I am finally feeling up to blogging again...yeah! In case you missed my news, we are expecting a baby in February. Yes, that would be baby #5. Yes, I was sicker than sick the first trimester. But I survived our 2 week road trip to Wisconsin and back without throwing up, praise God.
So...this will be a long post, but our trip was really fun, exhausting, and the kids had a blast. Unlike our road trip in 2008, we went north, with our final destination being Green Lake Wisconsin for the 2010 CCL Convention.
We left on a Sunday morning and headed for Springfield, Missouri. We had dinner that night at Lamberts, a restaurant famous for throwing their dinner rolls clear across the dining room. And boy, they're HOT too...I had to drop mine as soon as I caught it. We had to wait over an hour for a table; it was so crowded, but the food was great, and the portions were huge. David and I had our chicken-friend steak brought to us in big skillets instead of a plate.
Next day, we drove a short distance to Mansfield to vist the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum. Rebecca has been reading the "Little House" books for nearly a year now, and I loved reading them myself at her age. We toured the house Almanzo built for Laura, the muesum, and of course, the gift shop. Rebecca was impressed to see many artifacts and pictures in the muesum, including Pa's fiddler, and the quilt Laura made as a little girl.
I only took a couple of pictures outside, as no inside pics were allowed.
After a picnic lunch, we headed to St. Louis. We had gotten rooms at the Crowne Plaza downtown through Hotwire. Now the hotel was in a great location...we were 2 blocks from the Arch, and they had a pool on the roof. But it took 45 minutes to check in! There was a ball game that night (the Cardinals vs. the Houston Astros, for which we tried to get tickets to but couldn't), and at least once conference at the hotel that week. But they did serve free drinks, wine, and beer to everyone in line.
Then they tried to put us in a smoking room. I said no way...it could cause Christina to have an asthma attack! So they upgrade us at no charge to a king suite...David and I got a king bed in a separate room (which was great for me to take naps), the boys slept on the floor, and the girls got a pull-out couch. So despite the glitches, we were very comfortable. We had dinner that night at The Old Spaghetti Factory with Ben, a friend of David's from high school, and one of the ushers at our wedding.
Christina got a birthday treat and a song after dinner. I can't believe she's 6 now.
Tuesday morning we walked to the Arch with plans to go all the way to the top. I didn't realize the tourist center was underground, and you had to take a tiny elevator to go up. I played around with the camera and got some great shots of the monument. It seems a simple thing...an arch, but once you actually get close, it's quite impressive.
Once underground, there was one of the elevators you could sit in and try out. I'm sure it was there to give visitors an idea of how small it was...'cause let me tell you, it was tiny. Each one holds 5 people, but they let all of us go together with Gabriel in David's lap. If you're clastrophobic, I highly discourage you from getting in.
We'd bought our tickets online ahead of time to save us time, and they line you up in front of one of 8 elevators. The doors are barely 4 feet high; they are not lined up next to each other, but are constructed in a staircase fashion to follow the angle of the arch.
Gabriel was a little nervous...but only fussed on the way up, and was enthralled once we got to the top.
The viewing area at the top has very small windows, and it's not flat...duh...you're at the top of an arch, right? But the view...wow...pretty amazing!
I hope y'all don't mind me taking pics of your posterier...LOL!
Tuesday afternoon we hit the St. Louis Science Center. It cost $9 to park, but admission was free...great for a family of six. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but was really fun inside. We spent nearly 4 hours there, and only got pics with our phones because we left the camera in the car. Oh well. I think one of the best exhibits was a science show. The presenter (who was quite good and entertaining) talked about Newton's law of gravity. They demonstrated this by dropping different objects from the top floor of the building (which was 4 stories high) over a balcony. Needless to say, the kids thought that was cool.
Rebecca volunteered to catch a water ballon dropped from the top floor. She was wearing a rain coat, but still got a bit wet.
After a late lunch, we headed back to hotel. David and the kids hit the rooftop pool, but Momma took a much-needed nap. Ahh...nothing like having a king-sized bed all to yourself.
We took a risk after reading some online reviews and tried a local pizza joint for dinner. Stallone's was a tiny, hole-in-the-wall place, but the pizza was amazing! They reminded me a lot of our favorite local joint, Pizza Zone. At both places, they treat you like family and the owners themselves are making the pies with fresh dough. If you're ever in St. Louis, try Stallones' you will not be disappointed.
