Alone in August

My computer still hates me most of the time. It has taken too many tries to get this post finished, my computer locks up and I lose it all. So here it finally is, I don't care what it looks like, bad grammar bad pictures, my favorite pictures have all magically disappeared- Who cares. It's here now!

OK, so the twist... As we all departed from the family reunion in Kansas City, Mike and I headed east to St. Louis and the rest of the family headed west with our kids! WooHoo. It was such a fun week I'm thinking about dropping the kids and running more often. I think I explored every inch of St. Louis and it was all free, (well mostly). I pretty much Googled the best free things to do in the area and went to work on the list. The morning Mike worked I explored all ALONE and WOW, who even remembers what that is like!!?? No diaper bag or a million other tag along accessories that I have to keep track of. No bustling screaming kids into the car and then wrestling them into a car seat. I took SO long shopping and enjoyed slowly walking by everything just to look. I Didn't have to keep them in a cart or tell them to put it back, it really was glorious! Even when the kids are at home with Dad and I'm shopping I still feel like I'm on a time limit so this experience was so unfamiliar and I totally loved it. I spent a lot of time just me and my camera. I took a zillion and one pictures just because I could. I visited the Wild Bird Sanctuary, Art Museum, Forest Park and City Garden all alone. I don't do things alone. I have six siblings and I'm the oldest girl, I was the babysitter and thought I was the Mom! I don't think I've ever watched a movie alone or gone anywhere alone. And alone in this case meaning without responsibility- free to do anything. Sure I've been to the grocery store alone but that doesn't count I was there because I had to be. This totally alone stuff was crazy to me!
       Mike and I visited Anheuser Busch Brewery and it was a really cool tour. We obviously didn't take advantage of the free drinks but I'm sure a homeless man might every now and again.

 'Arch view' of the game

Mike & his roommate for the month Jeff

 We did an evening tour of the St. Louis Arch hoping to see the sunset but missed it. We caught a little of the Cardinals game from up there. Mike loved zooming in on the scoreboard to check out what was going on. The arch to me felt a lot like the leaning tower of Pisa, you see it all the time in pictures but it is SO much cooler in person! I think I must have a picture from every angle, it really fascinated me. We finished the night at the famous Ted Drewes for frozen custard. Oh and I must write down the flavor so future generations know what to order when they go.  I had some sort of apple pie flavor and it was delicious! I know it's not exact but pretty sure it was the only apple pie thing on the menu. The next day we visited the St. Louis Zoo and my totally awesome friend Tara met us there with her sweet sweet little girl Eden. I haven't seen Tara since we left Rexburg in 2008 and it is so nice to see an "old" friend!

I propose we set up a Rexburg reunion in the near future so that we can all see each other and reminisce about the best time in our lives! Who's with me? No really, I love Tara and was so happy to see her and spend a little time together. As we finished up at the zoo Mike and I had a picnic in the park and almost left because we saw storm clouds rolling in then decided to stay because they were rolling in. We enjoyed our picnic in the rain until we knew it was getting too heavy to be enjoyable. We darted for the car and laughed the entire way there. We spent the rest of the day in the St. Louis Temple. We always love our time in the temple and loved that first off we could be together and weren't swapping kid duty with each other and second that we could stay for hours beacuse we weren't worried about swapping with someone else. Pure bliss. The Temple always tops anything we do. When we returned home the lady Mike was renting a room from asked where we had been, we told her, she told us how much she loves the temple and how special it is. "It's beautiful and it's so nice of your church to allow something so special in our city, it's such a gift to the city even after all the persecution that went on here in Missouri." It's really neat to see that even people who aren't members of the church know how special the Temple is. Just sitting on temple ground is enough to know.

My last day in St. Louis we ate Famous "Pappy's" barbeque, visited the Science Center and drove a few other places that I've already forgotten because all I can remember is the sad ride home. I took the train home all alone and boy was that the hardest thing I've done in a long time. I didn't have Mike or the kids to ease the sadness, just myself left to think about it and cry.  This meant the beginning of Mike traveling for rotations for the rest of the year and me having to carry on alone. Obviously this was our choice but I didn't really think that staying in a hotel for an entire month would be that enjoyable anyway and a fairly expensive option. Anyway, I was sad before I ever got on the train and then sat by a man who had lost his wife to cancer just a few weeks earlier. HELLO! Thanks for making me cry even more!  He had tattoos everywhere and one that said KTM and I knew exactly what that meant. The second I started talking dirt bikes he couldn't stop talking. I think he was shocked that I knew what he was talking about and then thrilled that someone could relate to all his dirt bike stories! At one point he was pulling up his shirt, showing me scars from surgeries and accidents, I'm sure the other passengers thought we were crazy. He had such a sad story and I was fragile so I didn't say much. I felt like all he needed was someone who would listen so I just sat and smiled. It made me feel better. I stayed up listening like a zombie until his stop at one in the morning. I really didn't have words that would comfort him so I listened, cried and did the next best thing. I gave him a pass-along-card and told him that he can see his wife again. The only thing I managed to get out (before starting to cry again) was that he could go to Mormon.org and it would answer all his questions. I loved the look on his face and I wanted to say more but I was fighting back tears and the train lady was yelling at him to hurry up. Alone again. The train was freezing, I pulled out as many shirts as I could and tried to lay them over me to cover my arms and legs. I curled up into a shivering mess and prayed for sleep.
     I had such a great week with Mike and lots of enjoyable alone time without kids but I'd never trade them. Not even for all the enjoyable alone time in the world.