Baldwin Family Blog: Off to St. Louis!

We were so excited to get away for a few days to St. Louis! Ever since we came here a few years back, we have wanted to come again. With coloring books ready, lots of snacks & DVD players on, we set out on Monday morning. The girls are such good travelers. We only stopped once or twice the whole way there.

It was sad to drive through Joplin and see the devastation of the tornado that had just come through the night before. Little did we know that on Tuesday evening of our trip, another tornado would go right through Newcastle and cause all sorts of damage across Oklahoma. It was very strange for us on that night to be sitting in our hotel room & watching coverage of the tornados back home on the computer. I think I called my mom about 20 times in less than 2 hours, just checking to make sure everyone was okay.

We were given a beautiful picture of how God always meets, and often times exceeds our needs with this vacation. A few days before our trip, Brian was talking with Bill Mulder, and mentioned that we were about to leave for vacation. Bill asked if we had lodging yet, and said that he would like to take care of our lodging for us. WOW! What a huge blessing that was for us! We were completely blown away when we pulled up to the Renaissance Hotel in St. Louis and found out about all of the nice things we would get to experience during our stay there. We were on the 19th floor, the pool was fabulous, we had free parking, we had the most comfortable beds I have ever slept in at a hotel, and best of all we got to visit the Club Lounge for complimentary breakfast and dinner each day. (We were probably going to stay at the Best Western or something similar, so you can imagine how overwhelmed & happy we were about this!) Honestly, we were so humbled by the Mulder's generosity. It was so greatly appreciated & we felt so loved and encouraged during our week away.

On Monday, once we got checked in and unpacked, we decided to go walking around downtown and see what we could find for dinner. We ended up getting pizza at Papa John's & sitting on benches and having a "picnic." The first night of vacation is always so much fun because you have the whole week ahead of you. While we were busy & went a lot of places during the week, we also spent a lot of time in our room. Why wouldn't we?! It was awesome! The girls loved playing hide-n-seek and "pet shop" in the closet. On Wednesday, after going to the Science Museum, Butterfly House & Union Station, we spent the entire evening in our room watching the American Idol Finale, & the Biggest Loser Finale. The girls had a great time coloring, watching movies on their little tv, and dancing with neon light sticks during American Idol. (We all kind of got in on that action, actually!)

We got lots of smile and compliments about the girls while walking around the hotel. We met the nicest lady in the Club Lounge during breakfast each morning. Her name was Chantay and she loved the girls! By the end of the week, she hooked the Wii up for them to play, and Mackenzie and Madison colored pictures for her on our last morning there. So of course, we had to have a picture with her!

Our vacation was so much fun. I struggled some with having headaches, due to trying to adjust to wearing contacts and glasses, but I got through it and still had a wonderful time. On our way home we were talking about how our vacations are just always so much fun. I always look forward to them so much, and I am sad when they come to an end. Sometimes its just nice to escape reality for a few days and get away together. But, at the end of it all, it's great to be back at home in our own beds too! There were many wonderful memories made this week, and we will definitely be visiting St. Louis again.

Madison really concentrates and works hard on coloring these days!

Nearly 100 people were killed by this tornado that went through Jopling. So sad.

When we got to our room, I had the worst headache so I laid down to rest for a few minutes...Madison climbed right up on me and gave me some love! Actually, I think she just wanted to play with my hair. She's such a sweet girl...she was worried about her Momma.

They had fun pretending this was the pet store & they were little animals, waiting for someone (us) to come and buy them. What imaginations these little girls have.

After checking in, resting & getting settled, we went walking around and had pizza by this fountain. Then we went back to the hotel and went swimming. I love this picture of Daddy & his girls! They all look so happy.

Asking for money to throw in the fountain.

Does it get any sweeter than this?! Madison was actually letting Mackenzie hug her...I can't believe it.

Here we are outside of our hotel.

Silly girls...singing during American Idol! Madison does everything her big sister does.

The light show during Lady Gaga...I had to stand in front of the tv most of the time to block the awful images, but we had fun waving our light sticks and acting silly anyway.

This is how the girls slept most of the week. Madison has no concept about being a bed hog! They seemed comfortable, so we just left them like this and they slept that way all night long.