We made it back safely from our 1.5 week trip to Missouri. We had lots of stops along with way and back which made it nice for the girls. Our longest day on the road was 10 hours and I think the girls might have done the best that day, but I’ll explain that later.

Our first stop, after crossing the border on Friday, was lunch with my Uncle and cousins for a yummy lunch and leg stretch. Then on to his daughter’s house, in Ohio, where we stayed for the weekend. We celebrated a very late Canadian/early American Thanksgiving! Delena and Lorelei had fun playing with their two boys as they are all fairly close in age.

Sunday found us in the car and heading downtown St. Louis, MO. Jason has a couple cousins here so we stopped in for supper to see everyone and stayed overnight. On Monday we went with Jason’s cousin and her 3 girls to the St. Louis Zoo. It was a blast. With the cooler weather –quite warm for us Canadians –the animals were pretty active. Jason’s cousin goes there all the time and she kept commenting on all the things we were seeing that she had never seen. I think my favourite was the hippo that we could see through the glass –above and below the water. He kept swimming in circles for us. Another favourite was the orangutans that were sitting RIGHT beside the glass. Delena leaned in closer to see them and they leaned towards her. Boy, did she jump! LOL

When the girls were good and tired, we hopped in the car for our last drive to the Missionary Training Center in Camdenton, MO. We arrived for just in time for a delicious supper with our good friend, Sherry, who was in missionary training with us. We spent the next four days with her and she really spoiled us! Jason was able to sit in on some partnership development classes and bounce ideas off the staff down there. I did some shopping and Jason even watched the girls for a full day while Sherry and I headed to the city!

The only low point of our stay there was waking up to find ‘bites’ on my hands and feet one morning! I had felt a couple in the night, but they were all over my hands and feet when I got up for breakfast. By the end of breakfast they had spread all up my arms and legs and even on the insides of my hands and feet! I realized then, that these were NOT bites, but some sort of allergic reaction. None of us could think what it might be, so Sherry called her nurse friend, who asked me a lot of questions and we finally figured things out. The week before our trip I’d had a chest infection and was put on antibiotics. It was day 9 (of 10) for taking those, but apparently that’s when a reaction will show up your first time. I’m now allergic to penicillin! I’m pretty sure I’ve been on it before, but strange things happen when you’re pregnant! So I was itchy for a few days, but it didn’t stop me from shopping!!!

We left MO on Saturday morning by 8am. The girls weren’t ready for breakfast before we left for our 10 hour drive, so I let them bring their breakfast in the car. We were maybe 10 minutes down the road when Lorelei threw up! I should mention that the roads leaving the training center are VERY curvy! So we stopped and cleaned her up. About 15-20 minutes later, Delena announced that she was going to be sick. Thankfully she’s done this a few times in the car before so we were prepared for her and she got it all neatly in a bag!!! YEAH! Note to self: don’t eat on the curvy roads! You’re probably wondering why, in my first paragraph I said that this was the best travelling day. Well, I gave them both Gravol after that and they slept until 11:30! We made a pit stop for the toilet and then ate snacks in the car. They played and were quite content until 3:30, which turned out to be 4:30 when we decided to actually stop for supper, because of the time change. After supper they watched a movie in the car (thanks to my cousin’s DVD player) and before we knew it, we’d arrived back in OH at my cousin’s once again!

We spent our second weekend with my cousin and her family and then left early Monday morning to head to ON! We had NO problem and no wait at the border which was wonderful so we were able to head straight to a friend’s place in St. Catharines for supper. Then we spent the next two days visiting friends in Port Colborne, our first home as a couple. We finally made it back home on the Wednesday and I spent Thursday, no, not putting stuff away, but putting up Christmas decorations!!!