A Quick Family Roadtrip to STL

So on Friday morning, we loaded up my mom's car (which we borrowed because it has an in-car DVD player) and headed off on a quick 36 hour family road trip.  Let's be honest...this trip was like 5% for Elyse & I and about 95% for Hubby because he was ordering new golf clubs at this great golf shop that's about 3 1/2 hours from our house.  We didn't really have a great option for an overnight sitter so we just decided to make the best of it and take Elyse along for the ride. 

 

And let me just say...packing for a quick roadtrip was A LOT easier when I didn't have a two year old who had three additional bags just for herself...diaper bag; car bag full of toys, snacks, & movies; and of course her suitcase full of clothes, diapers, & sippy cups!

We headed out and let Elyse watch Finding Nemo until we stopped for lunch.  We probably stopped a little too late, and lunch took a little too long...and the rest of the driving portion was a chore.  We wrongly assumed that Elyse would nap well in her carseat...I think I got about 30 minutes out of her and that was after I wiggled my way into the backseat while driving down the highway (don't judge) and she finally dozed off with my arm draped across her lap & my head resting against her carseat.  Silly girl! 

 

We dropped Hubby off at his club-fitting appointment and made our way to Target to stretch our legs and waste a little bit of time.  The only movie Elyse has been talking about recently (that we don't already own) is Planes.  I have no idea why she loves it so much...but she does.  So...after a quick trip to Target for a movie, milk, and M&M's and momma not really being in the mood to chase her through other stores...I plopped us both in the backseat of my mom's car & we proceeded to simply watch Planes in the nice warm car while we waited on Hubby.  I might have treated myself to a visit to Sonic just for surviving the last 2 hours of our trip!   

After Hubby was finished, we had planned to have a nice family dinner at Maggiano's...kind of our Valentine's Day dinner as a family.  However...after such a long afternoon and Elyse spending WAY too much time in the car, we decided to cancel our reservation and go to the nearest mall that also had a Cheesecake Factory.  This gave Elyse some time to run around & burn off some energy after being couped up in the car. 

 

Our one parenting fail...showing her the cheesecake case.  There was a slight wait for our table so we showed her all the yummy goodies, only to have her lock her eyes on the Strawberry topping.  NOTHING would do but for her to have strawberries...and NOW!!!  Thankfully we were seated quickly, had a gem of a waitress who has a 2 yo & a 4 yo, and Elyse proceeded to have a meal that consisted of 3 kiddie plates of strawberries & some bread.  You know...you gotta do, what you gotta do!  We had NO idea how much those strawberries were going to cost us, but at the time we didn't care at all!  Thankfully we just ended up with 3 $2.50 charges for the berries...SCORE! 

 

We headed back to the hotel and after playing for awhile, we put Elyse down in the sleeper sofa and Hubby & I cuddled up to watch the Olympics Opening Ceremonies...on MUTE for fear of waking up Elyse after such a long day!  ha! 

 

Saturday morning we woke up, had a quick breakfast at the hotel and then headed out for a few shopping stops before heading back home. 

 

This is our current "cheese" face...cute huh!?

Our first stop was Trader Joe's where Elyse had an absolute ball with the mini-shopping carts, and only managed to take out one gentleman in the checkout line. 

 

We made a fairly quick stop at a mall and then stopped at a local pizza joint for lunch.  Dewey's Pizza was a great recommendation by my bloggy friend Sara & we'll definitely be stopping there again on our trips to STL. 

We loaded back up and hit the road again...PRAYING that God would grant us the gift of a little girl napping.  And nap she did...for almost two hours! 

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at Hubby's parents house before heading to our church for a Valentine's Day Banquet put on by our church.  I failed to take a SINGLE picture, but they had a photo booth setup and we'll get those pictures back next week so I promise to share! 

 

Yesterday after church we spent our afternoon resting, recovering & recouperating from the roadtrip...we all needed it! 

 

And of course today...in true Missouri winter fashion...it's snowing again.  Or it snowed again.  At least a big warm-up is finally in the forecast, 50 degree temps this weekend and I'm going to think about wearing shorts!