Romantic St. Louis Weekend

We went to St. Louis last weekend and despite it not being our best visit for a variety of reasons, we were still able to pack in lots of fun. The kids watched some movies together. This picture may or may not have been the time I bribed them all that I would pay them $1 if they watched the whole movie and could tell me three things about it. It turns out that sometimes peace and quiet has a cost, and this time, it was $4.

Lexi read them a bedtime story that she had written.

We got to snuggle a little with this cutie, although not as much as we'd have liked since Paige was sick most of the visit.

We took her to urgent care where they gave her a chest x-ray and tested her for RSV, only to determine that it was a virus. The poor baby looked like this for most of Saturday and Sunday.

Before Paige took a turn for the worse, we spent Valentine's Day morning at the City Museum. It's a pretty awesome place. There was so much exploring to do that we could have stayed all day. All the kids had a great time.

Grandma came along and kept the babies company while we chased the older kids.

Miles made a friend. I think he reminded him of his dad.

After visiting my Aunt Esther on Saturday night, we went out to dinner. My dad spent the entire time at the table with the kids, and they loved it.

On Sunday, we made a quick trip to the mall, complete with a stop at the "playground." They happily played here for 15 minutes or so. I think we're all getting stir crazy.

On Monday, we were planning to leave around lunchtime, but got a little nervous based on the reports of a "winter storm." I know I sound like a cynical Chicagoan, but this snow was the result of that "winter storm."

Storm or not, the kids had a great time playing in the snow. I'm happy to report that Miles declared himself no longer afraid of sledding. He actually couldn't get enough. It's always so fun to watch them play together, bickering and all.

I took a lot of pictures because I'm not sure when/if I'll get to take more out in the snow this year.

As a bonus, Paige woke up that day feeling much better and seemed to enjoy watching the big kids, as well.

They also had some fun in the backyard.

Until next time, St. Louis!

February Randoms

Winter is in full swing, so we've had  a few indoor picnics lately. This one was with pretend food.

I want to mention the three dolls on the corner of the blanket. They're Brooke and Miles' "family" that they pretend with at least daily. Brooke is the mom (she's 40), Miles is the dad (he's 43), and they have Isabelle (10 or 11, depending on the day - a lot of times it's her birthday), Rose (5) and Baby Bubble Guppy (who is 1 and a boy). It's really fun and funny to watch them act out some of their scenarios with them. Miles generally just does what Brooke tells him.

We've also had some visitors. Here they are watching a movie with Zach and Wes.

Baby Bri came over for a couple hours the other day. The kids loved it.

I couldn't let Paige get too close as she was really into touching Bri's face. It made Paige really sad when Bri cried. So sweet.

Brooke sang her a song, of course.

While Miles watched and joined in intermittently.

Sometimes the cold weather is a fun excuse to hang around and be lazy. I think we're all going to be happy to see spring, though!

We're off to St. Louis this weekend, so between that and Matt's elaborate Valentine's Day plans for me, I'm sure I'll be back with a ton of pictures!

Look Out, Wisconsin!

Last weekend, we went to the Wisconsin Dells with our friends, the Bordners. I had never been before and I think we all had a lot of fun. We stayed in a suite and Miles, Brooke and Zach all slept in a room together. We thought they'd be exhausted after swimming all day and fall right asleep, but they ended up goofing off until almost 10 each night. That's what vacation is for, right?

Miles and Wes are really cute together. They don't talk to each other a ton, but seem to be on the same page with whatever they're playing.

Brooke and Zach are also very similar and have fun, too (they're together enough that they don't really have a choice, actually).

The water park was great. There were lots of small-to-medium slides that were good for Miles, and also some bigger, faster ones that Brooke loved. She has what I think is a healthy balance of adventure and caution. Neither Matt nor I was like that as a kid, so we're not really sure where that comes from. We'll take it, though.

One tube slide ended in a lazy river that she was also a big fan of. There was a family hot tub (gag) that she went in, too. When she got out, she said, "That was really relaxing." Guess she'd had a stressful week at preschool?

Miles is still in the getting-his-face-wet stage of swimming, so he liked the tube slide as long as Matt shielded his face when they hit the water.

Not the best photos, but you get the idea.

We swam Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning. Brooke would have stayed at the water park all day, every day if we'd have let her.

Paige did great, too. She was content for me to hold her or to splash in the water at the water park and chilled in the suite with us the rest of the time. We stayed at Great Wolf Lodge, so the ears were a parting gift for each of the kids.

The resort also had a restaurant, ice cream shop and arcade that we took advantage of.

I don't want to know how much Matt spent attempting to beat the daily record on this game. He did eventually beat it, though. I was so proud.

We probably could have left the boys in this and gone to dinner. They loved it.

It was a great little getaway on a cold February weekend!