Away from home...but I still call it home

I love St. Louis. To me, it will always be home. Especially now when I feel so hopelessly displaced right now. I wish I had a place to go back (home base is a vitual wrecking ground) but for now, we're here. My kids are loving it. They're playing with their cousins non-stop. Every night is a sleepover. Every day another adventure. We doing fun things every single day.

I thought I knew all the cool things to do in St. Louis. I rave about the zoo. We go to the water park overlooking the Mississippi and go nuts until closing time. I don't know anyone who plays harder than my sisters, which can be frustrating and liberating all at the same time.

Because most of our regular activities are usually free, I don't always venture out. That's why I was dragging my feet for so long about trying out the City Museum. We went yesterday and wow! it was amazing. It was like art and creativity and no-rules all rolled into one. I've quite simply never been to a cooler place for kids in my life (or for adults for that matter). I was forced to go down all the slides (no pretending I don't want to be a kid again here), I picked up a piece of chalk and couldn't stop until I turned a complete chalk-board column into an elaborate sea scene, I climbed and slid and squeezed and twisted. It was so worth the money. I felt young and free. If there were no mirrors there, I probably wouldn't have remembered I wasn't a kid. Well, that and the two kids that were looking to me for help with things. We explored a labyrinth of caves, climbed into the tallest treehouse, went down a 10-story-tall slide (Portia chickened out at the last minute), played two hours in the arts center, saw the circus. I'm sure we could have spent another full day there.

Coolest. Place. Ever.