St. Louis or bust

Several weeks ago my good friend Amy suggested that we take a road trip to St. Louis.
And by "we" she meant her, me, and all of our children--which would be 5. And by "road trip" she meant cramming all of our aforementioned children into her van with lots of snacks and movies and driving the 5 hour trip to St. Louis--plus a couple of more hours for the tremendous amount of urinating these kids had to do, eating, and the general chaos that ensues when you try to buckle and unbuckle 5 kids in a jam-packed van.

See? They were packed so close you can only see 4 of them.

Despite all the children it was a fun drive. We managed to get there in one piece with most of the sanity that we left with. Amy dropped me off at my sister Emily's house and she went on to her friend's house. It was so great to be with Emily and Eliana (we missed Adriel who was out of town on a work trip). My kids love Eliana, and the feeling is at least 50% mutual (her feelings about Ada are ambiguous).  There was lots of playing, a trip to the children's museum, and to the zoo.

Plenty of hand-holding and cuteness

Cambel got to meet THE storm chaser (we actually had no idea who he was but he had a cool vehicle and he was giving autographs). 

The penguin section of the zoo was pretty stinky.  Ada had to hold her nose the whole way through it. 

We recreated the arch. It's steadiness was obviously in question. Good thing we weren't in charge of the real one. 

Even the prospect of a 5+ hour drive home was brightened by Amy's company (who makes me laugh and think about deep things in the same 15 minutes)...and plenty of movies and snacks which were watched and handed out fairly indiscriminately.  And we just won't dwell on the Wendy's frosty debacle or the state of emotional disarray Cambel and Ada were in the next day. The trip, the company, and the memories were well worth it (especially since the frosty came right out of my pants and the floor of the van).