On the road again

We had a wonderful visit in St. Louis.  Gaston's brother's family lives in a little suburb called Creve Coeur and there are lovely brick homes and big lots.  It is beautiful.  A huge shout out especially to my amazing sis-in-law.  I sometimes call her Martha because of her crafting skill and she does not disappoint when it comes to being the hostess with the mostess.  Even with 8 kids milling about, I still felt like I was on vacation.  Thank you Liz!

Here is a rundown of what we did:

• Swam: at the hotel pool in 105 degree heat and at the Maplewood pool with 2 water slides, a lazy river and 2 diving boards.  I honestly think a couple of the boys did the fast water slide nearly 100 times.  I was very proud of Legoguy for going off the lower diving board.  Did I mention I scream when I go on slides of any sort?  It is an automatic reaction.
• The Arch and Westward Expansion Museum:  now that I am an expert in historical museums, I was a bit disappointed with this one.  Nothing was labeled.  They do get extra points for some amazing quotes.  The Arch, well I can say I did it.  You ride up in this little pod kind of like the Skydiver ride at the Fair, only 5 people ride in it instead of 2.  After a rickety ride to the top, they tell you to stay as long as you like at the top.  They don't tell you that you have to be under 5 feet tall to stand comfortably.  Everyone else seemed to enjoy it but the Park Ranger at the top stopped as he passed by me and asked if I was OK.  I was very glad to get down.
• City Museum:  Wow, that was a crazy place!  It looked as though they had put out an all call when they were creating the place and just asked people for any extra materials they might have. McDonalds play tunnels were installed in the ceiling and covered with strips of white silky material.  Stainless steel rectangular serving receptacles were fastened to the wall.  There was a huge outdoor playground with an old airplane.  But the best part were all of the slides.  Did I mention I scream when I am on a slide?  There is a ten story slide that spins round and round.  There are chutes and tunnels in the floor.  It was so fun!
• Aladdin at the Muny outdoor theater!  Fabulous, entertaining, warm!  
• Most of all, just hanging out and spending time with family.  We will miss them but are so thankful for modern technology like Facetime.

We dropped Gaston off at the airport on Tuesday evening and he is back home with our cat Midnight.  We miss him a lot and I am hoping we make really good time on our return home so we can see him even sooner.

We are back on the road again today.  Got a very early start and stopped at Independence, MO.  Cooled off in the pool, visited the National Frontier Trails Museum which gave us a nice little overview of the Oregon Trail.  They had a wagon and a list of things that should be packed in it.  Grandma read the list and each kid went and grabbed that item off the shelf (i.e. 50 lbs of bacon, 100 lbs of flour but just mock items of course.)  It gave us a great sense of what they could and could not bring on the journey.

Deep thought from the road:

As I stare out the window as we travel along, I see rolling fields of corn or homes, old and new, and I wonder who is living there and what is their story?  I am amazed that there are so many people and communities that I know nothing about and they will pass on and I will never know about their life.  That has been a little frustrating and sad for me.  At the same time it is awe inspiring that God knows each of those stories intimately.  Unfathomable.