Part 2 Missouri/Illinois- The people

*Play song, Route 66 with this post as well

We had many reasons for wanting to see Missouri and Illinois- Steve's mission (which I already mentioned) and families he met while there. But, there was also another Ch18 family that lived there that wasn't going to the conference, that we had talked with online and the phone and really wanted to meet in person. So, we made plans to meet up with them for dinner the night of the 18th, which was Monday evening. So basically after we'd been trooping all around downtown St. Louis in the heat, we got to go meet up with the Zyducks/Wrights sweaty and gross for dinner ;)

At dinner

The Wrights/Zyducks- Theresa, Chloe, Gavin, Taylor and Brittany

Our best attempt with all the kids... you know how that goes ;) Though, I did think it cute that little Gavin couldn't keep his hands off Em (so to speak)!

Then, after dinner we decided to go to the mall for a bit

 Em and Gav riding the fire-truck

And cute Ms. Chloe on the Jeep

The next day, Tuesday (the 19th), we met up with them again for an initial plan of going to The Magic House (basically like the Children's Discovery Museum at the Gateway in Salt Lake, but much bigger!). The Zyducks got there before us though, and unfortunately it was way too crowded (no where to even park!). So we decided on the St. Louis Science Center, which is free.

*Don't know how we didn't manage to get any pictures of Gavin here ??

 Looking at the ball-chute mechanism (best I could do on the name!)

The barbaric dinosaurs (yes the T-Rex is killing the Triceratops!)

 Standing Em in the dinosaur footprint, Chloe about to join in ;)

 Em trying to hold Chloe's hand (they are a month apart)

Cute, cute girls!

This is where we said goodbye to the Wright/Zyduck family :( But hopefully we'll see them at next year's conference in San Antonio!

After we were all done at the Science Center, we went to Ted Drewes for some shakes. It was so hot that Em did not appreciate being out of the car for very long, and sadly this was an outdoor place! So, we obliged to eat in the air conditioned car... what sacrifices we make for our girl ;)! But no, seriously, there has been record high heat everywhere we've been, so really we couldn't have picked a better time to visit :S

Steve has a picture just like this from his mission too, only a few years younger ;)

After driving around a bit, it was time to go to the house of one of the families Steve served on his mission in Waterloo, Illinois. This was the McCann family, and Em and I are so glad we got to meet them! As well, as I'm sure Steve was really happy to catch up with them!

But first he had to show us his apartment in this area. Funny, when we were taking this picture, the guy who lived there came and poked his head out wearing nothing but underwear mind you! He probably was wondering why in the heck we'd want a picture in front of this place!

The McCann clan

Alyssa, who was only 4 or 5 the last time Steve saw her

Alyssa, Reed and Karen making Em laugh

 Giving Karen hugs *so sweet!

And the whole family (at least the ones who still live at home) with Em and Steve

So, that's it for this part of the trip! Next up will be the conference..... and it may have to be broken up as well, seeing as we've taken so many pictures and have so many amazing things to tell!!

Second stop- Missouri/Illinois, part 1- Sight Seeing

* Play song Route 66 with this post


** This stop had to be broken up into two posts since there were so many pictures! So first, this one is just dedicated to the sight seeing, pretty much restricted to Kansas City (MO), Columbia (MO) and of course St. Louis!

So, after we left Nebraska we headed toward Missouri to our destination on Old Historic Route 66 in Eureka. We had a couple reasons to stay here, including seeing another Ch18 family, the Wright/Zyducks and to see the area Steve served his LDS mission in for two years, over 11 years ago! 

Unfortunately we had to add over 2 hours to our driving time, due to flooding of the Missouri River, there were a lot of roads that lead to the bridges being closed! Took us all the way into Kansas, which means that we'll have been through 5 states in about 4 days (6 states total for the trip)! But, it was kind of nice since we weren't in any hurry and so we got to see a lot more on our road trip :)

Like this

A new LDS temple being built outside of Kansas City, MO. Saw another family from Utah while we stopped here too

And stopped in Columbia so we could drop $50 to pick up some medicine we I forgot at home

And got to see "The Zou"

But then we finally made it! And I'll tell ya, in the world of miserable heat, it's a whole other world here! Close to 100% humidity the first day we explored, which was when we were outside most of the day :P At least we saw a lot, and had fun for the most part!

 The church near the arch and the arch

We went underneath the arch so that we'd be able to get tickets to go up inside it, and they have a lot of cool stuff in there. Like a history museum

Ahhh, the dreaded "ankle chop"!! I mostly did it to be funny with Steve, because it's something we talk about all the time that you should never do!! Professional or not!

Then it was time to go in the arch... kind of pricey, but worth the experience to do it once. It was pretty cool being over 630 feet in the air and seeing everything! You have to ride a tram to the top, and it's pretty much a really tiny pod that they cram 5 people (in our case 6 with Em on my lap) into for a 4 minute ride.

At the top

Some views from the tiny windows

Emarie taking it all in

 Silly girl, always sticking that tongue out! Going to be funny to see what she does once it's clipped (which is happening on the 17th of August!)

A look at downtown St. Louis before our Riverboat ride on the Mississippi

On the riverboat

 The statue that's not supposed to be under water of the Louis and Clark expedition

 Pure awesome!

Em was one tired girl here!

 Very, very tired... and hot!

 Poor attempt at a family picture... it really was miserably hot, even the locals were complaining!

 The Riverboat we were just on

Last look at the arch as we ascended the 60+ stairs carrying Em, stroller and all!

So that's it for this part, next part will be the wonderful families we spent time with here and spots from Steve's mission!

First trip post- Grand Island, Nebraska

 * Play song, Life is a Highway with this post

I do have to start by saying that we went to the final Harry Potter movie last night... iMax 3D, and it was hands down the best of the series... and probably will go into my top 10 best movies of all time! The whole experience could have been a little better though... if they had started the movie on time for instance (6:20 as apposed to 6:00 when it should have started), and people followed the cardinal rules of the theater! But all in all, so glad we did it before we left, because I know I would have been thinking about it the whole time.... well, not that I'm not, but at least I'm not wishing I was seeing it :)

We left this morning around 6, and due to a little unscheduled car-sickness (me :P), had a few more stops than planned, but still made good time and got to our destination in Grand Island, Nebraska at 7:30 pm (6:30 Utah time though), so just over 12 hours, not too bad!

Em was a lot better than I thought she'd be, and would have been perfect if we hadn't gotten her up so early! Late night+ not willing to sleep in cars= somewhat grumpy girl! She did finally relent and slept about 15 minutes at one point, and 45 another... and was pretty content when we made it to our cabin

The small, tight, quaint cabin... or what I fondly referred to as, a tree house without the tree :) Chosen because, it's far more cost efficient than a hotel

 And yes, those are my feet

Em doing what she's done for most of the tip so far... watching movies! (Toy Story here, in case you were curious)

The toad Steve caught outside our cabin

Em wasn't quite sure what to think, or what all the fuss was about

And this is right before it deployed it's defense mechanism.... that is, it peed all over Steve's shirt ;) Fun times!