Family Getaway Update

Day 2 of our weekend family getaway is here. Yesterday was a whirlwind of little adventures...and a massive amount of 'firsts' for our son. Many more than we realized, actually :) Here's how Day 1 panned out:

We started the day with dropping our canine kid off at the kennel to be boarded for the weekend. Broke. My. Heart. We've never left him anywhere since he came to live with us 2 1/2 years ago. My DH convinced me (all the way down the road) that he would be perfectly fine and, somehow, kept me from turning the car around, picking him back up, and calling the hotel to let them know we would have an additional guest in our room. After a deep breath, and a quick trip to Wal-Mart, we were ON THE ROAD! Yay! Right?

Yep, until we all decided we were hungry and stopped at a rest area a mere 40 miles from home to have a picnic lunch. I suppose the distance isn't so important as the ambience (a very peaceful little wooded area...in the shade) and we had a great little lunchtime. Then, on the road - again! This time not stopping until we got to our hotel. Wait, nope. That's not true. This time only stopping 3 times in 3 totally whacked out locations because we couldn't find our hotel. Mapquest couldn't find our hotel. Our phone's GPS couldn't find our hotel. We knew it was there somewhere...it had already taken our money!! After 2 phone calls, several back-and-forth trips down the same highway, and me biting my lip to keep from crying in frustration, we found it!! And got checked in just in time to catch the shuttle to the airport to pick up our daughter.

On the way to the airport, we discovered that not only had our 6-yr-old never been to an airport, but this would also be his first stay in a hotel. He was uber excited about seeing the planes on the tarmac. He had no idea what was awaiting him inside!! Since our daughter flies alone and is only 12, we are allowed 'Escort Passes' to go through security and wait for her right at her gate. The wait was about 45 minutes, so we passed the time with a couple scoops each of some Baskin Robbins and little man watched out the airport window, enraptured every time a plane took off. I think he would have stayed there forever had I just left him with a blanket and pillow. Alas, I had to peel him away long enough to claim our baby girl off the plane and head off in search of her luggage. 

As luck would have it, WWE (the professional wrestling outfit) is having their live Monday night show (WWE Monday Night RAW) tonight in St. Louis. So, yesterday, several of the wrestlers were arriving at the airport and our kiddos got the chance to meet a couple at the baggage claim, get their autographs, and even see a couple more on the way out to our hotel van. Another first for the little guy!! Then it was back to the hotel for some pool time, some pizza (by delivery, because I was not about to try to navigate my way back here in the dark!), and...aahhhh, bedtime.

Our daughter had a fantastic time in Texas, but is very glad to be home. And we're so very glad to have her home. Now, here we are at 6:45 am, waiting on the kids to wake up so we can go down for some breakfast before heading off to the wonderfully awesome St. Louis Zoo. Yet another first for the young one. He's going to have to start writing these down. July 22-23, 2012 may go down in his history as the Best. Days. EVER. :)