Final two days, 4/7 and 4/8

Monday we had some grand plans of going to the Magic House and the Museum of Transportation. Well, they were both closed on Monday's. Funny how they both went to Spring hours the first of April, so when I checked their hours online before leaving for our trip, they were still open on Mondays! So we asked the kids what they wanted to do instead and they said they wanted to go back to the zoo. Since we were going to pack and clean up that night, we let them swim for a couple hours that morning. Then we went to Olive Garden again for lunch (yep, my choice).

We thought we'd try and rent a paddle boat and take a stroll around the lake, but you guessed it, they closed early on Monday! So, we went to the zoo and took the train around to all the places we had missed the previous days and the kids rode the carousel. Kyler doesn't like to go up and down, so we found him an animal on the carousel that didn't move. While he was on it, the lady in charge came and told me that the giraffe doesn't go up and down. I said, yep, I know. She said, well, sometimes that matters. I said, yes, sometimes it does. Zadyn rode the zebra and told Dad, who was standing by her, that the zebra was her friend. She informed him that the polar bear was his friend. When the zoo closed at 5, we found a playground at the park and let the kids play for a while before dinner.

We had been seeing White Castle restaurants all over St. Louis. Avery has a White Castle T-shirt. So, it was only natural curiosity that we ate there for dinner on Monday. That was a mistake. The food was GROSS!!! The kids liked the fries, but the burgers, albeit were cheap and small, were very greasy and didn't have much flavor. Not the place to eat at again, that's for sure. So, we went to the Steak and Shake and got milk shakes to wash it all down!

We went back to the hotel and took showers and packed up as much as we could. Avery's favorite part of the day was swimming, the train ride, and EVERYTHING. Kyler liked riding the giraffe at the zoo (carousel). Zadyn liked the zebra that "go up, up, up down." Mom liked the milk shake and the train ride. Dad liked the train ride minus the screaming children in the tunnels.

Tuesday -- we got up very early (5:30 CST) and got the car loaded. All the hotel patrons were not happy with Zadyn screaming because she didn't want to get up!!! She finally settled down enough to get dressed. We took the rental car back and shuttled to the airport. We didn't need to be as early as before since Grant had his wallet this time! We got through security and went to the Burger King for a quick breakfast. The kids thought it was SO cool to eat breakfast in the airport! Our plane left St. Louis at 8:30 CST. Kyler and Zadyn both fell asleep shortly after take-off. They were tired!! We arrived in Salt Lake around 10:30, got the van and loaded it up and headed out. Once we FINALLY made it though the construction, we stopped for lunch in Brigham City. We stopped again in Pocatello to see Sarah and Isaak. Chad and Bailey came over to visit too. Sorry we missed Jeremy, he was working (or so they say). We got back on the road and stopped for dinner at the Pizza Hut in Dillon. All was well until just outside of Missoula (yep, close to home) when Kyler said his tummy hurt. So we slowed down and he said he was fine. So we kept going (famous last words). We made it all the way into Missoula when Kyler threw up. We pulled into a gas station and cleaned him off and continued on. We got home shortly after 10 pm and got the kids ready for bed. They were all tired and so were we. We unloaded what we had to and left the rest. Grant had to work the next day and I had to catch up on laundry.

We had a great time on the trip. The kids are still talking about it and can't wait until I get the pictures printed off for them to have a photo album to look at. I guess I need to do that soon!