David and Jason picked a nice restaurant for us to go to. It might have been a tad less kid friendly than we wanted, and the service was just a little slow, so there was a lot of tap dancing on Steve and I's part to keep the boys in check.
It was at this point that Nathan's behavior piqued at the absolute worst it has ever been - screaming, saying bad words, harassing Joey, and generally testing us. Looking back, he was just plum tired of traveling. We were expecting an awful lot of those boys, with really long days of driving. He'd get to a hotel and just be bouncing off the walls, and we'd have short fuses from the travel ourselves, so we probably didn't always parent with patience and poise.
Steve's reaction tended to be "this isn't fun and I just wish we were there already." Mine was more Griswoldian. "Hey, guys, we're probably never going to see this ball of twine again, so let's enjoy it, dammit!!"
Well, though our hotel in St. Louis was probably the nicest we had on the entire trip - a Marriott Residence Inn with a kitchen, king bed and pull out sofa, that was super clean and had parking right outside the door of our room - Steve had absolutely had it. He was so over Nathan's outbursts and insolence that he was seriously threatening to forgo dinner and stay at the hotel with Nathan as a punishment.
I was looking forward to David seeing my kids, since he moved away to St. Louis right about the time I was pregnant with Nathan, and had only been back to California a couple of times, I wasn't incredibly keen on Steve's plan. I was also in the throes of a bad cold, and so I was barely holding it together myself. Eventually, I talked Steve into giving Nathan one more chance, and so, under the impetus that if he misbehaved even once, Steve would take him out to the car, we made our way to David's place.
You saw the video of David, and how he made up for his shirtless-not-readiness with drinks and snacks and his usual amusingness, including a nude mannequin in his bedroom and a new wardrobe hanging to dry in his basement that consisted entirely of black t-shirts. It was just great to see my old gay boyfriend. It felt like old times, immediately.
We had a fair amount of trouble finding the restaurant, but we made it for our 7pm reservation. I enjoyed a glass or two of wine, Steve had a couple of beers, David dirty martinied, per usual, and still asks for a side of extra olives. I ordered the trio of sliders - burger, pork and chicken. Steve had a filet mignon, and David enjoyed the plank cooked salmon. I can't remember what everyone else had, and it would probably be a bit creepy if I did.
Anyway, we had a nice time, so much so, that David and Jason decided to join us the next morning for our most touristy endeavor on the trip, thus far - The Arch.
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