Josh and Becca Thrap and Family

We’re here for the week for a family reunion with the Thraps. We’re staying at a pretty nice place–we even have a kitchen in our room and we just discovered that the fridge has an ice-maker! Woohoo! Today is our first full day here. The hotel offers a breakfast buffet with a nice variety of options, I had eggs, sausage, a belgian waffle with blueberry compote and cranberry juice this morning. I was tempted by the donuts, maybe I’ll have one of those tomorrow with some oatmeal… Anyway, we went to the Meramec Caverns today. I tried to approach the experience as “Josh Bernstein” as possible with all the kids. Actually, they were all pretty well behaved, and seemed to enjoy the hour and a half long personal tour that our group was given. It was pretty cool. Literally. The temp in the caves is around 60o F yearound. Luckily, I was prepared with sweatshirts for the kids. After the caves we got some lunch which didn’t go as smoothly as we’d hoped so when we passed a White Castle (where neither Josh or I have ever eaten) we felt compelled to see what all the hype was about so we tried a cheeseburger. Thankfully, I had convinced Josh that since we’d just eaten and I only had enough change to buy one burger that one was all we needed to get a taste. NASTY!!! OMIGOLLY, it was foul! I had one bite and thought I was going to have a reversal (like Elise had earlier during our actual lunch)! Josh managed a couple bites, but even he tossed the sandwich remains back in the sack and tried to wash the taste out of his mouth with a whole cup full of water. Continuing on our way back to the hotel, we were nearly run off the road and smashed into a couple of times–for some reason these drivers seem to lack basic merging skills. Very tension-causing. Safely back at the hotel we agreed to take the kids to the pool. We swam for about an hour before it was time to get dressed for dinner. This hotel has what it calls “social hour.” Basically it is a continental dinner in the commons area. Tonights menu included french fries and chicken fries, salad, and Pepsi (beer and wine also available, red and white). When they ran out of chicken fries they substituted toasted raviolis, and apparently when those also ran out the kitchen lady ran across the parking lot and picked up a bunch of Big-N-Tasty’s from McDonalds. This evening we caravaned out to a park near a lake and held the 2nd Thrap Olympics. I was told that they would not require any athleticism or running. I was lied to. Basically it was a series of relay races and the teams were predetermined so I couldn’t really NOT participate and I didn’t want to let my team down. Thankfully, I think I was placed on a pretty laid back team. Of course we didn’t win. Cameron’s team won and he got a trophy, which I’m sure he’ll enjoy, but at the time he was more interested in blowing bubbles. I think I only got two new bug bites at the park, so that was good (considering I got like six last night at dinner outside the hotel). So, now we’ll probably watch Shark Week on Discovery until we fall asleep and tomorrow we are headed to the zoo. I know some people dislike when blog posts are just like little travelogues, but hey, it’s what’s going on in our lives right now so…I won’t be able to post pictures until we get home in like two weeks, but I’m trying to get some fun shots so if any turn out I’ll share them here. G’night.