St. Louis!

An institute day in our school district happened to coincide with my mom's birthday last weekend, so we made the trip down to St. Louis. It had been a couple of months and we were all happy to see everyone. On our first night, Uncle Tim treated the kids to a little science experiment. I wasn't paying attention, but it was something involving pennies in a cup of water and it kept them all on the edge of their seats, so I was impressed.

Then we went to see Uncle Joel and Jen's volleyball game. We definitely had the only kids there. The kids didn't seem to mind.

The next day, we went to one of our favorite places in St. Louis - the zoo. Brooke and Lexi took their notebooks and legitimately did writings/drawings of the stuff we were observing. It was pretty cute.

Trouble.

Love.

Of course we had to ride the train. A highlight was the girls and Luke sitting in the back and getting to take turns saying, "All aboard!" into the loudspeaker.

My grandparents took us to a pizza place where my grandpa spent way too much money on tokens for the kids to play arcade games. Want to guess which Claw game was easiest?

This girl. How can you not smile? Seriously THE most easygoing baby ever.

Paige loves her baby cousins. The problem is, the line between her kissing and biting is blurred and she now has a bunch of teeth. Poor Grace. Bri should probably watch her back, too.

Speaking of Paige, she can be pretty photogenic when she'll be bothered with smiling for you.

We took lunch to Uncle Joel.

We also went to the carnival at the church by my parents' house.

The ferris wheel felt much less safe than I'd expected. Probably because I was rocking the car so much with my awkward selfie attempts.

The roller coaster was their favorite ride. Their faces were priceless.

We also wasted money on spent some time at the games.

Brooke actually had a pretty decent shot. She won a couple of stuffed animals and was happy that the guy running the game called her Annie Oakley, even though she had no idea what he meant by it.

We finished the visit with a birthday dinner for my mom, and unfortunately this is the only photo I have of that night.

Happy birthday, Mom! We love you!

Beautiful Weather (and a Date with Aunt Jamie)!

Although it's taken a bit of a turn the past few days, the weather for pretty much the whole month of September has been amazing, so I've been dragging my kids outside at every opportunity. One day, we went to Willowbrook Wildlife Center. The kids had fun looking at the animals, but I think they had more fun taking selfies and doing the Nae Nae on the wooden stage.

We've spent a ton of time outside with our neighbors. I've said it before, but I really love our culdesac. The slide in the tot lot is the first thing that motivated Paige to climb up stairs!

I think I've also mentioned this before, but Brooke is on a soccer team with all girls from her school and she is really enjoying it. It's really fun to see her enthusiasm.

Matt helped coach one of their games. Let's just say I'm not sure he'll be asked back.

(Thanks to Grammie Deb for the great photos!)

My kids really have the cutest cousins!

Aunt Jamie took Brooke out for a back-to-school dinner a couple of weeks ago. Brooke requested sushi and they compromised on burgers.

I took Miles and Paige to Cosley Zoo the other day while Brooke was at school. We haven't gone in awhile as Brooke is "over it," so it was fun to rediscover it with these two. Of course, Miles' favorite thing their was the train car with games inside.

Feeding the ducks!

We've also rediscovered bubble baths. Paige was legitimately frightened the first time I put her in, but quickly changed her tune.

Bring on October!

The Lost Photos

Every couple of months, I ask Matt to load the pictures from his phone onto the computer - so enjoy these pics from the end of the summer.

Jeff and Michelle were so generous to take us out on their boat. It was a chilly, rainy day, so Paige and I stayed back, but Matt and the kids had a blast. They talked about it for days after.

Matt also took the kids to the pool by himself (I can't even remember why, now) for one of their last swims of the summer.

#chillin

Paige wasn't super-impressed with Matt's selfie face.

...but Brooke was!

Miles is quite the entertaining sleeper these days.

Obligatory clock pic. If any of my kids get married at Medinah I want to get a picture like this with them as grown-ups.