48 Hours Roundtrip to St. Louis

My friend Kelly and I had been talking for a long time about meeting up in St. Louis with our kids someday just for the hell of it.  Georgia and June were on spring break last week, so it seemed like the perfect chance.  It was also a bit of test run for me, to try a road trip on my own with the kids, including sleeping in a hotel room.  (Oh, the places we'll go!  I have grand visions.)  Alas, I nearly bowed out of this trip when the timing didn't come together as perfectly as I had hoped.  But sometimes you have to just go with it, knowing that you'll be sitting at home regretting your choice later if you don't at least give it a try.

And I'm so glad we went.  It was fantastic.  Better than I expected, actually, and that's despite the fact that a tornado warning the first night caused sirens to go off and resulted in my having to haul frightened kiddos to the hotel lobby for a brief spell after their bedtime.

My mom was able to drive from Columbia and meet us for an excursion to the St. Louis Science Center before Kelly and her kids got to town.  Thankfully she understood that everyone was operating on way less sleep than normal.  Having kids who like to rest a lot is a wonderful blessing, but as with anything, there are tradeoffs.  When they don't get their required daily dose of koala-like sleeping conditions, tensions can flare.

After the Science Center and lunch, all three kids went down for a nap.  For a few hours.  And that was the point when I realized how awesome a getaway like this really is.  Because I truly relaxed.  I didn't do laundry, or plan a grocery list, or feel like I should be working on something else, because when you're in a hotel with three sleeping children, you really can't do much of anything else.  It's that constant feeling of "should" that often prevents me from fully relaxing at home, which is why something as simple, (or some might argue, challenging), as a 48 hour solo road trip with my children actually felt like a mini-vacation.  I dare say more vacation-y than some of our recent family trips to Florida.  (Not that I'll be trading Sanibel for St. Louis anytime soon, though.  That sun and ocean are big draws!)

We wanted to visit the arch but the stars did not align, which is okay.  I went into this trip just wanting everyone to have fun, and I know that the kids were just as happy even happier at the freezing cold hotel pool than if we'd hit more sights.  Plus, I know the arch will still be there, and after this trip, I'm all set to go back, especially since now Joe wants to go, too.

You Chicagoans may be thinking, "St. Louis? Really?" and I get that.  It's not your typical spring break getaway.  Or anytime getaway for that matter, for people coming from another midwestern metropolis.  But if you're looking for a less expensive than Cancun, warmer than Wisconsin, relatively quick and easy change of pace, particularly for kid-centric museums and attractions, I'd recommend it.  After all, I was back in time on Saturday to go out to dinner at Bistro Campagne in Lincoln Square with some girlfriends.  What better way to end 48 hours straight with your children than to leave them with your husband (who's been missing them) to bathe them, feed them, and put them all to bed? : )

As close as we got to the arch.


Waylon's first viewing of "Cars". 


That would be Waylon, somehow still sleeping for about 10 more minutes as the girls and I proceeded to have breakfast, with the lights on, just a few feet away (see next picture). 


Puuuuuuuuush!


Build it.

Play with it.

Knock it down!


Did I mention they were a little worn out from the drive and all the tornado excitement?

You go first.


(I do not like this picture, but I am officially trying to "get in the picture".  I don't want to do these excursions with my kids and then have it look like I wasn't even there fifty years from now.)


(Jessica and Susan, you will get a kick out of this shot. Apparently Waylon has inherited the "Columbia gene", as evident from his attempts to plop down and rest on the mall benches and floor. Here June and Evelyn are trying to coax him up.)

Dessert!

Thanks for the brownies, Mom. The kids all loved them.
Group snuggle shot!


The next morning. Please witness June's "side" of the bed. I slept in a sea of elbows and knees.

Okay, I could not stop photographing these girls holding hands. Particularly Evelyn and June. And how sweet was Evelyn to let June borrow her baby doll and accompanying backpack and doll accessories for basically the whole trip, even overnight? June took great care with baby Jenna and fed her approximately 3,487,287 times.  At home she later reported to Joe that Evelyn loaning her this doll was the most "frienshipiest" part of the trip. : )




Oops. We noticed this sign a little late:
Thank you photographer Georgia for helping me get in the picture. (Hey Miles, I think someone's eying your free Froot Loops from the hotel buffet.)


Hippo mouth!



Make fun of me if you want for wearing a 2 or 4 year old in my Ergo carrier, but check out what Evelyn does when her legs get tired - she folds herself in half and (happily) stuffs herself into a stroller basket. Hilarious!


