The Gateway Arch

So they're not of the house, but at least they're pictures. This is the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. When we were discussing the trip to Ohio, the subject of the arch came up and I immediately laughed and said NO WAY am I going up in that thing! But then we got there and I realized I simply couldn't waste such a golden opportunity, and what kind of sightseeing traveler would I be if I didn't take the chance to get out of the blasted car! So we went. This is a picture of where we parked. Yes. It really is that far away. And yes that is the Big Muddy. And yes, it is big. and muddy. And quite gross. If you'll notice, the parking area isn't next to the river, it's IN the river. The ground was wet under my car. Very odd. It was also trying to decide whether or not to storm, so the air was so thick with humidity you could chew it.

This is a picture of me on the inside of the arch. I know it's hard to tell but you can kind of get a hint of the weird tiny slanty space up there. It looks like I'm leaning over because I am--nothing up there is a 90 degree angle. I had to beat out two grade schoolers and a toddler to get this picture too, they wouldn't move and since the windows are only big enough for one eye to see out at a time there was a bit of intimidation required to get a good picture.











This is a picture looking straight down from the very top. You can see the shadow of the arch and those triangle things at the sides are the feet of the arch. You'll notice the angle...creepy.












This is a picture of my cuties trying as hard as they can to get washed away into Lake Erie. It was a pretty lake, incredibly big, and lots of sand which surprised me...I don't know why it should but it did. Lakes around Salt Lake worth going to are surrounded by rocks. Little smooth rocks to be sure but rocks nonetheless.







This is our trip to the Zoo. We took more pictures of the zoo, however this one portrays the spirit and theme of our visit so succinctly that I just didn't feel the need to add any more.

We left after 5 hours having seen less than half of the exhibits.


We had to hurry VERY quickly past a certain group of monkeys...doing monkey things...that monkeys really shouldn't do...especially RIGHT in front of the glass...with really smug expressions on their faces...

One final note, the rain last night was crazy! Chris and I were in the laundry room and we heard a weird rushing noise like a plane was landing on the house so we rushed to the front door and couldn't open it because Noah was sailing down the street. I wanted to take a picture but we literally couldn't open anything-windows, doors, anything. There was a big flood warning on the tv telling us not to let our children play in the water. Pretty cool.

Yeah Yeah...

I know. I said I'd post pictures after the truck arrived, and here it's been a week and yet there's no pictures. Give me a break will ya? Let me give you a little taste of what's been going on here and maybe then you'll understand.

First, we were trying to get ready for the Taste of Reynoldsburg--the little fair I was making my start in. This is hard to do when you don't even have a kitchen table. so we had to buy one. Then we realized that I had packed the cake pans on the truck. so we had to buy some. Then we found the cake pans where they were carefully packed and realized that what was on the truck was cookie sheets. so we had to buy some.

Sooo, then the truck came and we actually had tons of people come to help us out and it only took a couple of hours to get it all unloaded. Everything we packed carefully came out perfectly--the piano, the dressers, the stereo, the cedar chest, the castle, the bouquet, etc. But...we kind of used the entertainment center as a wall, and since it's about 6 years old and made of Shopko particle board, it didn't fair so well. We got it kind of propped up now and it even holds the TV! You hardly notice the slant... a few dumb little bookshelves gave up their lives, but the real tragedy is my Dragon--most of you probably never saw him but he was beautiful and sparkly and purple and now he's slightly...less. Mostly on the front. I looked for the piece that broke off so I could glue it back on but there was nothing in the box but dust. Apparently I slacked off a bit when i packed that box. But everything else came through great, dishes, glasses, pictures, everything!

So Chris immediately unpacked the printer so he could hook it up and print off the labels I needed for the Taste, but there was no power cord. At this point we had no choice, so we had to buy one. (are you seeing a pattern here?) Not buy a power cord mind you, a new printer. I'm not so sure that I believe it was an accident because I know for a fact that Chris has been wanting a new printer for some time. He even showed me the one he wanted at sams club (that we ended up buying early tuesday morning). Highly suspicious...

So the Taste. We worked hard, all three of us, and got over 600 peices of baked goods made, wrapped, labeled, and ready for sale. I got a premier spot, away from anyone else selling goodies and right next to a bridal boutique, and at the end of the night I counted everything and discovered that I had made a whopping $91. So now my freezer is full of bars and cookies...I donated a big box of sugar cookies to the police officers who were at the Taste...and we took the banana bread with us on our trip to Cleveland. Oh well.

So the next day we slept until about 10:30, stumbled out of bed and into the car and were a good 100 miles away before we realized we forgot EVERYTHING WE COULD EVER NEED. My mom broke her glasses that morning, so she was a little distracted trying to find a store that could replace them while packing in her sunglasses. Chris assumed I knew what he needed, I assumed he would pack/put in my hand anything he needed, and basically we didn't bring anything necessary except for the kids' swimming suits (which we promptly left at the first hotel). I say we went to Cleveland, but though we went through it's boundaries we never actually saw it. We went to WildWater Kingdom at Geauga Lake. It was SO AWESOME!!! It was kind of stormy, but since it was free and the people at the park said the radar looked good, we decided to give it a shot. The best part was that everyone already at the park thought the storm would get worse so they all left!!! Seriously, we got there about 4 and people were leaving in droves because there had just been lightening so the lifeguards made everyone get out of the water. We went in and found our cabana (my brother in law who set this whole thing up for us got us a cabana! it was so cool!!!) and by the time we had ordered food (brought right to us at our reserved, shaded deck chairs by the wave pool) everything was back open and we played and played and played until they closed at 8. It was a ton of fun, and I don't even like water parks.

