I forget about....

I hate having to leave my children to go on a business trip. I would much rather be at home with them...most times. See...when we are at home they mostly fight and throw things at each other. It is never a dull moment at our house. But I love home. It makes me feel so warm and cozy!

But when we opened the door to our hotel room at the Embassy Suites...I had to pick up my jaw off of the floor....
Above is the sitting area.

Above is the TV in the sitting area looking into the bedroom.

Above is the mini kitchen and work station

And this is the KING size bed. I want this bed...the mattress anyway. Our mattress is horrible. For this reason...I forget about home. Just for a brief moment...What's that you say? I have children...3 of them. You must have me confused with someone else.

Really I do miss my kids...sort of.

Meet me in St. Louie

And that was what we did, well, actually, we met them in St. Louis. As I told you in a previous blog we went on family vacation in September. We had a great time. I will briefly enlighten you about our adventure. My Mom, Dad, Mia and Jason took the kids while Josh and I were still in Jackson, MS. Mindy stayed behind on this trip, she had one of her own, she went to Disney World. We got there later that night. This first picture should be the last, since this was our last stop on our way home, but I will get to that. Our first day there we went to the St. Louis Zoo. We all Loved it! The train was so fun, but you wouldn't guess that by the look on Andrew's face. We went in the petting zoo, which made me nervous, mainly because the goats and their horns were at eye level with Nathan. They had peacocks just roaming free through the zoo, such a beautiful bird. The Memphis Zoo could take some landscaping pointers, it was gorgeous! The flowers where just beautiful.

After a long day at the zoo we went to the Annual Hot Air Balloon Race. Let's just say that was not the best idea due to the 3 plus mile walk, one way, to get to the field with the balloons. It was like nothing I have ever seen before! Out of the whole trip that was the most interesting thing by far. I have only seen a hot air balloon on tv or in books, never in person. They are HUGE, loud and hot, hence the name...The picture below is of one of the balloons being inflated. After all of them were up, they sounded a horn and all of them lit up the night sky. It was neat, I only wish my camera would have been able to capture the glow.

We went to Six Flags on the second day. I found another thing that Nathan is absolutely petrified of, any mascot. He wouldn't even stand close enough for us to get his picture with them, not even if one of us was holding him. He literally climbed up Josh and tried to jump over his head. Andrew and Kalan didn't have any problems with them. We did have a great time. Andrew and Kalan got to ride their first roller coaster. Kalan did great on the first one, but she lost it on the second one. From then on she rode the rides with Nathan. We did get rained on that day, but they did not put a damper on our fun.

We went to Busch Stadium the last day there. It was raining and cold. The kids are looking out of the parking garage at the stadium. At that point it was pouring down rain and we had 2 blocks to walk out in the rain to get to the Club Store in the stadium.

We wanted to visit the Arch that day too, but it was foggy and raining and I was not getting out in the cold rain again. It still was very beautiful looking at it from our warm car. We would love to go back and spend more time there.

Shiloh Trip

Last Sunday was our annual trip to Shiloh National Military Park. It was the 147th anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh. They do reenactments every year. Josh, the kids and I enjoy going to see it. This is one of my favorite statues in the park, it's fairly new. The Daughters of the Revolution provided this in remembrance of the state of Tennessee and the Soldiers that fought for her. This was the Confederate Calvary reenactment. The kids like the horses and the guns.

I thought this was a very cool pile of rifles. I thought it made for a very interesting picture.



This flag was on a covered wagon in the camp.

This is the visitor's center, besides the tee pee and other tents it looked like Scarlet O'Hara's house in Gone with the Wind.

This was the fist stop we made when we got there, the restrooms. The little kids liked scaling the wall.

Aren't we a group of lookers?

My father-in-law loves all things Civil War. It might seem strange to some, but this is how the Meredith Crew spends a little quality family time. The last time that we went it snowed on us, this time it was quite nice, not too cold and not too hot. The kids really enjoy going. The camp they have is set up in period and the people are really into their roles. Very fun to see and the kids get a kick out of it. Nothing says walking through wooded areas to see giant stone monuments like microscopic ticks!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah, we were all pulling up and down clothes in the middle of the road pulling a hep of teny tiny ticks off of us. We all had at least 3 each. GROSSSSSSSS!!!!!! But it was still fun and we all agreed we would have gone anyway to see the Indian Mounds, ticks or no ticks. If you have never been then I strongly recommend you go.