St. Louis, MO

We took the whole family on a trip to St. Louis over the weekend so Blake and I could go to the St. Louis temple. (If you’re not LDS and want to know more, go here.  You can click on additional info as well.)
Well, actually I should say MOST of the family went. Michael had a Boy Scout meeting that he had to be to so one of our friends offered to let Michael stay with them and then take him to his Scout meeting. That made it so we could fit the whole family in one car, which was nice. But I don’t know if it was worth it - it was really squishy with all 8 of us in one car, plus I really missed Michael. The other kids missed him too. It just didn’t feel right to have one of the family members missing. Caleb kept calling, “Miiiiichael!” everywhere we went and asking if he was on a bus (just like he does when Michael goes to school). At one point he heard me say I miss Michael and said, “Michael. Miss.” So cute. Those two boys are so incredibly close.

It was a great experience to go to the temple… and especially to go as husband and wife because it has been awhile since we’ve been to the temple together. But it was such a LONG drive. It’s supposed to be a 4 to 4.5 hour drive. Of course with kids it turned into a 5 hour drive. I’ve decided I’m not a good traveler. The kids did great, but I was stressed out the whole time. I now see why Blake is happy to send me on a plane with the baby while he drives the other 6 kids alone.

We swapped baby sitting with two other families from church so that we could all go as couple. Blake and I watched the other kids (6 plus ours) and then the 2 couples watched our kids.

After the temple, we went to see the arch and the Mississippi River since we were so close. I’ve never seen either and was pretty impressed, although I was freaked out driving over the river! Katie loved the water and kept singing, “Big, big water” (from Land Before Time). I hate driving over rivers and that one is especially large! We didn’t have time to go up in the arch but the kids all thought it was cool.

So it was a good trip but a bit long and crazy. The craziest part was when we got home. We got home Saturday night at 10pm. I was hoping to get home way before that, but we took a long time getting home. So I got the very tired kids in their pjs and was about ready to put them in bed when Lydia and Anna called me in their room and said, “Mom, we both have bites on our tummies.” My first thought was bed bugs. Eeeew! I knew about them from a few months ago when I found a bug in Lydia’s bed. Being the clean-freak, anti-bug person that I am, of course I had to research bed bugs. It turns out it was just a random beetle in her bed… no big deal, and we’ve never had any critters at all since then. So I knew all about bed bugs and how people often get them from hotels. We stayed at a rather cheap hotel because someone else booked it for us. So I immediately freaked out. Luckily we left all the stuff in the car so it was still contained. I took off their new pjs (which is really sad because that means so much more laundry to do) and gave them all a bath. While I was bathing a few kids, Elizabeth got tired and got in her bed without telling anyone… pre-bath. So being the clean-freak again, I felt like I had to change her sheets. I woke up Elizabeth, gave her a bath, changed her sheets, etc. What an absolute nightmare. I was cleaning/bathing till about 1 am with tired, sad kids. I kept thinking that they most likely weren’t bed bugs. And I half hoped that Blake would tell me I was being excessive and didn’t need to do all that. We both aren’t really sure if that’s what the bites were from, but we both agree that we should do a little extra work now to prevent a LOT of work and expense later. So I was grossed out as I sincerely hate bugs of all kinds. It’s taken me 2 days to get everything washed and cleaned. The procedure is to first isolate those clothes in plastic bags then wash all clothes, bedding, pillows, etc. in hot water. I also had to vacuum the entire van… and I had to do that on Sunday morning before church because I didn’t want the clean kids getting in a van that’s possibly contaminated. I had to vacuum and wash all the backpacks and luggage too. So like I said, it was a nightmare. BUT… everything and everyone is now clean and hopefully (**cross my fingers**) bug free. I’m not staying at a cheap hotel ever again! And I think the next time we go to the temple, we will go to a closer temple in Omaha. We did have some good times as a family though, even though it was crazy.