Meet Me in St. Louis

CJ slept much better last night (therefore JT and I also got to sleep better!) Today we got to spend all day in St. Louis. Our hotel is right downtown, so we were able to walk to both of our "activities" today which was so nice!!!

This morning we went to the Gateway Arch. We weren't sure if we'd be able to go up to the top or not, but we were able to get tickets, and we are so glad we did!

The ride up was interesting...the tram consists of little egg shaped "pods". If you have any hint of claustrophobia you better not ride them because they are tight!

The view of the city from the top was amazing!!

And I thought the view straight down was neat too since you could see the shadow of the arch!

CJ enjoyed getting to peek out!

And we made time for some tickling at the top too!!

It just so happens that this week is "Marine Week" in St. Louis, so they had lots of displays of military equipment for people to check out.

My favorite was getting to see my "big boy" with a BIG gun!!

So glad we got to see the Gateway Arch, inside and out! It was really cool!

We came back to the hotel so that CJ could take his nap. The hotel lobby has some statues with a water fountain, and CJ was loving the "woof woof". He ended up sleeping for about 2.5 hours, which was good because we knew he was going to have a later evening than usual!

One thing that JT and I really enjoy doing when we travel, is going to MLB games when we can. It is so fun getting to experience all the different ballparks (and their foods!). So tonight we went to the St. Louis Cardinals game versus the Toronto Blue Jays.

We didn't want to bring the stroller, so I wore CJ in my ERGObaby when we walked the two blocks over. Considering he weighs about 25lbs, it is very supportive and comfortable to wear!

It was a nice park, and CJ really enjoyed all the sights, sounds and snacks!

He also had fun trying on Dada's hat!

We made it about 4 innings, and then we knew it was "time". Today was a really good day, and we very much enjoyed St. Louis so far. Tomorrow we plan to go to the zoo (it's free!) before leaving town, continuing our westward trek!

Day 2 on the Road

We had a bit of a rough night last night with CJ. He ordinarily sleeps through the night, but we think his baby canine teeth are trying to break through. :( Poor little guy! He ended up coming to sleep with us around 3:30am so we all got a later start than we wanted to this morning as a result. We slept through the breakfast at the hotel so we went to Cracker Barrel instead! CJ was double-fisting the fruit as fast as he could!

After eating, we headed over to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. This place was AMAZING!!! We've been to several children's museums, and this one was by far the best ever!

We could easily see why it is considered "World's Best"! JT and I got super excited as Transformer fans because the very first thing we got to see was a HUGE BubbleBee!! It was really cool.

CJ had a great time too!! He loved the driving cars, and kept saying "vroom vroom"!!

He also had fun being an astronaut,

and a Pirate,

and a Train Conductor!

CJ got to make some friends,

and dig in the Sand!

We ate lunch at the Museum before hitting the road for our 4 hour drive to St. Louis, MO. CJ took a 2 hour nap (all that hard work at the Museum really wore him out!).

We stopped at the world's largest catsup bottle (aka water tower!!), before arriving in St. Louis this evening.

Looking forward to exploring this city tomorrow and hoping that the teething gets better for little CJ!!

The Beginning of a New Chapter

After lots of "goodbyes" over the last few weeks, today we left Ann Arbor and started our road trip toward San Diego!! Although I know God has lots of great stuff planned for this next chapter of our life, we will very much miss all the good friends we made in Michigan!!

I will miss Mom's Nights Outs with my friends:

We will miss having great neighbors:

I will miss catching up with former co-worker friends over food and drinks:

CJ will miss having such a great babysitter (so will we!):

The house is empty, and it was very sad to see it that way...thinking "this is where we brought CJ home from the hospital", "this is where CJ took his first steps"...

Today, we drove from Ann Arbor, MI

to Indianapolis, IN.

I wish I could say we saw some really awesome stuff along the way, but honestly it was mostly farms. We hit a couple of rain storms, and it was really windy, but JT did a great job driving!

A few highlights:

Two Big Boys, ha ha!

An 18wheeler truck that had glass windows on the trailer so you could see the car it was carrying!!

A few water towers that were unusual:

And this one: How immature am I?! But I thought this was funny! Ha ha!

And I wish we could have stopped here:

CJ had a great first day of "road tripping". He did so well considering we were in the car for about 4 hours!!

Napping on the road:

Watching "Cars" on the iPad

JT and I were talking on the drive how it feels good to have everything "done". For weeks and weeks we've been working so hard to get things sold on Craigslist, packed/organized for the move, finishing JT's thesis and presentation, and trying to schedule time to see everyone and do everything we needed to before leaving...now we don't have anything left on the "to do" list! We just "have to" enjoy this road trip with our son! :) We have a fun day planned tomorrow at the Children's Museum here in Indianapolis, and then we are off to St. Louis!