Fall break. Finally. I've been counting down the days to our 4-day weekend for months. Due to the job change, I didn't have time off to spend taking the kids on vacation this summer, so this 4 day break was going to be our own special mini-break, just the 3 of us.
I noticed, when we scheduled, that there was no football game (yea!), and no soccer game (double yea!). Unfortunately, though the regular season was over, soccer tournament was this weekend. Perhaps not a big loss, as our team has won just one game all season and is not exactly a championship contender. But when your six-year-old comes up and says, "But mom, my team NEEDS me!" what else can you do? So, we shortened the trip to St. Louis to a short day and a half. But boy what a day it was!
We started with tickets to see Wicked at the Music Hall Wednesday night, which the kids absolutely loved. We had dinner at a Japanese steakhouse close by, another first. It was quite a night. Sam was really infatuated with the staging and the complexity of the story. Kate loved it too, but got a little tired in the second act (a little late for 1st graders). It was well worth the time and effort spent to go down there and see the show. Awesome.
On Thursday we drove to St. Louis after parent/teacher conferences (geniuses). Just our luck-- the Arch, a national park, was reopened that very morning, so we were able to visit and ride up the arch after all! Sam was really excited, and a big thing for him was to be able to go up the arch and run through the "Gateway to the West" Afterwards, we took a FB recommendation (love those facebook friends!) and went to Fitz's for dinner. They bottle their own soda, and we had fun trying a few. After ice cream, we went back to the hotel to swim and watch reruns of the worlds most painful 80s sitcom, Full House, which they loved. Ugh.
Friday we slept in and found a local diner for breakfast, teaching the very important travel rule: Never eat chain food when on the road if you can help it. Then we went to the City Museum. Again, facebook recommendations and personal recs abound, but I admit it was NOTHING like what I expected. I heard someone describe it as a interactive art exhibit for kids to experience by exploring and climbing through. Whatever it was, they loved it. There were tons of slides and tunnels and crawl spaces. Sam got lost in a plane, and I got to open the door of a bus that was suspended in the air. It was so much fun. Fun enough that I have bruises on my knees to prove that I was an active participant as well! After a very fun day, we met some old friends, Bob and Barb Bickford, for pizza before heading home.
Now that's a short-cation if I ever heard it. And I didn't check my work mail one time. Sitting on 99 messages even still. Don't talk about it.
Short-cation. Boo-ya.
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| My two theater-goers. So proud! |
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| Family pic @ the Arch *Insert something profound about gateways...* |
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| Sam climbing up (slide underneath in the covered part of the tube). Oh yeah-- this is on the roof.) |
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| Beautiful cave dweller |
