Meet me in St.Louis... um no thanks.

I have to post about our adventures in St. Louis last week. Scott went with a few friends on a 3 day road trip to see some of the rotation sights in Michigan and Ohio. They were getting back to St. Louis on tuesday night, so Tobey and I went wednesday morning to meet Jason and Scott. We were going to stay for a couple of days and see all the museums and stuff there. About half way to St. Louis I was thinking how lucky I was that the girls had slept the whole time so far. Then I turned around in time to see Bella throwing up all over herself. You've all been in a car with the throw up smell... it is BAD! So, we pulled over, and I tried to clean up the brand new car seat, and put the smelly clothes in the trunk. Then we were on our way. About an hour later and I turned around to see Maddie throwing up all over herself and her brand new car seat. By this point the smell was horrible. The first thing we did in St. Louis was to find a grocery store to buy some Febreeze!
Anyway, we finally made it and got to go see the temple and the zoo, so that was fun. After the zoo we were driving around to find a gas station to get a drink. We saw a bowling alley and decided it might be fun to bowl, so we were going to go check it out. We pulled in the parking lot and turned off the car. Jason ran in to see if the bowling alley was too smokey, and when we decided it was and went to leave, our car wouldn't start.
We tried everything we could think of, but nothing worked. We borrowed jumper cables from a couple different people who all told us that we really should get our car out of this area, because it wasn't safe. They kept saying if we left our car there, it wouldn't be there in the morning! That made us feel much better. All the kids were tired and hungry and hot, and we didn't know what to do. It was too late in the day for car places to be open, so we were getting a bit frustrated. Finally Scott found a tow cable in our trunk, and we hooked it up to the Roos' car and they towed us a few miles until we found a Wal mart. The unfortunate part is that they couldn't find the spot to hook the tow cable on, so they kept hooking it to places that would come off in the middle of the road. We had to keep stopping and directing traffic while we tried to get going again. The kids were all screaming in the sweltering car with no AC so it felt like a long few miles. We made it to Walmart, and although the car area was closed, some nice workers were still there and they took pity on us and helped us get in a new battery. By this point it was like 9:00 and we were all exhausted but grateful that the car was running again. Thank goodnes for the Roos'! You saved our lives!
So we started driving out to our hotel that we had booked on priceline (for only $25 a night) but we couldn't seem to find it. We finally did, and the reason we had a hard time was because all the power was out. A storm had come through and they weren't letting anyone stay. We couldn't believe our luck. We ended up going down the road and having to pay $100 at the nearest hotel. The next morning the girls were still sick and the Roos' daughter, Addie was sick too, so we just decided to go home. So unfortunately our trip to St. Louis was cut short, and left us with a sour taste for that city... maybe we'll give it a try again in a few months. As for now, we are glad to be back home with the car working and the girls healthy again.