Vacation--Itinerary

We went on a family vacation a couple of weeks ago.  We all had an awesome time; it was great to have some uninterrupted family time.

Our Itinerary:

*Sunday: drive to Springfield, MO; we stopped in Tulsa for lunch at Los Cabos (one of our favorites from when we lived there); after checking into our hotel and relaxing for a bit we went to Bass Pro (the original store--it's huge); we had dinner there and Luke loved seeing all the live and stuffed animals; our final stop was playing miniature golf.

*Monday: drive to St. Louis, MO; we stopped in Stanton, MO to take a tour of Meramac Caverns (Troy and I weren't too impressed as far as caves go but it was fun); once we got to St. Louis we checked into our hotel and again relaxed for a bit; we then went out for pizza and after eating we went downtown to check out the arch.

*Tuesday: go to the St. Louis zoo; we spent pretty much the whole day at the zoo; it was an amazing zoo and we all enjoyed it; Troy and Luke went swimming at the hotel when we got back while Hannah and I relaxed; we had left over pizza for dinner (our room had a kitchen) and then we went out for some amazing custard.

*Wednesday: this was a very busy day; we started at the Budweiser factory for a tour--we just did the beginning of the tour so we could see the Clydesdales; we then went to the MO Botanical Gardens which was beautiful and I could have spent all day there but we left after eating lunch; the Magic House was our next stop--we all really enjoyed this too; we then drove 45 minutes to Alton, IL--this is where my mom grew up and where my grandparents are buried; I haven't been there since my grandfather's funeral before Luke was born and knew the chance probably wouldn't happen again soon; we visited the cemetary, drove by their house, drove along the river road (Alton is located right along the Mississippi River) and had dinner at a family favorite restaurant before heading back to our hotel.

*Thursday: drive to KC; we got to my mom's house about 3; we spent the rest of the day just hanging out with my mom, aunt, sister and step-dad; my mom had had back surgery a week before and it was great to see her doing so well and recovering quickly.

*Friday: we spent the morning at my mom's and then after lunch we headed to Great Wolf Lodge; after checking in we got to the waterpark around 2:15 and Hannah and I spent about an hour and a half splashing and exploring before we headed back to the room for a nap; Troy and Luke stayed until about 4:45; Troy's parents came to KC to meet us for dinner; we went to a restaurant called T-Rex (you can guess why); it was a big hit and the food wasn't bad either; we got back to the hotel about 7:45--just in time for story time in the lobby of the hotel at 8; after story time LJ went to bed and the rest of us tried to be relatively quiet so he could sleep.

*Saturday: I decided that Hannah and I would go shopping in the morning and swim in the afternoon; Luke claimed he didn't want to go swimming in the morning but would rather go shopping--we tried and tried to convince him this wasn't a great idea but he insisted so we all went shopping; after the first 20 minutes Luke was done but he survived until we had lunch and then headed back to the hotel; we all  got ready to go swimming which Hannah and I did for about an hour and half again before nap time; Troy and Luke spent all afternoon at the waterpark; we had dinner at the hotel after we spent some time in the arcade; we repeated story time and the quiet evening as well.

*Sunday: we checked out of the hotel and headed back to my mom's for lunch; Troy was flying to Houston for the week so Sarah offered to drive back home with the kids and I (thank you Sarah); we left for home about one and got home about 6:15.