Diversion...made to IN

Today we were up and on the road by 6:30AM; things were packed in the car, Zhivanna woke up first and we got her ready with us. Merlova and Akorren were tossed in the car just as we were ready to head out. We were making good time and it looked like we would make to mom's home by about 6:30 PM. We had called ahead to Vincent and mom to let them know. Most of the brothers and family was going over to mom's house for dinner so we were looking forward to seeing them all when we arrived. The ride was fairly good and we ending up giving into Merlova's cries for a "binky" (aka pacifier) to keep our sanity. She was waking up from a nice car nap about 1:00 PM when were passing by St. Louis and decided to take a break and see the famous Arch/ Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. After waiting for what seemed like an airport safety check of our shoes, etc. we made it in and got tickets to take the tram up to the 630 ft. high arch. We got in line at our ticket time but ended up getting bumped back a whole 20 min.+ due to a broken tram car. We got to take our ride in the "laundry-dryer-like" tram car up to the top, every so often feeling like we were being turned while on the cable lines. It was a bit weird, you cannot have any claustrophobic issues if you are going to go up in the thing or have any fear of heights as well. Once at the top we were treated to a great view. Akorren promptly said that he was ready to go back down to bottom and claimed to be afraid of heights. The girls wanted to get up on the sides of the monument and look out the windows. Zhivanna said, "...wow mom if you fell out of here you would crash down to the floor and crush your head and die!" Nice thought, girl...some of the other visitors were amused at this comment too. By the time we got back to car, took the dogs out again for another break and headed on the road we are at least 2 1/2 hours behind on our time schedule. We knew for sure we would not be making it to mom's by 8:00 PM. A long drive ahead of us...after some fustrations with kids, each other, and mom's directions we finally made it to IN and pulled into grandma's driveway after 10:30 PM. It was a very long day for all of us but a fun diversion anyway.
Glenn with kids in front entrance of arch, family in the tram, family at the top, the pic. they took of us before the ride up, and a look up from below.