Missouri Loves Company!

So today Daddy and I got up early to finishing prepping for our trek to Branson for a week of lounging, vegging, and cuddling   First stop, St. Louis!  I got home very late last night from work and was up this morning after only four hours of sleep, so I was very happy when Daddy brought me a Venti Skinny Mocha  after his quick run to the grocery this morning–it was the caffeine jolt I needed to get up and going.  I technically was still working today, so he was kind enough to drive while I kept my work laptop and cell handy for the drive.  I have to admit one of my weaknesses as a citizen in our age of technology–I really, really hate it when technological things don’t work they way they should.  In my mind, it’s a piece of equipment programmed to do XYZ, therefore barring a dead battery it should do whatever the hell it is supposed to do!  However, today we had to drive through some pretty rural areas of Iowa to get to St. Louis so I had very spotty access to the internet via my work’s OnePass which made me quite frustrated at times.  My stress was a little high since I had some obligations to fulfill today including a couple of meetings to call into and some other work that had to be completed….however, I made it all work, finished what I needed to do, and was able to  officially “sign off” of work around 4:30.

At one point during our drive, we had to stop for me to take part in an hour long teleconference.  Luckily we were able to grab some lunch to go from McDonald’s (don’t judge!) and go to a park nearby so everyone could eat while I was on the call.  While I handled my call, Daddy and the boys enjoyed running around the park burning off some energy.

Sweaty boys after playing at the park

We finally made it to St. Louis late afternoon today.  I’ve only been here once before for a conference, so it was kinda cool again to see the big arch as we drove into the downtown area.  Earlier in the trip I had told Jackson that we would see a structure that looked like a rainbow, but only realized much later that I didn’t specify it wasn’t colored like a rainbow, just shaped like one.  Details, details!

We have the luxury this time around of staying at the Marriott Union Station and we got two adjoining rooms so that we wouldn’t all be cramped into a single space.  It’s a  really cool reconstructed train depot that it has that modern-yet-early-century-feel so I really dig the set up.  A major bonus is the fact is the former train depot part of the description–Jackson is in heaven!  Although he remains very confused on why there are no actual trains here, other than the toy ones on display.  I gave up trying to convince him they don’t still drive through the hotel, so we’ll just let him believe what he wants on that subject!  We did find a caboose mural that was a good photo op for the kids though while walking through the adjoining mall space.

While Jackson was ecstatic about the train motifs of the hotel, Peyton could care less and was ready to move on!

We walked around earlier and settled on Hard Rock Cafe for dinner.  Peyton was especially cute munching on celery for the first time.  I didn’t think he’d care for it, but he really dug into it!  We didn’t realize it earlier, but he was actually very well dressed for the venue as he was in his Beatles shirt…and needless to say he was happily charming the waitstaff through his style and personality–he’s gonna be quite the popular guy as he gets older!

Would you like some celery with that ranch?

Tomorrow we just have a few hours more to go until we get to Branson.  No real plans made, which I believe can be the best kind of plans there are!  I’m looking forward to the venture–we’ll report more antics from the boys throughout the week!