We're home and last few days summary

7-16 3:30PM
We're in the home stretch now- only 70 more miles to go before we get home. I think I always go into these trips expecting the worst so that when I look back on them I can tell myself 'that wasn't so bad.' The kids have been cranky and ornery with each other today, but really no more than any other day- it just started earlier. They are playing together congenially at the moment in the back, but it probably won't last until we home in about an hour.

We are all anxious to be home, but I think the heat may change our minds pretty quickly. It said on the Weather Channel last night that Denver was supposed to be 105 today; usually the Springs is about 5 degrees cooler, but not always. Any way you slice it, it is HOT HOT HOT when you don't have A/C. I will certainly miss the A/C we've had in the hotels the last 3 weeks.

A few things I discovered/learned on our trip:
*going on a 3 week road trip in the middle of potty-training is not a positive thing
*The kids can behave well together even after 4 straight days in the car
*We can't make it through a trip without 'losing' a child for a few minutes
*It saves you lots of time to make sure that both parties understand exactly where and when to meet up if you are going to go off separately for a little while.
*Learning can be lots of fun- little people learned this as the big people already knew it ;)
*Old-fashioned games are still entertaining and fun, even for today's high-tech kids
*The mess in the van only increases as the trip goes along, so make sure to at least start out with things organized in the beginning. (and don't have any illusions that you can find things a 'proper place' after you start out, it just doesn't happen)
*Doing laundry for 7 people late at night in a laundromat with only an 8 month old around to 'help' takes way too long.
*Sarah attracts attention wherever we go.
*I love being able to take my laptop and spend the hours driving in the van scrapping.
*Yes, a giant plastic tarp wrapped around duffle bags in the car-top carrier can keep the clothes bags dry even in the worst down-pours and hours of light rain.
*East coast traffic is much worse than CO traffic even at its peak hours. (just reminded of that little tidbit we had learned previously)
*Meeting your online friends in real life is awesome!
*I did not miss cooking or doing dishes at all the whole trip, though PB sandwhiches were starting to get old.

things we lost:
Bear Blankie- FOUND
diaper wipes box
1 watch- thought it might be buried in the van somewhere, but it hasn't been found yet after the initial unloading if that is the case
2 baby spoons- FOUND
1 bowl
2 socks, of course they each leave half-pairs
1 pair 3T shorts- of course part of a set
- considering that we were gone for over 3 weeks, I think that list is amazingly short.


Here's a couple of pics from the last couple days of the trip- the Arch in St.Louis as we were driving through town Friday night.
Sarah and I spent the day with Dale, while Mark and the older kids went to the St.Louis zoo and science center. They really enjoyed the zoo, particularly the penguin exhibit which was very well done. There were evidently a few too many day camp groups at the science center really enjoyable. i enjoyed my few hours with Dale and his daughter Debbie- it was neat to see pictures from their recent trip to England for the 389th BG reunion; hopefully one of these years my parents and I will be able to go see the places for ourselves. We also spent the afternoon going through Dale's WWII scrapbook and seeing the new things he has added to it since I saw him last.

The Kansas City, MO zoo has some nice animal exhibits, but they are all really spread out and the temperature was so high Saturday that we didn't stay to see them all. The sea lion show was good and we saw a demo with the elephants too. Their chimpanzee exhibit is fabulous.

Science City in Union Station at Kansas City. I have to say that this science center was pretty neat, though most of the time it seemd more like a big huge playground than a learning place as the science explanations were either non-existent or off to the side where you missed them. It was a cool playground though.
Bryce's favorite spot was the miniature golf holes, and the place he ran off to do one more time just as we were ready to leave, delaying our departure for over 30 minutes while we looked for him. The girls' favorite thing was getting to ride the sky bike- they just made the height cutoff to ride the bike here (they weren't tall enough at the Franklin Institute where Bryce rode one).