Another reason why we picked Stallone's was it's proximity to Ted Drewe's. I'd heard about this place many times, and was not about to pass up a chance to try some frozen custard. So after stuffing ourselves with pizza, we headed just a few streets over and had dessert. And yeah...it was awesome. Now that we were REALLY full, we went back to the hotel and collapsed into bed.
Wednesday we toured the Cathedral Basillica of St. Louis. David loves to visit major cathedrals whenever we travel. I think it's also good to show the kids how the physical church is different from place to place, but the Mass itself is always the same. We had an excellent tour guide, who pointed out the mosaics, marble colums, and just the artistry itself. Here's a few pictures from my iphone, which really doesn't do it justice.
After daily Mass (in very snug pews) we had lunch on the church grounds...it was hot, but bearable in the shade. We sure were hoping for cooler weather the further north we went, but talk about a heat wave in the Midwest. Except for the lower humidity, it was as hot as Houston!
That afternoon, we hit the road for Chicago. First stop, our hotel. We apparently got a room in one of the biggest shopping areas in town. Seriously, it makes the Willowbrook area here look minute. But it also meant plenty of restaurants to choose from, and we found a Walgreens easily (I needed some TUMS).
The first night, we meet up with David's Aunt Sue, his cousins Becky and Eric and their little boy Jacob for dinner at Olive Garden. Jacob was nearly the same age as Gabriel, but he took to Rebecca within minutes and pretty soon, they were sitting next to each other, talking up a storm. We had a lovely time catching up, but eventually I gave David that look that said "Please let's go before the kids melt down." So far on our trip, the kids were behaving fairly well, but they were really tired. They'd been getting up early despite not going to sleep past 10 PM every night. So we got back to the hotel and the kids were in bed in record time, me included. ;-)
Thursday we went to the Brookfield Zoo with Becky, Eric, and Jacob. Both Becky and Eric had season passes, so we all were able to get in free. Yeah! The zoo had a nice layout, and it was crowded, but not overly so. We saw lions, and tigers, and bears...oh my! But oh my...I don't know why I didn't take hardly any pictures! The zoo also had a new bear exhibit, including a HUGE polar bear. The dolphin exhibit was cute...we caught the last few minutes of the show.
But there were a couple of places for some group photo ops.
The zoo allows food to be brought in, so we had lunch in a nice, shady area next to a big playground. We'd brought our own lunch, but our kids loved Becky's offerings of cheetos, fruit and homemade cookies. It's always a tad embarassing when you kids eat someone else's food, isn't it? Becky highly encouraged sharing though. ;-).
We finally called it quits mid afternoon, said our goodbyes, and headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit before dinner that night. One of my friends from high school suggested Giordano's for their deep dish, Chicago style pizza. So we went, and it was very good. The kids had thin-crust pizza, and thank goodness David and I ordered a small...it was so thick and dense, there was no way we would have been able to finish anything bigger.
Friday we hit one of Joshua's requested attractions... LEGOLAND!
Here's the city of Chicago in minature, made entirely out of Legos.
I honestly thought the girls wouldn't enjoy LEGOLAND as much as Joshua, but they had a blast. There was a short water ride, which the kids insisted on doing...twice, we took a "tour" of how Legos were made, watched a 4D animated cartoon, and built a minature replica of the Sears tower with Legos.
In between these exhibits, there were plenty of photo ops, all made with Legos.
The last bit we did was an indoor ride, adjacent to building centers (where you could help yourself to bins of Legos and make whatever you wanted), plus a large playground. Gabriel was happily engrossed with the slide while David took the kids on the ride. Christina didn't want to go at first, but as with almost everything, she changed her mind, and Dad went with her. And of course, she loved it.
We had dinner that night at Aunt Becky's house, with the rest of the fam and some excellent fried chicken from a local restaurant. The kids were all over Aunt Becky's 2 dogs...great big huskies, who were friendly as anything and kept begging for bits of chicken.
Sunday we drove into downtown Chicago to visit the Sears Tower. (I know, I know, it's known as the Willis Tower now, but none of the locals will call it anything other than it's former name, and I don't want to case any grief on my own blog, okay?) David thought it would not be too crowded on a Sunday morning, and he was right. The kids were impressed at how fast the elevator was...I think we were going up 10 floors per second. Again we'd bought our tickets in advance online, and in no time at all, we were on the skydeck of the tower, 110 stories up.
