Well, it’s been a busy weekend and beginning of the week.

Friday, Graduation Day

We started off our festivities with a graduation from grade school.  This marks my third and final graduation I would be attending this year.  Maddie earned a presidential award for academics.  It was a nice time, and afterward we left for Chicago to begin our vacation.  The kids wanted to buy things at the Lego store and the American girl doll store.

We left and arrived in Chicago in the evening.  We checked into our hotel room, which we pricelined for $50 downtown.  It was literally right downtown.  We were within walking distance from “the Magnificent Mile,” known by that name for it’s shopping and other items of interest.  The room was nice, and it had a flatscreen tv.  But it had to have a flatscreen tv, because a regular tv would not have fit.  You couldn’t walk from one part of the room to the other without running into someone.

Behold:

The queen size beds were actually twins.  It felt like we were sleeping on chiclets.  Still, the price and location couldn’t be beat.

We brought food but decided to eat out, since there’s TGI Fridays all around the area.  We stopped by the Apple store, which is always neat to go in and play with the new toys they have.

Saturday, Traveling to St. Louis

We woke up Saturday to a rainy rainy day:

Still, there was shopping to be done.  After eating some in-room breakfast, I drove the girls to the girl shopping store.  The valet was very nice and held the car at the front of the hotel for me, since the garage was blocks away.  Afterwards, we picked them up and I took off to the ‘boy store’, the lego store.  This was only a few blocks away, so we walked it. Driving in downtown Chicago isn’t the easiest thing, with the construction, traffic, and a GPS system that can’t find satellites because of tall buildings.

We departed after shopping at noon and proceeded on to St. Louis/Collinsville.

We arrived at our room.  This was another $50 priceline special, but this one was quite a bit better appointed:

This was a new hotel, and walking in wearing my ‘driving outfit’ made me feel hideously underdressed.  The rooms for this were likely four times the price we paid, and there was a wedding reception being held there.  Everyone was wearing gowns and formalwear, I was wearing reebok gym shorts and sneakers.

There was a Ponderosa up the road, which is reasonably priced for kids to eat at the buffet, so we decided to eat there.  The she-beastie though is now 12, and doesn’t get kids discounts there anymore.  It ended up being more expensive than we thought, but filling and convienent.

Then, we went swimming and enjoyed the complimentary free WiFi internet access.

Sunday, Catsup, The Arch, and Branson

The hotel was actually in Collinsville, IL – just 10 minutes from downtown St. Louis.  Interestingly, the town is known for having the largest bottle of catsup in the world.  It’s actually a water tower, but still…  being just 2 miles away from our hotel, I had to get pictures.

while my family looked on disinterested from the car

I guess they don’t get the allure of large bottles of catsup (sigh)

We headed down to the St Louis Arch, and took pictures of it and the Mississippi river:

Then we got on the road.  5 hours later, we arrived in Branson and ate at one of our favorite locations there, the Hard Luck Cafe.  The waiters and waitresses sing to you as you eat, and have cd’s for sale in the gift shop.

Afterward, the kids got to spend some time where they wanted to be most – the pool

It was nice, and a welcome sight.

Pictures

There are lots more pictures that I didn’t put in this post, but you can look at them.  There are some other nice ones.

Week 18

This week, the hearing of the baby is supposed to be getting better and better.  It’ll try to cover its ears when it hears loud sounds and can start to hear voices.  It’s going to be gaining weight and size from here on out, having developed almost all of it’s final organs.  Mom is doing well, though is feeling ‘very pregnant’ now.  The long car rides aren’t optimal for her, but she’s doing very well overall.  Sometimes ‘flutters’ can be felt, but the baby is still a bit too small to make the movements felt very often.