St. Louis Weekend

I really didn't want to come home.  I figure that's pretty normal though, right?  Oh, yes, I was ready to see Allison. I was missing her pretty bad, especially after hearing her sweet little voice on the telephone when I called home to check in.  Now, just to be clear...ALL of us needed this long weekend very badly.  Bruce needed time away from the perils of the radio station (only to come back to them again, double or triple fold); I needed time away from being a 24/7 on-call mommy (although I love it, I just needed a little bit of 'me' time); and Allison needed some time away with her grandmas.   She loves going to spend the night at either of the grandmas' houses.  It had been quite awhile since she had been to Alma, and she was really looking forward to it.

Bruce and I went to St. Louis.  We left last Thursday evening after Allison had her dance pictures taken at 5:00. She was finished around 5:30, and we hit the road to drop her off at Alma grandma.  We kept going on I-70 then on to St. Louis.  We got there about 11:30ish or so. It wasn't too bad.

Then Friday morning Bruce took me and dropped me off at the Creating Keepsakes Convention-St. Louis.  It was actually in the suburb of Collinsville, Illinois.  I've gone to the CKC in Kansas City before, and it was SO MUCH fun. However, it has been scheduled in October, and falls around the weekend of Allison's birthday. It's been harder and harder to feel like I can go then; you know how it is.  So, this was actually the next closest one - there is also one in Tulsa, Oklahoma, some time during the year.  It is grand fun.  I, of course, spent WAAAAAY too much money, but I suppose I spoiled myself on this one.  I registered for my classes already back in January.  There is also a vendor's faire where you can shop around and see some the new products, techniques, etc   While you can't necessarily count on items being less expensive than online or at stores, sometimes there are clearance or sale items, and there are things that I don't necessarily see in stores around here on a regular basis.


I had a total of 9 classes between Friday and Saturday.  We ate dinner at Joe's Crab Shack Friday night, which was a lot of fun and really tasty.  We moved to another hotel after I was finished on Saturday. We moved downtown to the Millinieum (sp?) Hotel, which is down by the Arch and the baseball stadium, etc.  St. Louis downtown area is actually pretty clean and nice.  We ate brunch at the restaurant on the top floor of the hotel on Sunday morning. It is called "Top of the Waterfront" and it is a 360 degree rotating restaurant with fantastic views of the downtown area.  It was a pricey meal, but D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S!!!

We bounced around the area on Sunday, and then headed for home on Monday. It sure seemed like a long drive home, but we made it to pick up Allison around 9:00.  Unfortunately, Bruce has returned to some radio problems, of course, including some personnel issues, people not doing their job, etc.  It's sooooo frustrating when you try to leave for a few days on a well deserved break only to have others not do what they were supposed to when you were gone.  You would think that adults would act responsibly, but unfortunately, that's not necessarily the case.