't see the end on the left.  And then as the rains or light or whatever shifted, the right side faded and the left got brighter.  I felt like I could see it coming and going before my eyes, amazing.  By the time we got into the city, it was pretty stormy and rainy.  Even without checking into the hotel, it was still close to 7:00pm before we arrived at dinner.  My mom has connections in Oklahoma – a co-worker/friend from the area who knows someone that works for one of the tourist groups, and we were fortunate to have a list of fun things to do from some locals!  Cattlemen’s Steakhouse was tops on the list of places to go.  And seeing as it was our anniversary and all, a nice dinner seemed like a good idea.  It was a cool, old place in a district of OKC called Stockyards City.  Most of the stores on the Main Street area were closed by then, and the Stockyards themselves are only open on Mondays.  There’s a huge public cattle auction that would have been neat to explore.  But Cattlemen’s was still hopping, and we sat in a nice circular booth in the corner.  I think I had thought it’d be touristy and neon and tacky and whatnot, but it was more simple and plain with maroon leather booths and red carpet – I don’t think it had changed in thirty years, which of course, is the appeal.  We celebrated by ordering a glass of wine and trying to pretend we weren’t in a booth with three restless kids.  Okay, we didn’t really try to pretend, there’s no chance of tuning them out!  But they’re awesome kids, and it was still a nice dinner.  I even ordered a steak.  That’s what you do at a steakhouse in Oklahoma after all.  The house salad/dressing was really yummy, as were the “crunchies” – an appetizer bread.  There was a foursome in a table nearby, a couple our age-ish, and a much older couple, I’m guessing one of their grandparents.  If I overheard correctly, they were celebrating their 55^th anniversary!  So sweet.  And they got free desserts with candles.  So of course, the kids wanted us to tell them it was our anniversary, but we told Ryan it was up to him.  He wouldn’t do it of course, but he did eventually tell the waiter that we had something to tell him, which started the conversation that brought it up.  And thus, we too received free anniversary desserts!  Their specialty is a coconut crème pie, but I guess you could say we lucked out – when he asked us if we liked coconut, and I said yes and Coleson said no, he brought us two pies.  One coconut crème and one chocolate crème.  We were stuffed though and took them to-go.  I was feeling overly-full by them, and we stopped by the bathrooms before heading out to walk off dinner along Main Street.  I started feeling worse and worse.  I didn’t really eat an overly crazy amount, but I was not doing well.  And just like that, I threw up in a trash can.  Ahh, yes, what a story.  Remember that year I threw up in a trash can in Oklahoma City on our anniversary?!  So weird.  And if you know me, you know I rarely throw up.  Unfortunately, throwing up did not make me feel better like it usually does.  In fact, I ended up on the ground sitting up against a building.  Ryan kept me company while Coleson got the car.  We drove maybe ten minutes, checked into our hotel, and I collapsed on the bed.  Thanks to my awesome hubby for getting all our stuff in, bathing the girls [and yes, he did pull a tick out of Abby’s back.  Yuck.], and taking care of everything while I slept it off.  I think I dozed for about half an hour.  I felt a bit better afterwards and took a shower to wash away any lingering ticks before calling it a night.  I have the creepy crawlies again just writing this. 

So, welcome to OKC!  We are having a blast and making memories!  Well, the ticks are more like nightmares, I could do without those memories.  But you just gotta roll with it!  Loving our trip.  Looking forward to exploring Oklahoma City tomorrow. 

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!