It was cloudy and misty that morning, but the view was nonetheless impressive.
The glass balconies were obviously, very popular. I was not the only one trying to get pictures either.
Gabriel was not happy about the glass balcony...but it didn't phase the other kids at all. Okay...so I didn't go out there either...I was trying to get pictures people!
Luckily for us, it didn't start raining until we got back down to street level. David and Joshua took off to get the van for us ladies since we'd parked a few blocks away. Thanks boys!
We then headed up to Green Lake, Wisconsin for the CCL Convention. Two years ago, the convention was in Ashville, North Carolina at Ridgecrest Conference Center. David said we had to stop at Lake Michigan for lunch, only to find we had to climb over the huge concrete boulders on the lake shore (to stop erosion), and there was no public restroom in sight. But the view was pretty, and there were tons of birds and dragonflies...I mean thousands of 'em. I tried not to be cranky, but by the time we left, my need to go (along with the girls) was acute, and it took 2 different stops at 2 gas stations before we found a restroom. When a pregnant woman has to go, it means, "now!" ;-)
We checked in, found our cabin, and got settled in before heading to the dining room for dinner. There was a meeting for parents about childcare after dinner, which I went to with my sister-in-law Stephanie before heading back to the cabin to help David get the kids into bed.
Our first night, unfortunately was not pleasant. The average temps in Wisconsin are usually in the low 80's during the day and mid 60's at night. But the current heat wave had not only pushed the highs into the 90's, but the humidity was higher as well. And our cabin was non-airconditioned. My SIL and BIL had reserved a campsite for their air-conditioned camper. But our kids took a long time to go to sleep, even afer David made a late-night run for small fans for everyone, plus an additional, larger fan provided by the conference center. I slept fine with a fan blowing over me, but I have to say the mattresses were awful...thin, and I could feel the springs underneath me. Overall, I felt the $70 for the cabin was overpriced, especially since the bathroom was tiny and dingy, and the cabin inself was not very clean. But we made the best of it the first two nights.
We enjoyed all the talks, workshops, and fellowship with other CCL Teaching and Promotor Couples. It's really great to be amongst other large families as well. By now, I wasn't having any anxiety about being pregnant, since I talked to many other moms with 4 or more kids. You can say I got plenty of "large family therapy!"
The kids were in childcare for most of the day. They had a VBS format for the older 2 kids, and they were with their cousins Mary, Nick, Daniel and John, so they had plenty of time to hang out together. I was really tired though, and I didn't take hardly any pictures. The only ones worth posting are from the family dance Tuesday night. Joshua wouldn't have anything to do with a dance, so he stayed back with me and Gabriel, and Stephanie offered to take the girls. They had a really good time. David went to Confession, but came back and I went to the dance later on to watch the fun.
By now, we were staying with our friends John and Kerrie, who are also from Houston. They found out we were staying in one of the cabins, and offered us room in their rental cottage. Turns out they had originally reserved a cabin just a stone's throw from ours. After one night, they refused to stay there anymore though...it was supposed to be air-conditioned (but wasn't), there were no screens on the windows upstairs (so Kerrie was too afraid to open the windows with her baby present), and worst of all, there were critter droppings and ants everywhere (which Kerrie was especially upset about, b/c her kids have major allergies and she was cooking all their food herself during the convention).
Kerrie and John talked to the conference staff, and they were upgraded to a HUGE, lakeside rental cottage, with 5 bedrooms, each with its own bath. They were only using 2 of the bedrooms, so they offered us the remaining 3 bedrooms. When Kerrie found out I was pregnant, she told me to "please come, you need air-conditioning and a comfy bed!" Honestly, I didn't needed any more convincing, so David and I packed up our things and spend the remaining 2 nights of the conference with Kerrie, John, and their 4 kids (who BTW are as cute as buttons). We were much more comfortable, the cottage had a huge living room, and plenty of space to spread out. We all had twin beds, and I slept so well, several people told me the next morning, "you look so nice and rested today!' (I hope I looked at least halfway decent the previous days).
One of the best things about going to the Convention is talking to Vicki Braun and Marilyn Shannon. Vicki is the Project Manager at CCL, and she is also extremely knowledgable about good nutrition. So I always have a question or two for her. Pinning her down long enough is another story...I finally just had to grab her after breakfast one day. But after consulting with her, she thinks I need more vitamin A, so I am going to try buying range-free eggs from a local co-op. She says they're the best source for vitamin A.
