Roadtrip

Tuesday, August 3, 2010
After planning our bigger vacation in the spring, we knew we wanted to have a couple mini vacas during the summer.  One of them was to St. Louis - for an excuse to stay in a hotel and a chance to visit friends.  Here is a summary, by category:

THE DRIVE
This was the longest roadtrip for Cole to date.  This has been intentional.  His first year of life was filled with colic and crying.  Then it has been just plain irritability in the car.  While we have surpassed those phases with the advent of being able to reason with him (most of the time), he is still NOT great at falling asleep - which is a great way to lop off an hour or two of a long drive.  Armed with toys, snacks, a movie, stickers and Cole's renditions of Justin B eiber songs - we made it through.

THE HOTEL
In Will's world, "vacation" is synonomous with "hotel."  Leaving us with questions like, "When are  we going back to vacation?" as we tour attractions WHILE ON vacation.  He has passed this onto Cole and he talked about "becation" the whole time, too.  The room was great and the highlight was the pool and free breakfast buffet. 

THE FOOD
Seriously, after 2 days of eating restaurant food, Paige literally told me she was tired of fried food and wanted something fresh - like fruit!  We TRY to make as many good decisions as possible while out, but hello, California Pizza Kitchen - not ONE fruit option?  At all?  Maybe we could raid the alcohol garnish tray?  We got a cut up banana, but that didn't really do the trick. 

VISITING FRIENDS
The best part was this.  I got to see my best friend from college while our same-aged children played their hearts out!  And we even briefly visited another great friend from college that I hadn't seen in a while!  It was awesome.  I must also share a most hilarious story.  My friend, Nicole, had suggested to her son (same age as Paige) that he was dramatic.  Paige immediately gushed, "No he's not...he's perfect!"  We, of course, had several moments of silent hysteria over that one.  We've also banned get-togethers once they are teenagers!  (just kidding)

Us and my friend Shana and her 2 boys (and dog)
The Kelly kids and Diehl boys
ATTRACTION
We only went to one major attraction and that was the Magic House children's museum.  It's awesome with a lot of mock real-life exhibits such as a town and a government area.  All the kids had a blast!
Paige and Luke - fixing an engine at the museum.

Cole pumping gas in a car!

Paige - having a seat in the mock oval office.  I think she's vetoing the "no flip flops in the office" law at the moment this picture was taken.

Will and Cole "working" in the construction zone of the museum

4 comments:

Martha said...

What a great 'becation'!! Love all the pics and stories. But, I'm glad you're home!! :)

Alli said...

Looks like you had a great time! I bet Riley wishes he was there for the construction zone!!

Nicole said...

ok...3rd time trying to post this comment:

it was so much fun having you guys here, and the kids had a blast!

i'll definitely be quoting paige when i post a recap...i've cracked up several times since then thinking about what she said!

suzanne said...

becations - big or mini - are the best! in fact, i could use a becation right now.

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