Itinerary Change

Greetings from St. Louis. No, you're not crazy; Missiouri was not on our intitial itinerary. We received word just as we were driving through Tulsa that Diana's friend, who we were planning to spend Memorial Day Weekend with in Knoxville, ran into two family medical emergencies in the past two days. Seeing her is important to all three of us -- she was actually the only reason for travelling through Tennessee. After a quick call to cousin Steve, we decided to drive to D.C. via the route we'd planned to take to return to Oklahoma and instead we'll return through Knoxville and West Memphis. While we were initially disappointed, our spirits quickly recovered when we found out we'll be able to see Steve's daughter Sierra, a favorite playmate of Emma's, by stopping there in mid-June rather than late May. Please keep Clo's family in your prayers.

So, now we are having a lazy morning in a Holiday Inn outside St. Louis. After we checked in last night, we went to dinner at the hotel restaurant (Kids Eat Free!) and took in a family swim. Emma was ecstatic to be swimming twice in one day -- her end of year school party yesterday morning took place at the Stillwater YMCA pool. Emma and I crashed out around 10ish, while Wade poured over the atlas, trying to choose where we'll go from here (we're still not sure). After breakfast and another swim, we're headed to the St. Louis Zoo. It's free!!!! And, the website boasts of an enclosed see-through slide that travels through the otter pool. Emma's looking forward to that one; Mom and Dad are too tall.

As I close, Wade's talking to Brett on his cell phone, Emma's drawing a picture and watching Sesame Street (yes, this is a not-so-veiled attempt to keep her excited about Sesame Place in PA later on the trip), and I'm typing to you using HI's free wireless internet access. It's 8:40 am and we haven't even had breakfast yet. In fact, Emma didn't get up until 7:50 -- life is good.