"Why Is St. Louis So Far Away?"

Our drives to St. Louis have not been the most relaxing as of late, largely because Miles refuses to sleep and doesn't watch a video for more than about 20 minutes at a time. Instead, he asks lots of questions, including, "Why is St. Louis so far away?" and "When will be be there?" about 100 times each.

We went down to St. Louis last weekend to see "Beauty and the Beast" at the Muny and to celebrate Lexi's and my grandma's birthdays. On Friday, we met up with Amy and her kids at Suson Park.

The kids were too hot to enjoy the playground, but they liked hanging out with the geese.

They also had fun with the selfie stick.

Finally, they rallied and were entertained looking at the farm animals there.

That night, we took the big kids to see the show. I think they all had a great time, despite Mati's spoiler ("Don't worry, Belle and the Beast fall in love!") one song into the show and Brooke asking why we weren't sitting in the front row.

It was Miles' first time there and he did a really good job watching the whole show, minus a few potty breaks.

I love the Muny. Almost as much as Matt hates it.

The next day, we decided to spend the morning at Grant's Farm. We will never go there on a Saturday again. However, after waiting for an hour to get into the parking lot, things moved quickly inside the park. We had some fun on the tram. (I should clearly never been responsible for the selfie stick shot.)

The kids enjoyed the carousel and an animal show.

We got there in the afternoon, so the goats were kind of over being fed, but that didn't stop us from trying.

We finished up with a couple free beers for each of the adults and snow cones for the kids. Doesn't Paige look like she's having a blast?

On Saturday evening and Sunday, we hung out at my parents' house. The kids swam a ton.

The babies kept it classy in the foot washing bin.

They seriously sat in there for at least 15 minutes. I love these pictures!

We had a BBQ and cupcakes on Sunday to celebrate Lexi's (7!) and Gigi's (78!) birthdays. We love both of you!

It was a fun trip but we had to get back for an exciting week up here!

What's Up

Here are some random pictures from the last few weeks. When I was in the city with my friends, Matt took the kids to BBQ and these are the photos that I received.

Miles and Brooke "sharing" a meal.

Miles has been into taking photos on my phone lately.

Brooke came up with a really elaborate play that she wanted to do with Kali. The theme was "best friends" and this was the costume (minus the "best friends" necklace). She wanted to do it in Kali's backyard and made invitations and everything for it. Sadly, it never transpired. Maybe another time.

Brooke packed her own bag of "essentials" for St. Louis. Some books, some stuffed animals...and a framed picture of her and Aunt Jamie. Pretty cute.

Ozzie and Paige are developing a bit of a mutual admiration. Or, he tolerates her chasing and climbing on him and he gets scraps from her at meals.

We've been enjoying playing outside, too. Miles' fire truck is a popular toy in the cul-de-sac.

This is trouble in about 12 years...

We took the training wheels off of Brooke's bike and it's not going as smoothly as we'd hoped. I think we've established that she needs a larger bike.

Life is good.

Water Days

It's finally been feeling like summer around here, although the mild spring and early summer has turned my kids into wimps, so we've been trying to find ways to be outside that involve water. We went to the splash pad with some friends a couple of weeks ago.

We also went to a nearby water park, Turtle Splash, with the Bordners last week. It was the perfect size for our kids and they all had a pretty good time.

Until Miles got water dumped on his head by the giant water bucket in the kiddie area (why do they have those in the little kid areas?!?); after that, he and Wes were happy to play out of the pool and ask when we were leaving.

Brooke and Miles also just finished up a couple of weeks of swimming lessons out at Medinah. Brooke did great and they encouraged her to join the swim team next year (we'll see...). She definitely loves to swim.

Miles, on the other hand, refused to get in the water. We weren't sure why he was so scared to join in on the lessons (several days he was the only kid) and tried everything - bribes, getting in with him, having Brooke get in with him, etc. - all to no avail. After the fourth day, I gave up. Maybe next year.

We know that he doesn't like water in his eyes, so the goggles are helpful when he's willing to wear them.

After lessons, we'd usually hang around the pool for a couple of hours. Miles would alternate which sister he played with.

This little lady has become significantly more work at the pool. She's all over the place and will just keep going until the water is covering her nose and mouth if I'd let her.

We've enjoyed the sunshine and water. Hopefully we get a few more weeks of it before summer's over!