Road Trip: Day 1

On the Road
We left Dayton at 6am on our driving adventure for our summer vacation. This is the first vacation with all three kids that we have had. At 8am we stopped for 30minutes to eat doughnuts and have little man go to the potty no less than 3 times. By 11am (10am centeral) we stopped at a rest stop to eat lunch and have the kids play for awhile. Getting back in the car this time for little man, not good. He screamed (the ear piearcing kind) for no less than 20-30minutes. Finally, he fell asleep after I rubbed his feet to help him relax long enough to realize that he was tired. In true Xander fashion on long car trips, he only slept a max of 45minutes. When he woke up, not happy. The DVD distracted him long enough for us to get to St. Louis. Before heading into St. Louis, we drove around and looked at Chokia Mounds and old Native American city site. We arrived at the hotel around 1:00pm. The hotel allowed us to check-in early. How is it that after sitting most of the day up to that point, that Dan and I were so tired? We hung out at the hotel for about 2 1/2 hours then decided to go out and see the sites.

Seeing the Sites
At 4:00pm we arrive at the Arch "Gateway to the West". We saw the Mississippi River and ventured in to the museum under the Arch to get out of the heat. Before leaving, Xander found the restroom and starts screaming, "Potty, potty, potty!" So I take him and all is right with his world. By 5:00pm we exited the museum and got back into the van at the strong protest of Xander, and headed to Union Station. The old train station has been turned in to a mall of sorts. It contains lots of speciality stores and a food court as well as a Memories Museum about the Hay Day of the train station. By the time we looked around and wanted to get dinner, Xander had a serious melt down. Dan and I were ordering our food and the guy behind the counter asked, "Is this to go?" I responded, "How can you tell?" Xander was still screaming at this point. As with anywhere we go, he manages to find the restroom. Yeah!? Another visit to a gross public potty. After visiting it, he calmed down a little. Then we rushed back to the hotel to eat.

Bedtime
8:00pm (9pm est) Well, bedtime for Xander was alittle to be desired. With close to no nap, I hoped that he would fall into bed and stay there. Not so much. Dan played with him and his nite light in the dark, then I laid with him and rubbed his feet until he relaxed enough that he fell asleep. The girls went in their room and played before drifting off to sleep at some time. I fell off to sleep shortly after crawling into bed.

Pictures will be added when we get home. We forgot to bring our card reader with us to download our pictures.