So that was a good day until we got back and read Chris' email to find that because of the way they are paying his stipend his financial aid is basically nil. So that combined with the less than stellar launching of my little business means that I have to get a job. Which Stinks. Oh well. We also found out that Jimmy has a spot in the day care at OSU, so that's good. expensive but good. so here's the new plan. I'm going to get a job and work this year, promoting my business in my spare time (there's a few little shows I was invited to participate in), and then by next fall when Jimmy's in kindergarten I can just do Faerie Cakes in the morning and be done when he's done and have the rest of the day with my kids. It seems really big and disappointing to me right now, but really it's just making me take more time to ease into this new thing. All that happened was the window for success closed by quite a lot so I have to take the time to open it again myself. No biggie. The thing I'm most excited for is that bridal boutique I was next to in the Taste wants me to create a dummy cake to put in their shop. That should bring me something good I think!

Anyway, I have more to say, mostly about Kirtland, but I have to put kids to bed now and watch more Olympics!!!!!! (I love olympics).

going and going and going...

We are finally here! Let's see if I can condense the last week down into a post small enough to write before I collapse.

We got the truck loaded on Friday, managing somehow to use just over 10 feet of the truck. I say somehow, but it was completely due to my Dad's awesome Tetris skills. Then we cleaned and cleaned and went to a wedding and cleaned and then we loaded up the cars and took off early Monday morning. We each drove a car loaded to the gills with stuff we urgently needed (or forgot to put on the truck) and had walkie talkies and a huge bag of back up batteries so we could keep each other awake. I thought before we left that that would be a bit superfluous because we had cell phones, but actually I was really grateful we had them with us.

I was also extremely grateful we DIDN'T have the kids with us. I missed them, but I barely made it 600+ miles per day--I can't imaging trying to make that drive with kid friendly music and tiny bladders. (I still had to deal with Chris, but at least he was in a different car!!) Just kidding--although I have to say he insisted on more bathroom breaks than I did. But maybe that was him being sweet and looking out for me cause he knew I was trying to muscle my way through.

Anyway, we stopped in Denver the first night and went to dinner with Nikki and Joel and Nikki's fiance Brian (whom we hadn't met before). It was actually a lot of fun, and we ruined the poor waitress' night by sitting there taking up the table for hours.

The next day we drove through Kansas, which was actually a lot prettier than I thought it would be. That's not saying much, but some parts were quite beautiful. Kansas City MO offered a strange welcome--we started across the bridge that takes you over the Missouri river into the city across the state line, and as soon as we saw the "you are entering Missouri" sign, there was an absolutely horrible smell like lake stink and yellowstone and landfill all combined into one. Then we got out of the car and practically drowned just trying to breathe! We drove through several little thunderstorms, so every bit of the drive was extra humid. We were so tired that we couldn't bear the thought of staying up any longer even to get good KC barbeque. So we went to Dennys. I know. But it was really late and we were so tired!!

So then we drove to St. Louis, and as even though I swore I wouldn't, I simply couldn't pass through the city and not go up in the arch. Well that was interesting from the get go. First of all there's a huge security check point to even get into the ticket office. Well, we had been moving and cleaning, and Chris had his big knife in his pocket. you know, the big giant one that flips open, the one he bought from a cop and was (barely) legal in Utah? Yeah, it's not legal in Missouri. So much so that when Chris tried to surrender it they wouldn't take it because they couldn't be in possession of it either. So we had to go put it in our car which was like two miles away down six miles of stairs and through several clouds, literally on the bank of the Mississippi. So we went back and bought our tickets for the tram. The tram was interesting--8 round cars that supposedly seat 5 people but really were made for gerbils--attached on in a row so they all swing independently from each other. Yes, I said swing. Often. Creakily. The tour guide said that the trip up takes 4 minutes and the trip down takes 3 minutes because gravity is on your side. I couldn't help thinking that I didn't want gravity on my side--I wanted FRICTION on my side. and big fluffy pillows. And WIDE OPEN SPACES!! It was very odd at the top, because it is very very apparent that you are inside the arch. That's hard to describe, but you know how the inside of cool looking buildings is usually nondescript and it's hard to tell that there's a difference until you look out the window? Well the inside of the arch is triangular just like the outside, and you lay on the slanty carpeted walls and look out the tiny slits for windows. We took pictures, but the camera's dead so you'll have to wait.

We drove on and on and on and on and finally we made it to Columbus. It was just at sunset and absolutely beautiful. Since we got here we've been going crazy, unpacking boxes, organizing, baking, shopping, building furniture, cleaning, you name it, and all the while Zoe and Jimmy and running around yelling and screaming and fighting and playing and whining and eating (or refusing to eat). FINALLY, after dinner tonight (saturday) we've got the cable all fixed and working so we can watch the Olympics and check email and, of course, blog.

I have to sleep now, but when we get the truck and the furniture I'll post pictures!