Meet Me in St Louis- Part II

The second day in St Louis we lounged around the hotel eating Fruit Loops and watching TV. It feels like I haven't watched normal television in years! We were too cheap to buy a converter when things went digital and instead rely on Hulu, streaming Netflix on our Wii, and various Chinese websites to fulfill our viewing pleasures. I haven't seen that many commercials in years, not to mention news programs. In the afternoon we went to the St Louis Zoo. The nice thing about this vacation was every place we went to was practically deserted. The weather was cool, but not cold, although I think it was this way mostly because it wasn't quite the weekend yet. It gave every destination a very calm and almost serene atmosphere (at least when our kids weren't disrupting it). Nothing makes a parent more stressed out than other stressed out parents with screaming kids.

The zoo was very nice. We missed the hippos and the giraffes, but every other animal was braving the cooler temperatures.





After leaving the zoo, we went to a local ice cream stand that others have raved about. I'm not much of a custard connoisseur, but it was pretty good stuff! I had the Apple Pie mix and Steve opted for the tart cherry, which hit his wish list of sweet yet sour perfectly.



The final day of our vacation we opened our windows to complete fog. I had planned to take the kids over to the Arch in the morning, but we waited it out in our hotel until things cleared up a little bit. They have a massive park surrounding the Arch and you are just a stone's throw away from the Mississippi there.





I loved that the shore was paved in bricks so that we could sit down without getting dirty. There was a nearby riverboat playing blues and swing music- it was idyllic.



Rowan was not being very cooperative (big surprise) and so he isn't in many of the pictures. In his defense, he was getting over a really bad cough and pinkeye, so he was a bit sleep deprived. We just can't seem to stay healthy this season and it's really starting to take its toll on our attitudes.


The final stop was the St Louis Science Center. To be honest, we were pretty disappointed. It wasn't very interactive and a bit of a let down after going to the City museum. It felt like there were a lot of displays, but not a lot to do. It was also really busy, perhaps the result of being an indoor, free facility on a Saturday. We won't be going back.


The best part of the place was a bridge over the freeway which connected two parts of the museum. There were radar guns and windows in the floor where you could see the cars passing beneath you.


I'm so glad we were able to explore this city a little more than we have in the past! It was a much needed break!

Meet Me in St Louis

Last week Steve had a conference in St Louis and we came along for the ride. Ironically, I just read an article about St Louis being the most dangerous city in the country. Maybe I should get T-shirts that say "We survived our family vacation." It was a fantastic time, but by the last day we were ready to come back. I've been fortunate enough to go to two conferences with Steve and hopefully many more in the future. He works and I get to play in a new environment. It's a win-win situation.

My friend Julie clued me into this website called biddingfortravel.com. Fantastic site! I was able to get one of the best rooms I've ever been in for $42 a night (the sign on the door claimed it as a $750/night room). We were on the 28th floor with tremendous views and more space than the bottom half of my house, which may not be saying much, but I was happy with it! I would have been content to stay there and not go anywhere else. Especially since I didn't have to clean!

You could have seen a baseball game if it was in season





The first day we went to the St Louis City museum. I think it's rare to find a venue that entertains both parent and child, but this place did it in spades.


Where else can you be a human hamster


And find yourself in a vault


And crawl up a human-sized slinky


And explore the shell of a plane suspended 10+ stories up in the air


And just enjoy some very surreal surroundings?










I felt like a kid again here. There were so many fantastic slides too. In the cave section, there was one that actually went down the top to the bottom of the building. I would go back tomorrow if I could.

The Secret is Out

I went outside the other day to discover this.



Apparently Rowan doesn't get the whole "secret identity" aspect of being a super hero.

