After being in Missouri for nine months, we finally were able to take some time away from the many projects on the property.  The kids had Spring Break at the end of March and we drove to St Louis for a couple of nights to see Gateway Arch National Park.  If you know our family, we have been slowing working on a goal to take our kids to as many of the National Parks in the United States as we can.  Gateway Arch was our 34th park.  Out of the current 63.  That’s pretty good!  

Gateway Arch National Park

Gateway Arch is the farthest east national park that we have visited so far and it is also one of the smallest.  Interestingly, it is not a park in the traditional sense with cascading waterfalls, soaring mountain peaks, or endless sand dunes.  It is a park to preserve the history of St Louis and the pivotal part it played in the exploration and settlement of the west.

The grounds surrounding immediately the arch are green lawns, pathways, and ponds.  These are free to public use.  To enter the museum portion of the park, you actually enter through doors that take you below the grounds.  The entire museum is underground.  This was also the first park we went to that we had to go through a security check.  After security, you are free to wander the beautiful museum that talks all about the history of the area with many artifacts, displays, and interactive screens.  

We chose to pay the additional fee to watch the movie about the construction of the arch.  It was fascinating and I would recommend it if you like that sort of thing.  We also chose to pay for tickets to go inside the arch itself.  We recommend getting those tickets in advance as I heard some people around us that were not able to get tickets the day of.  Everything was sold out.

The ride to the top was similar to being in an enclosed Ferris wheel.  The small car only held five people and quickly traveled up one of the legs of the arch, following the contour of the arch while keeping us upright and level.  Sadie was pretty nervous going up.  At the top, each group is only allowed 10 minutes to walk around and look out of the narrow window slits on either side to the city or river 600 feet below.  The time went quickly and then we were back on our way to the bottom.  We exited the car and made our way back to the lobby underground.

Another thing we chose to purchase was tickets on a ferry boat to see the arch from the Mississippi River.  The arch was pretty, but the rest of the boat ride was just so so in my opinion.  Not sure if I would care to do that again.  

We drove back home the following day and were glad to check another National Park off of our list.  

Solar Eclipse

The other exciting event this past month was the solar eclipse.  I’m sure that many of you found a way to experience this.  Our trip came together very last minute.  We are grateful to our friends, the Becks, who invited us to tag along with their family trip down to Arkansas.  They had rented an airbnb cabin that was just outside of totality.  We hadn’t been planning anything for the eclipse, but we decided to do something crazy and we are so glad we did.

We had a great time watching General Conference at the cabin.  And then the eclipse was amazing!  We drove about an hour to get to a fun spot along the Buffalo River in Arkansas.  The kids played, we ate lunch, and then we enjoyed those few minutes of darkness and cooler temperatures as the moon passed in front of the sun.  We were not able to experience totality the last solar eclipse that passed near Idaho and Utah.  But we are so grateful that we were able to make it work this time.  It was an unforgettable experience.  It was fun to do something last minute that worked out so well.

The rest of April has gone quickly.  We’ve been plugging away with school.  That has been difficult.  The kids and teachers are all tired and impatient.  Everyone just wants school to be out.  We are probably going to be making some big changes for next year regarding school. More to come on that later.  

Charlie’s Mom, Cindy, was able to stop by with Piper and Jake (two of Charlie’s siblings), as they traveled down to Branson to babysit some other grandkids.  It was so fun to be able to see them and show them around!

***Update, several weeks have now passed since I last wrote here.

We are half way through May already and I have fallen behind with a lot of my projects, in particular this blog!  Aaaahhh.  Life just sometimes gets really busy.  Especially as school starts to wind down, the weather gets nice, and the there are always so many projects to do around the property.  

How about you?  Are you enjoying this beautiful springtime?  Are you ready for summer and whatever plans you have made?  We sure are!

~Rachel