We took the long holiday weekend as an opportunity to get out of town. We took our first road trip as a family of four. Destination? St. Louis.
We headed out after work on Wednesday, July 3. We stayed overnight in Springdale, AR. The kids were troopers in the car - Grant barely slept at all! In the morning after breakfast, we visited Derek's Great Grandma Joyce. Yes - Grant & Abby's Great-Great Grandma. She's a young 94 years old. It was Grant's 3rd trip to see her and he spoiled her with sweet kisses. Then he ran all over the place and played with the "'Merican flags" on the tables.
After our visit, we headed to St. Louis. The kids didn't really bother to nap though! We checked into our hotel, then went to a BBQ at Katie & Russell's house. The kids napped for about 15 minutes on the way there. We ate some delicious ribs, all the kids chanted and marched around, then they watched the adults light smoke bombs and Black Cats. Once it was dark, we walked over to a field at the end of the street and watched fireworks. Grant and Jack Jack tackled each other the whole time.
The next morning, Abby slept in until 9am! We went to see the arch.
The pic above just kills me. Grant is choking Derek & Abby was very tired and upset that I wasn't holding her. The walk to the car was pretty brutal. A stroller would have been brilliant.
The kids napped on our way to get some custard at
Ted Drewes (if you go, you have to try the Tedads flavor), so once we got our fill and a "to go" concrete for the kids, we continued on to
Schneithorst's and picked up a lemon pie.
Then we headed over to Derek's Great Uncle Daryl's house. We walked over to a local park, but it was hot, so most of the time we tried to entertain the kids in what was clearly "No-no land." Everything is breakable and 1-2 feet off the ground. The kids stayed very close to us (inevitably, when they got out of arm's reach, they were reaching for something that was breakable). After dinner we headed back to the hotel & watched the Wizard of Oz (Grant's first time! but Derek fell asleep and still hasn't seen it all the way through in his lifetime).
Then the trip went downhill. I think the best way to summarize is to say that I spent the night on the bathroom floor. Ugh. The next morning (Saturday), we were supposed to join Uncle Daryl, Aunt Sharon, and Dawn back over at No-no Land for breakfast. But I couldn't do it. Derek took the kids, while I slept then hunted down some chicken broth at the hotel. Derek had quite a challenge on his hands though - 2 kids at No-no Land. And Abby was full of curve balls - a blow out diaper, followed by a rough fall that he thought took out some of her teeth (but thankfully didn't). Around 12, they headed back to the hotel. I was starting to feel like a human again.
Grant took a decent nap (but Abby cat-napped in the car and refused), then we headed back over the Katie & Russell's. We followed them out to the Melchoir BBQ. We played washers and Abby got soaking wet in a water fountain. Abby spent most of the picnic topless while her top dried (and shoeless because she hates shoes). We sure did show our St. Louis family how classy the Texans are! Grant took a few hay rides, then got to ride a horse! By 7pm, it was clear the kids were DONE! Ok - Abby was.
We headed back, put the kids down and packed up.
Sunday we started out at 6:45 a.m. Grant watched 4 movies, Abby cried a LOT (she is hoarse), but only until she cried herself to sleep for several cat naps. We stopped 4 times and made it home by 5 p.m. We were unpacked with laundry done and put away by 8 p.m.!
All in all, a good trip. A good practice for another road trip next month! One thing we learned - we aren't going to get Abby off her bottle until after our next road trip. It buys precious happy-moments in the car. So before our July 4 trip, we were wanting to wean her, but now we are happy to keep up the bottles. Another lesson - our Kindle Fire HD was a worthwhile investment! It cost us $60 for the tablet and lots of accessories after we used credit card points. 100% worth it! Keeps Abby's attention for 20 minutes and Grant's for 1.5 hours.