I also was able to ask Marilyn Shannon, author of Fertility, Cycles, and Nutrition a few troubleshooting questions about menstrual cycles and breastfeeding. Even though I consider myself an "expert" having breastfed 3 out of our 4 kids, I still always like to learn as much as possible. In addtion to presenting a workshop, Marilyn also hosts "Dorm Talks" at every convention. Mostly women (and a few hardy husbands), gather in the evenings and we just talk about anything and everything...babies, breastfeeding, cycle issues, vitamins, etc. It's always fun and really informative.
The last day of the conference, we found out the 2012 Convention would be in Colorado Springs, Colorado...whoo hoo! I sure hope the weather will be COOL over there!
After 4 days of the Convention, we drove back south on Friday to stay with David's relative, Uncle Tim in Racine. Uncle Tim used to work for Johnson and Wax, so we had sent him a list of cleaning products, which he could buy for us at a significant discount at the company store. So there were 8 boxes of products waiting for us in his basement! But I'd packed carefully for our 2 week trip; David loaded the boxes in the luggage shell on top of the van, and there was still room for the duffel bags. No problem!
Speaking of the basement, Uncle Time thought it was hilarious when the kids asked him right away if they could see it. We'd told the kids what a basement was, but they just didn't quite understand...after all, there are no basements here in Houston (or Texas for that matter) because of the heavy clay content in the soil. So Uncle Tim gave them a tour, and the kids thought it was "awesome."
The first day there, Uncle Tim loaded up his boat, and took us out to Browns Lake. He took the kids in two shifts out, and the older ones went fishing. I didn't go...pregnancy nausea + motion sickness = major misery for me, so I stayed back with Gabriel. David took the camera though, and the kids caught dozens (literally) of fish, which they released back into the water.
Uncle Tim was such a trooper keeping up with everyone...he even let the kids have a turn driving the boat. Here's Christina...I hope nobody told him that Christina is one mean driver with the little Hummer we have at home!
Watcha doin' Daniel? ;-)
Here's Johnny! (and David with Gabriel)
After fishing, the kids came back to shore. It was getting late, but they REALLY wanted to go tubing. So Joshua, Rebecca, Christina, Nick, and Mary went back out with David and Uncle Tim for more fun on the water.
In the meantime, the rest of us headed back to Uncle Tim's to get dinner and feed the younger kiddos. The others didn't get back until after 8 PM, and boy, were they hungry. I don't know about my niece and nephews, but our kids fell asleep pretty quicky that night. I think we especially wore out Uncle Tim...he sat down with a drink after putting up the boat, and didn't get back up again for several hours!
Friday, Uncle Tim took us out to a local splash fountain, and then to North Beach on Lake Michigan. We spent the morning getting wet...
burying various victims in the sand...
and watching the catamaran boats. We didn't see too much at first because they were a good distance away, plus there was fog out on the lake, but eventually the boats came in to dock. Quite a sight!
After the beach and a late lunch, I took a nap along with Gabriel and John while David took the older kids out to the Jelly Belly Factory. Of course, I had to sample everyone's bag of goodies when they came back. ;-). David got a sample of lemon-lime ones for me...thanks honey!
We took off very early (6:00 AM) the next morning to start the drive back home, and headed for Little Rock, Arkansas. It was a very long day, over 11 hours of driving. The kids managed, but Rebecca was awfully cranky by the time we got to the hotel. I'm sure it was because she was just so tired from the activities of the previous 2 days. But our room was very comfortable, and the continental breakfast the next morning was the best we'd had during our entire trip.
Sunday, the last day of our trip, we drove another 7 hours and got home about 4:30 that afternoon. The kids said it felt like we'd been gone forever. Gabriel seemed to perk up once we were a few miles from home and recognized where he was. I was ready to sleep in my own bed again, let me tell you. ;-)
It was a few days before the kids readjusted to being back home, but we got nearly everything unloaded, unpacked, and put away within a few days. Despite doing 6 loads of laundry during our trip, I spend nearly a week doing more laundry and getting it all put away. Thank goodness the kids were home to help...they willingly folded and put their clothes away, in exhange for computer/TV time.
Whew...I think that's all folks. What a trip! And in two years, we get to do it again! Yee haw!
