All about our trip to Saint Louie

Our trip to St. Louis was a great time. We thoroughly wore ourselves out doing, seeing and visiting, but had a great time doing it! We arrived there Wednesday afternoon and were already running late! Since we were all a bit sick and slept in that morning, we had time to unload the car and do a minimal settling and then headed to the church for rehearsal. Nathan did a concert in the newly modernized chapel of this old church, with our friend from Seattle, Luke Morton. Nathan asked me to sing with them and also during rehearsal, I tried singing while holding Amos. It mostly worked and after a quick trip back to the hotel, we got ready to perform.
It was neat to be there and reunite with many Seattle friends. Luke played three songs first and then Amos and I went up to join them. Amos was in his pj's and I hoped he would fall asleep, but he was too excited. At times, he would sing, motion that he wanted to sing his favorite "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" or cuddle with me. He was really good overall for the first of Nathan's songs and then we sat down again. For the second three songs, Amos was really getting tired, as we were an hour behind and up very late. He barely made it through the second set, wanting his little stuffed dog to sing (putting him on the microphone while I sang--which was interesting), saying "bye-bye" and wanting to go, and finally, as Nathan was singing the last note, we walked off the stage and headed toward the car, at Amos' request! We went back to our room and Amos happily fell asleep in his pack 'n' play. Amos did ok, sleeping in his own bed for a little while, but was soon up and in bed with us.
Thursday morning we went to a local breakfast spot, where Amos enjoyed some of my eggs. I found a picture from last summer around this time with Amos trying the eggs. But this year he was able to use his fork, which he likes to do alot now. After breakfast, Nathan did some working and Amos and I hit the pool. It was a pretty fun pool, but not as easily enjoyable for little ones like Amos so we were there for only a little while. We went back to the room for a nap and then took Nathan to the church to practice for the rehearsal. After that we drove to the Vanden Brinks' house to hang out for a little while and then went back to the church. While there, Amos started to have a melt down and I realized that he was hungry! Our schedule had been thrown off a bit so when I finally realized that Amos was hungry, it explained his fussiness. We went to our hotel and ate and then went to the rehearsal dinner, which was held at a park under a beautiful carosel gazeebo. Amos did really well and stayed up late, running around, and saying hi to everyone. We enjoyed hanging out and talking and shut the party down. Amos immediately fell asleep in the car and slept the whole night in his own bed!
Friday morning we got up and went to the zoo witht the Vanden Brinks and had a great time. We found a free place to park and got into the zoo for free so we didn't feel so bad when we wanted to leave after only being there for about an hour, since it was soooo hot out. We saw many fun animals but it was a douzy of a hot day. It was so hot and humid that watching the seals going into the water was almost refreshing in itself! After the zoo, we headed to the Vanden Brinks' house for lunch and on the way, Amos fell asleep. We had a great grilled lunch and after about an hour and a half, Amos woke up, a bit freaked out. He played and ate and soon was happy again. We invited Stephene and the boys back to our place to swim and headed to the room. Nathan and Amos swam for a bit before Nathan had to leave to get ready for the wedding. We had fun hanging out with everyone at the pool and was soon ready to go to the wedding ourselves.
The wedding was beautiful, but Amos didn't make it past the opening and first song. After he saw his Dada, he wanted to go hug him and started to really lose it when I wouldn't let him. So we hi-tailed it out of there and watched the rest from the Narthex of the church, which had lots of glass doors. Amos did not see his Dada again until the end! We all walked out and blew bubbles at the couple as they walked out to their car. They jumped in, drove around the block and then met us for a cupcake reception at the church. I loved this idea: they left to get leaving pictures, came back and had cake and then invited close family and friends to a sit-down dinner reception later that night. Such a great way to celebrate and include everyone!
After we had a few scrumptious cupcakes, we went back to the hotel room. Amos was getting hungry and tired and so was I. I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to take Amos back to the Vanden Brinks' so sleep that night so we could go to the dinner reception. Finally, I thought, "We should try it, and besides, we'll need to eat dinner!" We got Amos ready for bed, well fed and went back to their place. Stephene had offered to watch Amos that night and we were excited to take her up on the offer! When we got there, we did our usual goodnight routine: Amos gave me hugs and kisses and then Nathan took him upstairs. He put the noise machine in there and then helped him fall asleep and came down with a smile of success on his face. We quickly left, ready to come back at a moment's notice!
But Amos ended up sleeping all night! He coughed a bit, but overall did not wake up. He slept through the Vanden Brinks' house, the car ride to the hotel, the walk up to our room and the rest of the night!!
So we had a fabulous time, sitting, eating and drinking, catching up with friends and having a blast being together. We could not thank Stephene enough for being willing to take a chance with Amos waking up and screaming, and for allowing us such a refreshing a fun night together. Too, that night we gained an ounce more of hope to leaving Amos regularly for dates!
Saturday morning I woke up to an empty room! Amos and Nathan went for a coffee run and I started to pack. We planned to go to see the Arch and by the time we got there, Amos had fallen asleep. So we stuck him in the stroller, still staying asleep, and went to go inside. We got to the door, which had a long line out of it. Soon we could tell that we would have to go through security, much like at the airport. This probably meant that our sleeping Amos would have to get out of the stroller and would probably wake up. He did and he did. And I was mad. We decided to go up anyway and while waiting for our tram ride time (and realizing that Saturday was probably not the best day to go to the Arch!), tried to get Amos back to sleep. We realized taht he was also hungry, so while we were in line for our turn, we fed him mini-bagels. I began to get worried that the whole thing was taking too long, thinking that in addition to the hour plus that we had waited that the hour in the arch was going to be too long. But when we tried to leave, the lady said that the ride was only a few minutes long and that we could stay up there as long as we wanted. Which was good, because as soon as we got up there (after a ride in a little pod much like a front loading washing machine), I was ready to go back down. I don't consider myself afraid of heights but I felt very unstable up there and was afraid the floor was going to come out from beneath us. I tried to keep calm and take a few pictures and five minutes later, we were on our way down.
While Nathan at a bit of lunch, Amos and I wandered around the Midwest Expansion Museum, looking at things pertaining to the Lewis and Clark expidition. Amos liked all of the giant stuffed animals and we said hello to them, making the appropriate animal noise!
Soon we were on our way home, realizing we needed to stop for gas. The next exit with a gas station had the Golden Arch Raceway, a truck stop and little else. We couldn't believe how close we were to the city and yet, how oddly strange and un-city like this place was. After grabbing lunch and gas, we headed home. Amos and I napped and Nathan drove, enjoying the sunshine.
Here are pictures to go along with the stories, enjoy!

Nathan and Luke, as they practice.

Amos, this year and last year.

We enjoyed the zoo!

Snuggling after swimming and a bath!

Blowing bubbles!

Suzy and Nathaniel Thompson make their getaway!

We're all dressed up!

Fun with the Baileys, Kevin and Sam Vanden Brink, the Ecks and the Mortons!

Date night!!!

The transfer!


Ready to sightsee!



Going up in our pod.

Looking down on the flooded Mississipp.





Amos and the animals!
Refueling!
Trying to get us and the Arch in one picture...oh well!