Trip to the West: Part 1

I have a lot of great pictures to put on this post but the internet at our hotel is too slow. Why are we sitting in a hotel killing time? That's an interesting story. We decided to come out west again this year and we left right after the mandatory-attendance graduation. We drove through the night (Friday) and made it just past Lexington, KY and parked in a, coincidentally, LDS church parking lot. We cat-napped for two hours and then kept driving. Around lunch we were just outside St. Louis when we decided to picnic for lunch. We found a university close to the interstate and enjoyed our meal and ran around. When we got back in the car, the transmission started acting up. We got on the interstate long enough to know we weren't going anywhere. We were able to pull off the interstate into a parking lot and called a few shops. We were lucky to get a hold of someone (Sat. afternoon). There was a hotel across the street so I dropped the kids off with Emily and I went with the tow guy to the mechanics shop. As you can probably guess, it can't be worked on until Monday and we might be able to leave on Tuesday. So we are trying not to 'trip' over each other (no pun intended, but it would have made me look more clever if it was) by watching movies, jumping on the beds, playing "hide the garlic butter" (from Papa John's), and anything else we can think of. There is a cemetery that we walked to with the kids today but walking back we were tailed by a police officer. I'm not offended, I would be wary of a couple with three small children too. So... we're just sitting here, we'll be here until at least Tuesday. If any one has any ideas on things to keep the kids busy, we're open to suggestions. Don't bother calling because the charger is in the van. We'll keep you, 'posted'. (pun intended)