One of the benefits of rescheduling our route for mini-man’s surgery was getting to go back to St. Louis. Since it was a long drive from Cincinnati, we decided to take a stop in Louisville. Thank goodness we did that, as little-dudes illness became much worse, and, of course, spread to the rest of us. As we drove, I could feel myself getting worse and worse.
Once we parked, I instantly hit the bedroom with little-dude and tried to rest. Unfortunately, little-dude developed a pretty high fever, which kept the both of us up.
Saturday, we started to notice that mini-man was also getting sick. The day became a series of napping, cuddles, and crying. By bedtime, I was exhausted. Fortunately, little-dudes fever broke, which allowed the both of us to get some sleep.
We left early the next day for St. Louis to try and get ahead of traffic. At this point, mini-man was at the height of the illness, so he spent most of the drive napping and watching Elmo, while little-dude napped on me. I have to say, for one of our longer drives, it went pretty smoothly and fast. Thank goodness, as I was still feeling poorly and was able to lay down once we arrived – which turned into a group napping session for all of us.
Unfortunately, the last napping session led to a long night of very little sleep – which meant that we all slept in pretty late. One would hope for a relaxing day, but no.
The boys were bouncing off the walls and needed to get out. So after I finished making dinner, we started collecting the boys swim stuff, which made mini-man very happy. Our RV Park is apart of the Queen Casino, so we have access to their indoor pool. I think it only took a few seconds for mini-man to get into the pool.
The boys had so much fun that they passed on the way to get them lunch. We tried to stop for a quick grocery stop, but, as every parent knows, as soon as the car stops the kids wake up. At least they were well behaved and had fun shopping with us.
Tuesday was another late morning for us. Fortunately, out RV park is minutes from the heart of downtown St. Louis and used that to our advantage. A quick car ride later, and we were at the famous St. Louis Arch. This structure, built in 1967, symbolizes the westward expansion of the United States. Something I did not know, is that people have been able to go up to the top since it first opened.
We later learned on our steamboat ride down the Mississippi River, that the Arch center had just completed. Multi-year renovation. Why we didn’t see that at the actual Arch center is weird. Instead, we saw was a newly built museum that covered the history of St. Louis from the 1700s to modern day.
We rushed through this part to get to the tram on the other side to take us to the top. After we got in line, mini-man started crying because he hates waiting (you know, cause he’s three) and one of the tour guides came over and started making fun of him, talking down to him, then started making fun of him to the couple behind us! I’ve never seen such rude behavior towards a three year old. Then she continued to come back and try to “help”. Thank goodness the line started moving before I lost it on her. I filed a complaint with her boss later on. It’s one thing to offer help, in case the child is freaking out. It’s another to make fun of a child for being a child.
And, just as I thought, as soon as we started moving, mini-man calmed down. I thought he’d hate the tram ride, as it was a very tight container filled with five of us! But he just stared out the window the whole time and was fine.
Once at the top, we could see a lot of downtown St. Louis and our RV park, which was just across the Mississippi River in East St. Louis, Illinois. We only stayed a few minutes, as there’s nothing to do at the top. Damon could’ve stayed for hours looking at buildings but I didn’t think that was fair to the boys.
We checked out the museum after we fcame back down. It was very detailed, but the boys were very tired and wanted their naps. Since we came later in the day, we had to wait until the next day to go on the boat tour.
OMG! I loved this tour. First off, it’s an old paddle boat, called Thomas Sawyer, from the Mark Twain Era. Three levels, each was a great view of the Mississippi River. We tried to sit outside, but the boys overheated pretty quickly (unusual 90+ weather), so we headed inside. I grabbed some drinks and popcorn and we enjoyed the ride in the AC. I loved this because the boys could walk around, explore, stay cool, while Damon and I enjoyed the tour. In my opinion,ic much better than the day before.
Thursday was our much-awaited return to City Museum. We loved it so much last time and we’re thrilled to go back. But as the saying goes, we make plans and your children laugh at you (or something like that 😋).
Mini-man knew where we were instantly. We tried to show him some of the outdoor stuff, but he quickly led us to his favorite spot – Toddler Town. Unbeknownst to us, this area was being sanitized and most of it was off limits. Try explaining that to a three year old. We played in other areas, but after a few hours, mini-man led us back to the car. He was done.
Damon and I were disappointed. We’d planned to stay all day. We tried to take a break in the car, then go back, but to no avail. So I offered to Damon that we go back to the RV and he could go to the museum by himself.
The boys were so happy to be home. They instantly started playing and watching Elmo. Damon managed to slip out and spend two fun hours exploring the museum – going places he couldn’t go with us.
As for us, the boys and I spent the two hours just playing – both inside and out. Sometimes rethinking the original plan turns out better than you anticipated.
When we woke up the next day, the boys made it pretty clear that they wanted to stay home and play. Knowing Damon doesn’t like toe cooped up all day, I offered to let him go out for few hours to run errands. It was fun to be with the boys by myself. Little-dude napped for a bit, which gave me some one-on-one time with mini-man.
After little-dude woke up, all played with Lego’s and trains while watching Curious George until Damon came home. Mini-man even got surprised with a set of Magna-tiles – which he instantly opened up and hasn’t stopped playing with.
On our last day, we ended up staying home again – this time due to a wonky sleep schedule. The boys konked out around 7p the night before and both were up at 3a. After a few hours of playing, we all went back to bed at 5:30a. Then at 7a, little-dude popped up – so Damon played with him with him until mini-man woke up at 10. Of course, this is when little-dude was ready to go back to sleep.
On the plus side,we managed to get a lot of projects completed and were ready to our drive the day.
Heartswell Adventures 