:Vacation: Part 1

I wanted to post something about vacation. I will have to go get the memory card from the camera for pics, so I'll see if I'm motivated to walk up the stairs to do this... yes, I am being lazy this Friday of summer vacation! At any rate, we left on Monday morning around 7:30am. We had a hotel reservation in St. Louis, so that was day 1 destination. It was a good trip, only about 7 hours of driving time. Our hotel room was.... a bargain find by Jeremy. He is really good at finding these, and they are usually great. Today started off a bit shaky however. Outside the temperature was probably about 95F and humid! Inside the room was about 105F and humid! Yep, no A/C had been turned on prior to our arrival. I am all about being green and conserving energy, but this was not what is normal in American hotels. Naturally, we turned the A/C up to its highest setting and let it blow. Sounds great, right? Well, it took a good 2 hours for the room to actually cool down to a place where you didn't feel like you needed to lay there without touching anything. After that, the hotel was not so bad. We me up with Jeremy's aunt and cousins at the hotel. They were traveling back to Texas and needed a stopping point, so we all stopped together. It was fun to spend a little more time with them. We went to eat at Johnny Rockets and watch the movie, Night at the Museum 2 which was a great movie. It made me laugh like the first one had.

We headed out the next morning after stopping by Cabella's around 11:30am. We only had about 7 more hours to travel before arriving in Hesston, KS. We made it in time for a great supper at my aunt's house with my cousin's family and my parents. It was good to see everyone. I went for a walk with my aunt, my mom, and my cousin that evening. I needed to get moving a little after being basically sedentary and strapped to a car seat for two days - I wonder how small children do it?? Then, I crashed into bed in the freezing cold that is my aunt's basement. It was wonderful.

On Wednesday, we did some cooking - well, I did very little, and my mom and aunt did a lot more. They were preparing for the two family reunions coming up that they were basically cooking all meals for! Crazy! My brothers and their families arrived sometime during this day. We all met up at my uncle's house for a pre-reunion meal - hamburgers, pasta salad, mac and cheese, fruit salad, and pudding dessert. It was delicious, loud, and good to see everyone. I say loud because of all the little children that had descended upon us :)

We moved all our things to a local hotel where we were housed for the rest of the week. That way when all my mom's side came in, we could all be together in one place. It was a nice hotel with an excellent breakfast every morning, a pool, and pre-air-conditioned rooms!
To be continued....