And now, the moment we've all been waiting for. Begging for. Asking about since we entered the zoo: the train. (Waylon was quite annoyed to hear that the zoo involved one train and lots of animals rather than lots of trains and one animal.) He doesn't look thrilled in these pictures, but that's only because he was so beside himself with excitement and transfixed by what was happening to even smile. Oh, and he was nonplussed about his mother repeatedly attempting to take his picture. : )
(Waving at everyone we passed.)


(Handing tickets to the engineer.)



The End.

And then we drove home and resumed normal operations (i.e., June immediately asked Joe to start a fire and build her a nest.) : )
(As you can see, 10 months in and we're still getting settled in our "new" home.)
      
One question I'll leave you parents with:  do you ever find that your children behave better in the presence of one parent rather than two?  It's so counter-intuitive, you'd think more adult attention to go around would always make things better, but sometimes it only leads our kids to have a "divide and conquer" approach.  Case in point: this car trip.  With one adult on board, they just get it that I can't pick stuff up for them when they drop it (well, save for my use of this toy claw - no joke), and they made it through with no electronics since I couldn't very well turn things on and off or help them pass around our computer (our usual screen of choice on long car trips) [Note to self: spring for the on-board drop-down DVD player (or whatever they've invented by then) next time we buy a vehicle].  But when our whole family travels together, it's a seemingly endless stream of demands invariably requiring one of us to unbuckle and contort ourselves into the backseat and back again! 

Travel Notes

Spoiler alert, but in case you want to skip the prose and just glance at the photos, the moral of all of these stories is: Thank God for Grandparents!

The Way There
With three children under age five, three checked carseats, two pack n' plays, a beach tent, two rolling duffels, a suitcase, a backpack, and a diaper bag, I set aside my own upbringing and finally succumbed to the importance of leaving home with plenty of time to spare.  As a direct result, our flight took off five hours late. 

That's five additional hours of testing out the moving walkway just for fun!  But as my mother in law pointed out while waiting at the gate, there is nothing like reading a book about North Korea (which she happened to be) to make the terminal look luxurious.  After we finally landed late in the evening, June, who remained cheerful throughout even though she should have been running on fumes by that point, exclaimed to the amusement of all passengers in the surrounding rows, "That was a GREAT flight!"  We received a positively embarrassing quantity of compliments on our children's behavior from strangers, which made me undeniably proud even though I know it proves only one thing:  on the right day, in public, if we have to, with help, we can hold our act together for approximately 12 hours.  I'll take it.   

By the way, when you're the last one to arrive at the rental car counter for the night, this is what qualifies as a "compact" since it's the only vehicle left.  Look closely and you'll see Georgia in the passenger seat and June driving.  

We also committed an environmental sin by opting for two cars for our five-some rather than one van, but surprisingly it was significantly cheaper.

The Way Home
An on-time takeoff, easy pre-boarding privileges due to Georgia's allergies (it's all about the wipe-down, in case you were wondering), and a sleeping baby on his daddy's chest made for a smooth (and adorable, am I right?) start to our Mother's Day return.  At this point in the flight, Joe was making me look like the laziest mother on Earth, which I loved so much that I had to take pictures.  


Despite checking so much luggage that it looked as though we were emigrating, we even caved and let the girls bring home the MOST IMPRACTICAL CARRY-ONS OF ALL TIME.


Georgia enjoyed the lap(s) of luxury, sprawling out as only a child can do.




Awww, sweet.  Except things soon went from quaintly picturesque to barf bag town.  So the next thing you know, I'm nursing a baby on my left boob while steadily holding an open barf bag out with my right hand as Georgia masterfully puked into it from Joe's lap.

Somehow in retelling this story to my friend Jessica I found myself uttering, "But it really wasn't that bad.  I mean, I don't think we were causing a scene or anything."  And then as I heard myself I realized, THAT IS THE DEFINITION OF A SCENE, PEOPLE.

Long story short:  this is why we had Mother's Day (Observed) a week later.  Thank you, Joe.  You are the best. 

The Next Trip:
The next morning, Waylon and I hopped in the van along with some re-packed dirty laundry and drove 7.5 hours to Missouri.  That boy is a well-traveled baby and a real trooper.  I'm sure he took quite a few Cheerios to the eye-hole, and the ear-hole, and the nose-hole as I attempted during his fussy moments to blindly reach for his mouth-hole with my go-go-gadget arm.  Waylon's also an expert on Mark Twain now, since I listened to a 7-disc audiobook biography on the drive back to Chicago. 

On the Road Again

Waylon's first pilgrimage to the homeland (Missouri).



Who needs a drop-down DVD player?  (Too bad her attention span is still only about 10 minutes.  It makes for a long 8 1/2 hour drive (that used to take 6 1/2 before we had kids).)

Waylon was a champ.  You know, for a baby anyway.  : )