Full Hands

If I had a dollar for every time someone said on our vacation, "You have your hands full," I'd have had a free vacation.  We had a full van and more than full hands, but we were also very full of blessings.  Sarah, Rachel, Hannah, Kate, Reagan, and I set out for St. Louis very early on Friday (the 11th) morning and made it to St. Louis at midnight.  We stopped at McDonald's for every meal.  Praise the Lord for PlayPlaces!  Each meal was about an hour stop as we let them play for about a half hour to get all of their energy out.  They were great travelers considering their age.  The older three occupied themselves with their own personal DVD players.  Another thing to thank God for!  Reagan was fairly happy as long as she had her thumb and lovey.

We went to Suson Park (a big park with farm animals), did a lot of visiting with family, went to the zoo, visited Grant's Farm, and ate a lot of Cecil Whittaker's pizza (only something that someone who lived in St. Louis would appreciate) and Ted Drewes's frozen custard.  The girls also enjoyed running around the backyard quite a bit.

Petting the horse at Suson Park

Playing on the playground at Suson Park

Playing in Great Grandma's backyard



The next several pictures are from our early morning trip to Krispy Kreme



The St. Louis Zoo

There was a 10 month old lion cub and twin 3 month old cubs

Yummy!

Kate & Great Grandma Schaefer

Hank, Great Grandma Thoenes, Hannah, Sarah, and Rachel

President Grant's home at Grant's Farm

One of the highlights of our trip to Grant's Farm: feeding the goats

This is where they house and raise the famous Budweiser Clydesdales

I thought this picture was precious of them sleeping together

On the following Friday, we drove about 5 hours to visit my brother and sister-in-law and nephew in Chicago.  Unfortunately, everyone was under the weather so we cut our visit with them a day short.  Will was precious though and I'm so excited to have a nephew!

Running around in the sprinkler in Michael and Amy's backyard

Aunt Amy, Reagan, and Kate

Another sweet sleeping picture



And finally...all 5 of the Schaefer grandchildren

 We left mid-morning on Sunday and everything was going great until around dinnertime. We made reservations for a Holiday Inn in Nashville, but were unable to make it there. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner, and I started having abdominal pain. It just kept getting progressively worse. I thought it was just bloating, but then I got nauseous and almost passed out in the passenger seat. I had finally had enough and we happened to be almost to a hospital when I decided that it would be best if I didn't pass out in the car.


Sweet Sarah spent the next 4 hours in the car (luckily it was around bedtime so they mostly slept) with the kids, while I laid in the ER. They pumped me full of the first round of pain medicine with no relief and then finally some morphine and that still didn't really do too much. I had a CAT Scan and it revealed some fluid in my pelvic area. Since it was a smaller hospital, they didn't have ultrasound that late at night, but they concluded in addition to a UTI, I also probably had a ruptured ovarian cyst. By the time I left, I was feeling much better. I could finally walk and breathe again. We were able to switch our hotel reservations to a Holiday Inn at the same exit and got about 6 hours of sleep that night. I am so grateful to all those who prayed for us and for the Lord's provision and care for us.

The next day we headed home and made it back about 11:00 p.m.  We are mostly settled back in, but will be leaving again for our annual Memorial Day camping trip with George's parents.  Whew!  That was exhausting just reliving the trip.  We had a lot of fun though and I really enjoyed the time spent with my sweet daughters!