On our second full day in St. Louis, we decided to take it easy in the morning, let the kids play, and hit the pool when it opened in the late morning. B, dear friend that she is, knew how disappointed I've been that I didn't get to watch THE event of the new millenium as it happened live over two months ago. For six months we'd shared our grand plans to wake up in the middle of the night, get the kids out of bed, and revel in the pomp and ceremony, just as we did 30ish years ago. Storm-related cable outages put a crimp in those plans for me (although boy, I'm acutely aware of how lucky I am that this was the worst thing I had to deal with around here in late April) but B, bless her, DVRd THE WHOLE THING, including the crucial pre-and-post ceremony hype (such as the kiss countdown ticker and the post-game analysis of Pippa's dress), and saved every fabulous minute of it. So I blissfully hung out on the sofa in my jammies that morning with B, Will, Kate, that cute loud-noise averse Grace Van Cutsem, and the rest of the gang:
After the ceremony, but before the procession to Buckingham Palace, we went to the pool. And wow, this is some neighborhood pool -- it's really more like a water park complete with slides, a lazy river, etc. I'm a tad worried that our kids will now think that our town pool is lame, but even if they do, it was worth it.
T&B had planned for us to go down to the river to watch the fireworks over the arch that night (and watch Maroon 5!), and we were all super excited about it. Unfortunately, it started storming in the afternoon, and these did not seem to be the move-on-through kind of storms. They settled in, and longer it rained, the less interested B and I were in trekking out in wet mudlands to watch fireworks, so we hatched a plan B which involved the dads driving to a neighboring county to buy sparklers. We went to work on selling the kids on Plan B (sparklers, s'mores, sleeping bags, popcorn, and The Sound of Music) and as you can imagine it wasn't exactly a hard sell (heck, add in some Royal Wedding footage and you've pretty much just summarized my perfect evening right there).
David going over the fireworks safety rules:
The kids LOVED the sparklers:
(I somehow missed getting a picture of cute P with a sparkler - boo!)
We had to head back home the next morning. Elizabeth cried (the ugly cry) when it was time to leave. None of the kids wanted to see a great time come to an end. When asked "why, why, WHY do we have to leave already?" I gently responded with my sister-in-law's wise made-up Chinese proverb:
Than stay too long and have them wish that you left.
Elizabeth looked confused for a millisecond, but then quickly resumed wailing. We all said our sad goodbyes, until next visit. The ride home was on the long side (WHY won't my tired children sleep??) but we did stop in Metropolis, home of Superman, and snapped some pictures outside a convenience store -- summer kitsch at its best.
Thanks again for a great weekend, T, B, P, & R!!
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