All I Want for Christmas is One Front Tooth

Ahhh, parenthood. We haven't had to deal with broken bones, stitches, or other mishaps up until now. During the week we decided to visit our friends, the Bybees, up in Chicago while waiting to pick up my father-in-law from a business trip. Nadia tripped and did a nose dive on a brick patio a few hours before we were supposed to pick up Grandpa. The result? Two chipped front teeth and one so badly cracked that it need to be extracted. Just writing this seems kind of anticlimactic considering the couple hours of trying to decide what to do and where to go. My dentist was completely useless when I called because "they don't treat children under 4 years old". My pediatrician was a little less useless by directing me to our local pediatric dentist that wasn't in on Friday and didn't take our insurance. My friend who is a dental hygienist was a lifesaver by telling me to see if the crack extended into the gum line and if it did, then it needed to be removed. We looked, and it did, so we got to looking for a dentist nearby that would take our insurance and would let us come in on a Friday.

It was unbelievable to me that so many weren't in the office or refused to take us in until Monday. Meanwhile Nadia refused to eat or drink and was clearly in pain. Finally a dentist's whose 1pm appointment had projectile vomiting let us come in. I was supposed to pick up my father-in-law at 1pm, but I didn't want Nadia to be in pain any longer than necessary, so my blessed friend Jessica picked him up while I raced off to the dentist. It took 3 of us to hold Nadia down while the dentist took the shattered tooth out and she still managed to give me a good kick every now and then. Poor thing! When all was said and done, we headed back to Jessica's to get Rowan and Grandpa and go back home. Unfortunately, I didn't bring reverse directions for the way back and got lost, adding another 30+ minutes to our travel time. Meanwhile Nadia was crying all the way saying "Mommy, owie!". Cue the mental breakdown. Again my friend saved me by calling and talking me through it and helping me find the street I needed. What a day!

Hill Billy Baby


The Back- you can see how it spilt all the way up

The front- a shattered mess

I was amazed how big the root is!


Our luck continued into the weekend when a football game and bad weather interfered with every activity we had planned to do with Grandpa. Reindeer farm? Too wet. Bowling? Too busy. Several not-to-be-missed restaurants? At least an hour wait. We still are so grateful for his short visit and the effort he made to come see us. The kids still got plenty of fun time with Grandpa and were clearly sad to have him go. Hopefully it won't be such a disaster next time!

Some of the good times...
I think Grandpa is in the midst of playing three different games with the kids here. Throwing ball, pillow fights, and tickling. Quite the multi-tasker!

Da Ba Dee Dabba Da-ee

This is the probably the only time we will be able to recycle a costume between these two. Contrary to popular opinion, this is indeed a rhino costume- not a mouse and not an elephant. Perhaps there are some species of mice with horns, but I have yet to encounter them. The bow is a new addition, but otherwise we kept it the same. I have a feeling when Nadia has a say in matters, she won't be asking to be Batman for future Halloweens. On second thought, she would have been perfectly fine to be that this year though. She loves Batman.



Speaking of Batman...


He's quite the poser.


Are you ready for the grand finale of our family theme? Prepare yourselves, it's not pretty...





Sadly, no one asked about our costumes. Little did they know that we had prepared our rendition of Eiffel 65's "Blue" very carefully as a response to any inquiries. Now the world will never know whether we would have gone with the "da ba dee dabba da-ee" chorus or the ever popular "if I was green I would die". If you need a refresher, you can find the video here.



We attended quite a few festivities despite Rowan being sick a few days before Halloween weekend. The Church trunk or treat, a little party with some good friends, faux trick or treating with our LDS friends in the area on Saturday, and handing out candy on Sunday. We have an obscene amount of candy in the house and my pants can now attest to that fact.

Nadia at the Trunk or Treat. She kept pulling up her pants trying to rectify her rhino shoes slipping on the gym floor. They had the classic chili cook off and also a chemistry magic show with peach cobbler afterwards.



Nadia got to trick or treat in style, while Rowan opted to run around with Zach and Ezra. It was hard to have to keep reminding them that we were only knocking on certain people's doors since it wasn't officially Halloween. I think we confused a lot of people when they saw us running around the day before.


Storming the Thorpes. We tried to split off into smaller packs after the first three houses. Everyone seemed to start off at the same place at first.

After trick or treating on Saturday:


After the candy kicked in:


Now if anyone knows what to do with 50 lbs of candy, please let me know.