Visiting the Arch and Family in St Louis, a set on Flickr.
Our hotel was right by the Arch, so Saturday morning Grandpa Goellner met us as we flew kites under the Arch, waved at our friends at the top of the Arch and then met a cousin for lunch at a place on the hill, Favazza's. After lunch we checked out a deli, Volpi and the Missouri Baking Co. on the hill, which was excellent. That night we did dinner with the Goellner Family and enjoyed seeing everyone.
This weekend we had a fun mini-vacation to St. Louis. We stayed the night in Springfield Thursday and got to the City Museum Friday right when it opened. We met some other families at the Museum (15 of us in all). The kids had a great time and loved having their friends to hang out with. 
This weekend was the final weekend for this year's Riverside Theater Guild play. Chris made a practically perfect Prince Charming while Meg was an adorable mouse. Thank you to all of our friends and family who came to see the production.
Zach's first Pinewood Derby was a big success! He placed 5th in the pack and one for fastest Tiger scout. Kudos to the pack leaders for putting together a great event from the video screens projecting the finish line to the blimps this was really a extraordinary race. The whole family enjoyed checking out the creative scout and sibling cars but I think my favorite design was the Blackhawk Zamboni machine. It wasn't that wastest but was very cool.
We had a wonderful holiday. Christmas Eve the kids did some sledding with their cousins in Indy and then celebrated with the McLean clan. Christmas day was in Lafayette with Grandma Chris and Uncle Bobby who flew in from Florida. Santa was very generous this year ;)
For Wednesday our adventures took us to downtown Chicago. First we were treated to breakfast at a friends office for submitting some of Meg and Zach's artwork. Then while we waited for the Sears (Willis) Tower Skydeck to open we explored the life of money at the Chicago Fed visitors center. We then shot up 103 floors to the top of Chicago and once the fog cleared we had a beautiful view of city. The highlight for the kids was the "Ledge", 4 glass boxes that extend off the tower more the 4 feet. None of these kids have a fear of heights.
Chris took the week before Christmas off to go on some adventures with the kids. For Monday the adventure was to check out frozen waterfalls and Bald Eagles at Starved Rock State Park.
