Here I am...

Ya know, just in case any of you were wondering where I am.

Now, where have I been? Good question.

Saturday, we spent the day with my family, celebrating Easter at my cousins' farm in Bucksnort. (Is Bucksnort not the funniest name for a town)? (Oh, and just to clarify...everyone calls it a farm because it is a couple of hundred acres in the middle of nowhere which, I am sure you gathered by the name Bucksnort...it does not however, have animals or crops, so I am not sure what the actual term should be, so for the sake of the story, we'll stick with "farm").

Where was I? Oh yes, Bucksnort. We spent the day eating fantastic Bar-B-Q, hunting for eggs, riding 4-wheelers and enjoying the farm life. (Mark and I are trying to convince ourselves that we do not need a "farm" ourselves).

Sunday was spent at church of course. It was fantastic. Truly fantastic.

After church, we left for St. Louis.

On the way, it snowed. Heavily.

We were shocked by the sight of flooded farm land.

We checked into our hotel. (My husband wrinkled his nose at my choice of the Drury Inn Plaza. He apologized upon arrival. It was a great hotel, great service, nice breakfast and huge rooms. Yay for tripadvisor-dot-com).

Monday, after breakfast, we hit the Zoo. St. Louis has the BEST zoo.

We had lunch at a Root Beer bottling place called Fitz's. The food wasn't great, but the Root Beer was TASTY. (Forrest and I are root beer connoisseurs).

My lovely husband took the kiddies for a swim and I read for a bit as I was coming down with a cold.

Which is why I took NyQuil in order to sleep that night.

Which is why I slept through 3 hours of Sophie and her stomach virus. Have I said that I have the best husband in the world? He completely handled the stomach virus. All three hours of projectile body fluids. God bless him.

We slept through breakfast at the hotel on Tuesday.

Sophie and I braved IHOP with everyone else.

Then, she and I came back to the hotel and slept for the next four hours. Mark (the saint) took the rest of the kids to tour a historic court house, wander around the green-space beneath the Arch, and swim in the pool again.

On Wednesday, things were looking better. We made it to breakfast.

Then, we headed to the City Museum. We couldn't believe how much they have added in the last 5 years. The weather was great, and the kids had a blast playing outside. After 6 hours, we were wore out. We headed back to the hotel, ordered in, packed and went to bed early.

Which was a good thing.

Because Chloe woke up with the stomach virus.

The plan was to go to the Arch and then to the Magic House Museum.

Instead we ate a quick breakfast and headed for home.

Which was a good thing...because Chloe threw up in a plastic bag for the next three hours. Yay. (Yes, we tossed them out and replaced them with fresh ones frequently...just in case you were worried about the germs and/or smell).

And we had to stop at Wal-Mart to get Hannah cough medicine because she caught my cold.

And then we were caught in a hail storm.

And then Mark got the stomach virus.

And then I got a fever.

And now, I am going to bed.

p.s. Pictures to follow.

p.s.s The 306 blog will be updated tomorrow.

p.s.s.s Even when we are all sick, we have a great time together, and I am so eternally thankful that God has blessed me with this hectic-crazy-sickly-fun-wild bunch of kids and fantabulous husband.