Saturday turned into an adventurous day for our family. We had planned to travel up to the St. Louis Temple and spend a fun day in the city afterward. However, about twenty miles away from the temple we blew a tire. On an eight lane highway. Thankfully Edward got over to the shoulder safely, but it was scary.
Let me just say, vehicle operation manuals should be much easier to understand. When you're shaken and nervous it's hard to get your wits about you. If you've never changed a tire, you should be able to easily follow the instructions. It took us about twenty minutes to calm down long enough to figure out the first step to change the tire.
And wouldn't you know, two of the kids had to go to the bathroom. I gave them two options. 1.) Strap on one of Lucy's diapers or 2.) Walk into the woods twenty-five feet away. They chose the woods. I asked Edward if it would be inappropriate for me to get out the camera and document the situation for my blog. After a laser beam was emitted from his eyeballs, I told him I was kidding. Kind of. And not two minutes after Tina Tiny Bladder and her partner, Mr. Puddles, got back into the van, a police officer pulled up behind us. I honestly don't know what I would have told him if he saw two children emerge from the woods and get into our van while we sat reading a vehicle operating manual as our back tire lay shredded on the side of the road. The officer made sure we were okay and then headed on his way.
An hour later we were rolling again, this time on the spare. And for my sisters-in-law that are reading this, YES, my manly husband changed the tire. I know you will be impressed! We were a mile from a tire service station when the tire blew. $750 later (ouch) and an hour later we were good as new. We didn't have time to make it to the temple, so we grabbed a bite to eat and decided to head to the St. Louis Arch.
We parked and planned to make a quick stop inside and to the top. That didn't quite happen. Now, I've lived close to the Arch all of my life. I have only been up to the top once, and that was when I was about eight years old. The last time I went up, it was a quick trip. Being a Saturday in July, we did not have a quick trip. We were there for nearly four hours. While I recommend going to the Arch, I don't recommend going on a Saturday in July. Perhaps a Tuesday morning in March, but not a Saturday in July. WAY too crowded.
After all is said and done, I'm glad the kids got to experience the Arch. It's one thing we can cross off our To Do list.
(The photos are in a mixed up order. Blogger has an updated posting format that I still have to get used to.)
The Arch's shadow on the Mighty Mississippi
Drew, Elizabeth, and Edward at the top
We saw the U2 concert being set up inside Busch Stadium.
The kids inside the tiny little tram
