Last year we did a LOT of traveling, so we didn’t have many plans to travel this year–thought we’d chill at home. But this Spring we started talking with some friends who also have four children (all girls!) and got to thinking about the idea of taking a vacation together. We hashed around a lot of fun ideas, DisneyWorld, the coasts, Yellowstone, Branson, etc. Ultimately we decided to try something a bit less expensive and closer to home for our first joint travel venture–St. Louis!
We researched and came up with some plans. We found a great hotel that had kid suites, a pool, and free hot breakfast! Rooms booked, we looked up points of interest and cheap food options for the week. Then we just had to wait. Luckily we did have lots of things to do in July so the time passed quickly. Our friends departed on Saturday the 24th to take their dog up to their folks’ place in Davenport. We stayed to attend Josh’s first company picnic and let him cover his duties at church on Sunday and then we left, making it as far as Coralville where we collected Elise from my parents (she’d had her week at Grandma Camp and chopped of all her hair for Locks of Love), and met Kate’s new beau, Joe. The kids were really thrilled to have some Michael and Audrey time and the adults got to play some cards. First thing in the morning on Monday though we were back on the road up to Davenport to meet the Hintzes and begin our adventure. First official vacation stop: Lincoln’s Tomb in Springfield, Illinios. The Hintzes borrowed a GPS and so we followed them, but the GPS apparently took some getting used to and maybe wasn’t always correct, so despite signs telling us which way to turn, we made a few loops on our way to the tomb. The GPS quickly became one of those things that have the potential to be really annoying unless you just laugh about it, so we laughed about it. We got our first real taste of the heat when we got out to view the tomb, that coupled with an enticing plan for lunch and hungry kids kept us from doing too much siteseeing in the area, but the tomb itself was very impressive.
Apparently Springfield local cuisine is famous for two things, one of the origins of the corndog, and something called a horseshoe. After a bunch of GPS loops and one stop at a laundromat we finally found the place that Josh had seen on the Food Network where we could sample the famous Springfield horseshoe sandwhiches.
Overall the kids gave the horseshoes and D’Arcy’s Pint a big thumbs-up. Tummy’s and tanks filled, we drove on to our hotel in St. Charles, Missouri. After a minor setback at the front desk, we finally got to unload and spend the evening at the pool. After swimming, the Hintzes joined us in our room to watch a movie. Tuesday morning we got up and enjoyed our free hot breakfast then went to the St. Louis Zoo! Here is a sampling of some of the things we saw and did there.
It really is a great zoo, unfortunately, with temperatures in the nineties and humidity around 80-90%, I kinda thought I was gonna melt and the kids started to breakdown.
Eventually we found a watering hole. 
But even better, after that we found a cool misting fan and realized that after purchasing a ridiculously expensive souvenir cup we could refill the cup as much as we wanted for only a dollar. So here we are recharging and refilling (and refilling and refilling!)
With renewed vigor we found some of our favorite animals at the zoo.
We warmed up again quickly, but luckily we arrived at the penguin house! The cool relief was well worth the smell!
We had a bit of a break to look around the main gift shop (where we found that quite to our dismay they in fact did NOT have all of the same things we had seen earlier at the gift kiosks as we’d been told it would so Josh–in a huge act of love for his daughter, ran with 5 year-old Elena perched on his shoulders all the way back to the penguin house, through the penguins to get to their gift shop, and back again so that she could have the exact souvenir that she wanted). Despite being indoors, the gift shop was not so cool and the heat was getting to us all again. The kids started petitioning to skip the last loop of the zoo and just go get ready for dinner, but just before entering the last loop we found something that helped renew their energy again. Actually, I think I was the only one who didn’t have a dip.
Refreshed again, we finished up the last bit of zoo.
The two little Indian elephants were playing in the mud together, and the African elephant was rinsing some food before eating it. The hippos made a big noise, but then we heard an even bigger one–thunder. It started to rain just as we were approaching the parking lot so we ran the last bit to our vans and agreed to head back to the hotel to wash the zoo off of us before heading to dinner. We’d been too hot to think about lunch so we were definately ready to make the most of our dinner at Lone Star Steakhouse. (A kids eat free location!) Josh also decided he hadn’t packed enough shorts, so after dinner we stopped at the huge outlet mall on the way back to our hotel and did some shopping.
Wednesday, after another filling hotel breakfast and some more GPS looping we arrived at the City Museum. Unfortunately, my words and pictures can really do nothing to describe what it is really like. It was another scorching day and my camera battery died, but here is a sampling of what I got.
Another day without lunch, we decided to feast for dinner at the Golden Corral. Back at the hotel we swam a bit and watched some Billy the Exterminator. On Thursday, we went to see the St Louis temple. My camera battery was still dead so I took pictures with a disposable camera but I haven’t developed them yet, so no pictures of that now. Afterward we meant to eat our picnic lunch, but first we went to Sam’s Club to get some supplies (like camera batteries 
) and the kids got so many food samples that we ended up not eating a real lunch again. It felt good to be inside so we decided to spend the rest of the day back at the huge outlet mall. We did some shopping and found some great deals, and also watched some movies–our group split in half, some saw the Karate Kid (the new one) and others saw Despicable Me. Then we drove around at the whim of the GPS looking for a decent Chinese buffet. We found a really interesting place. They had whole baby squid and a big fellow abusing his preteen children–Jerad stood up to both! Back at the hotel we snuggled up again to watch another movie. Friday morning after breakfast we packed everything back up in the vans and checked out of our hotel. It was raining but the forecast said it wouldn’t last long so we decided to go to Grant’s Farm.
Then it was time for the Hintzes to go to Peoria and for us to go to Keokuk, so we parted ways and agreed to get together for dinner once we were all back home Sunday evening. So, long story short, too late, yes. Yes, the friendship traveled beautifully and the week of vacation passed by far too quickly. Briefly, I will also mention that we had a heck of time getting into Keokuk because of road detours and our short time there was nothing special, but we stayed there so that we could get to Nauvoo, Ill. by noon on Saturday for Josh’s cousin Kimberly’s wedding. We had a long afternoon with many of Josh’s family and I wanted to get lots of pictures (especially one showing that Jacob is now taller than Josh’s cousin Jessica) but unfortunately my camera battery died again and this was the only picture I got that day. 
We looked around town a bit, bought some fudge, had a fabulous dinner followed by wedding cake made by Josh’s mom. After dinner we tried to rush home but got caught up first by an insanely long train, then bathroom breaks, and who knows what was going on but traffic on the interstate was stopped just after Amana. And apparently there was something MAJOR going on at the Newton speedway! It took us 6 hours to get home!
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