Road Trip!

Mom and I traveled to St. Louis with a church group this morning. We were headed to see the Vatican art and relic exhibit at the Natural History Museum. Mom got her coveted seat towards the front of the bus.

Our tour guide, Sister Barbara. We started the trip by praying the Rosary.

I was the third youngest on the bus. :)

Our destination! Mom is standing next to a pillar.

We couldn't take pictures in the exhibit which was a big disappointment for this shutter bug. The exhibit was beautiful and inspiring, but we needed more than the 1 1/2 hours allotted.

So, we took a picture by the fountain instead - ok, so a little lame.

We ate at a restaurant near The Hill.

The food was delicious.

Next stop: the Basilica.

Most of the pictures we took didn't turn out very well. The church was too dark.

A replica of the Pieta.

Michelangelo did this! (That's supposedly what it says.)

We met up with my brother, Doug and SIL, JeNae. Mom has her classic "Why are you taking our picture?" look.

Sister Barbara led some of the group in song, "Hail Mary: Gentle Woman." They sounded great. The acoustics are amazing in the church.

We had a lovely time. I always enjoy taking road trips with mom. We even took a short nap on the way home. Ah...

Road Trip!

Guess where we headed this weekend? Springfield. Yep, beautiful, rain never goes anywhere Springfield. It had been more than ten years since I'd been to SMSU for college. And this was the weekend, the skies opened and the snow fell and fell.

Of course, the weathercasters said it would snow. But as we left my parents' house, it was just spitting. And it had been a mild winter so I really didn't suspect to run into anything, or, not much anyway.

It wasn't until we got somewhere between Rolla and Springfield that the interstate became extremely patchy and traffic came to a crawl. We hung in there until we found the next exit, filled up with gas and found a hotel without sliding off the road. (We saw a SUV's back-end slide. We also saw a car slide after trying to make a left.) God, our guardian angels and I suspect my grandmothers were with us as we found our way to the hotel, especially since my wipers turned out to be crappy.

We were fortunate we pulled off when we did. We later learned the interstate was closed after two big rigs wrecked.

We ended up staying at this hotel.Even though it's only a "One Star," it wasn't so bad. There was an attached restaurant and we enjoyed our time in a nice sized room.The car was pretty easy to clean off. Thank goodness Jack knew how to use the ice scraper.Perks of being "snowed-in" in the middle of nowhere:

Spending extra time this weekend with my best female friend (mom)
Spending quality time with my son
Watching the Hallmark Channel love marathan featuring films based on Janette Oke's books.
Seeing how confident my mom was in my ability to get us somewhere safely
Picking up video needed for a project due tomorrow.
Eating at Cracker Barrel

Downsides
Barely seeing my husband this weekend.
Learning that mom muttered "Jesus, Mary, Joseph" while I drove
The extra wrinkles above my brows

Praise God we're all home safe and sound!