Vacation 2012

I remember the days where I would blog about any and everything. If I bought cute stuff from Hobby Lobby? On the blog! Went another week through pregnancy? On the blog! Bored out of my mind? Let’s put it on the blog!

Now this poor unattended blog doesn’t even get leftovers. The television does. (Because, hey, it doesn’t require me to move my fingers.) So today in these 5 spare minutes of quiet (relative quiet, folks. Thomas the Train playing in the background with a QUIET 4 year old is about as quiet as it gets in this house), I thought I’d do a little dusting and cleaning around this joint. That last sentence was difficult to read. Apologies. Too lazy to backspace and rethink it.

About 2-3 weeks ago I spend a solid, extremely rare hour of weekday afternoon quiet time updating my blog in relation to our recent vacation. I blogged about and included many, many pictures of Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and was just starting on Tuesday when…my precious angelic boy walked in and pushed something on my computer and the last hour of my life poured (quickly) down the drain. So, here’s a quick diddy about vacation. (I do not have the time nor patience to redo my entire, chockfull-of-details post like last time.)

We went BACK to St. Louis for the second year in a row this year for several reasons: 1) It’s relatively close 2) It’s cheap (lotsa free stuff there) and 3) Six Flags. My boy loves some thrill rides (and his parents just might, too), so we headed out on a Saturday. Drew was so excited he woke up at 7:30. I wasn’t even up yet. If you know my child, you know he’s a great night sleeper; so this 7:30 am business meant he truly was excited.

I had spent way too much money at Target finding the kids things to do on the way there and back. Few things grate my nerves like a screaming kid in a car on a long trip. Fortunately, we stopped at Lambert’s, didn’t have a long wait, and had a lot of fun! Drew loved catching the rolls. We had so much leftover food that it almost made me mad that we couldn’t take it with us.

We went to visit the arch and the museum that night. Granted, we went there last year, but it makes a great photo op, there’s lots of room to run if you’re 4, and it’s free.

The next day we visited the Children’s Museum. In my humble opinion, this museum alone is worth the 5 hour drive to St. Louis. Not only is this place amazingly fun, but it’s about HALF the price of the Children’s Museum of Memphis. And this place is top-notch fun! Even the adults had a good time! I really should work for these people since I promote them like they’re the big cheese. Either way, both kids had a ball and would have stayed longer if time (and naps) had allowed. And we only did half of it. The other side is for bigger kids, so we have something to look forward to in a few years.

The following day we went to the Science Museum (another freebie. hello!). This was entertaining, but a lot of the exhibits were geared toward older kids. Drew and Hannah’s favorite part was the see-through bridge that crossed over the interstate. The planetarium that was on the other side of the bridge seemed really interesting, but the kids didn’t think so at. all. so we headed out for naps.

One thing we really looked forward to at our hotel was swimming in the pool. I was THRILLED to see our pool had a fountain and play area for toddlers. Perfect for Hannah. What didn’t thrill us was that the pool had just been filled 2 days prior and was FRIGID. My hubs and son have swum in some really cold water in previous times, but this water topped the cake. Even Andrew, who worries about practically nothing, was convinced Drew would get sick from being in there too long. However, we took a few pictures around the grounds, and Hannah loved the ducks in the little creek.

On Monday night we were planning on going to bed early, getting a good night’s sleep, and heading out to Six Flags the next morning. Nothing prepared us for what was to come! Hannah woke up around 10:30 and didn’t go back to sleep until 3am!!!! We have no idea why she was so wide awake, but NOTHING would work to get her to sleep. We tried letting her whine, walking her, rocking her, sleeping with her, riding her in the car (from 1-2am), but all to no avail. She was wide awake until 3. We decided we’d sleep in until at least 10 because we didn’t want her having a meltdown all day at Six Flags. Well consider that plan ruined. At 7:55am (less than 5 hours after falling asleep), construction men were stomping around on the roof DIRECTLY above our heads, hammering! Of course it woke all of us up, including Drew and Ms. Debbie in the neighboring room. A call to the front desk was no help, so we soon were packed up and headed to Six Flags for what I was afraid would be a day of consoling a tired, cranky toddler.  (Sidenote: I left this hotel a “lovely” review on tripadvisor.com that covered the complaints of bugs, dirt, filth, and noise! Take that. Also note that this was a 3 1/2 star hotel. Yuck.) Anway, we thought Hannah would be more than a handful that day at the theme park, BUT…that girl held her own! She was a champ. We rode several family rides together, Drew rode his first rollercoaster, and we had a balll! We nearly closed the place down. Even Hannah had fun! I just knew both my kids would sack out on the way out of the park, but they did not! We chowed down on some Subway afterwards, and headed back for a long night’s sleep.

The next day we headed home with incredible memories made! People have asked if we had a “relaxing” time. Those people have obviously never been on a trip with two small children! It was fun, exciting, and TIRING—no. Exhausting! So, we’re thinking for next year, the beach sounds like fun!