What a fun week! We took a trip back in time at Cahokia Mounds State Park, went on two fun outings with the kiddos, and had an early Thanksgiving celebration. We move on to a new adventure this week, so make sure you comment with your guess for where we are headed.

The weather was warm and perfect on Monday, so we crossed the river to Illinois to visit Cahokia. It is the “largest prehistoric Indian site north of Mexico” and I’ve been wanting to visit for a few years. It was an impressive sight, especially the largest of the mounds: Monks’ Mound. We climbed to the top and it was impressive. They have an augmented reality app that Nathan downloaded and that allowed us to see what archaeologists think that the various parts of the complex looked like a thousand years ago. We enjoyed wandering around the park and learning about the Mississippian culture and settlements.

We got to do some fun things with the kids this week. They have a weekly outing with a local homeschool group and this week it was to an ice skating rink. Peter got to try the tiniest little ice skates I’ve ever seen, but after a few minutes on the ice, he wasn’t so sure about the whole thing. However, Teddy was all about it. He used the balance helper (kind of like a plastic walker) for most of the time. He grinned and giggled his way around the ice time and time again. Toward the end, he was even venturing to the outside of the walker and then set out holding Nathan’s hand. It was cute to see his confidence grow.

We also went with them to the children’s museum, The Magic House. They have a membership there, so they have been plenty of times and know what their favorite areas are. But we’ve been with them several times and there still seem to be activities that we haven’t done before. The day we spent there was cold, but they were happy to spend some time out in the garden in the hedge maze and sandbox. There is a climbing structure made to look like a beanstalk that goes from the basement up to the third floor and Teddy climbed the whole thing. Peter loved the fishing area. There is a pond with little fish-shaped fishing lures and fishing poles. The kids can pull out a fish, then run across the room and drop the fish into another pond. Then they can follow their fish along a glass-covered stream under their feet and see it return to the fishing pond. It was so pleasant to be there on a day that the museum was less crowded.

Another fun thing we did was to find some live music. Since St. Louis is a “blues town”, we thought we might try our luck at a place not far from our apartment. It was a great little family-run spot where we had a decent meal and heard a great blues band play. It was a cold and windy night, but it was a cozy place to enjoy some music.

We also spent time this weekend preparing and eating a Thanksgiving feast. Alex and I baked pies on Saturday (his apple pie turned out beautifully; my pecan pie…let’s just say that mistakes were made). Today, Hanna baked rolls and I made the potatoes, veggies, and steaks. We aren’t much into turkey. It was delicious and we are certainly thankful to be able to spend time with our family this year. While we were inside baking, Nathan was doing major autumn clean-up in the yard. He worked so hard and made it look so good!

We are down to our last few days in St. Louis for a while. On Thanksgiving we are hitting the road again. Leave your guess for where you think we will start our new road trip below! We wish you all a wonderful holiday!