We just got home

And I don't think I told you we were going!!

We left Friday morning for St. Louis. Dh is not one for exploring. So this is really one of the first times we have traveled further than 4 hours from home since the kids have come.

He was off Thursday and is off tomorrow. We were going to make it a longer vacation, but with the weather one and off, we were not sure if we were going or not. We ended up leaving Friday at 10. We drove almost straight through. We got to St. Louis at about 7. We got some Little Ceasars pizza to eat at the hotel and then went swimming.

Saturday we woke up and took Dh, S, and J to the race track. They went to see an episode of Pinks being filmed. Pinks is a car show on the Speed channel. We know the announcer. He got everyone tickets. Actually he gave all of us crew passes. That means we got to go where ever we wanted. We sat right by the track. They kept kicking people out of the area. When they were taping, we were next to the cameras. They also got to eat with the crew and go into the announcers booth. Those three stayed all day, we went off and did are own thing and came back about 6 to watch also.

A, C, T, and I went to the zoo. It was fun to see the different animals than what we have at ours. St. Louis has a nice zoo. It was getting hot, so we did not stay a real long time. Maybe 2 hours with lunch also.

We also went to the Science Center. That was fun. Not a lot of interaction for kids C and T's age, but it was fun.

Next we went to the Arch. We wanted to go up, only we thought we had to go get dh. It was about an hour wait, an hour up and back, plus about 30 minutes to back to the track. Afterwards we knew we had the time, but we did not when we were in the bottom. The kids had fun in the gift shop. They were really tired by that time and fell asleep.

Then we went to the races. It actually was fun for the last part of the day. So far the trip was good.

Then this morning, we got up and got going. We were going to head home today, but since dh had Monday off, we decided to stay another day halfway home. We were going to spend some time in Hannibal, Mo. They have some neat caves to go through. We found them, but it looked like they were flooded. There was water everywhere. We went to the visitors center. They said that it was still open, you could get to the parking lot. Dh asked if I wanted to go back. I knew he did not, so I said it was ok. Then I thought we were going to eat somewhere fun. We ended up at Hardee's. I had to go in and get it, and we ate in the car. (Really bad service anyway!!!!!) So we were going to stop and spend the night in Keokuk, IA. I lived there when I was very young. I was going to see if I could find my old home and show the kids around. The kids were acting up and we missed the exit. Dh was mad at that time because I asked him to turn around. Then when we did, the road said it was closed in 6 miles. At that point I knew he was not staying. So, we were going to spend the night in Iowa City. For some reason Dh said just said we are close enough to just go home. So I finally got him to stop and go to the outlet malls. We only got to one because they closed at 6 and it was 5:30 when we got there. I did get some good deals on shorts and jeans for the kids and me. Then we stopped at a Mexican restaurant closer to home. They seated us in the none smoking section, but a table from the smoking section. 5 guys were getting out their ciggerettes. We asked to move, but they did not have a table, so we left.

That was the last straw for me. I started crying. I am blaming a lot of this on dh. He is so scared all the time when he is driving. He makes the kids sit still and quiet. I don't mind that when the weather is bad or something, but all of the time is not necessary. He hate driving in anything but perfect weather. He does not like driving by trucks. He does not like going fast...... It gets really old, really quick. And of course, any of it is my fault. It rains, it's my fault. A truck weaves a little, it is my fault. I hate it. That is why we never go anywhere. The other thing I was thinking was that I wanted to go to a family reunion. But I knew that dh would not want to. It is about 7 hours away. It would require us to drive there one day and back the next. But this is ok? Uggh!!!!

Anyway, it would have been a nice trip if we did something besides sit today