Fun with Aunt Dawn, Cousin Grace and Cousin Austin

While My sister, Grace and Austin were here we visited still more of our St. Louis favorites, the zoo and Grant's Farm!
Feeding the goats at Grant's Farm is always a fun time! I did take Elyse in once but decided against it this time...I was wearing light pants!

The kids all enjoyed the animals but Ellie seemed unsure of the Llama, especially after it spit!

The girls really had a blast together and enjoyed Austin as well. As for me I had a great time with my sister...Aunt Dawn! I really missed them when they left.

Family visit...

I love it when we have visitors! We go out and about in St. Louis. We see the old favorite places and amazingly after three years still find new things to do. My nephew actually stayed for about 2 1/2 weeks, which I really enjoyed. My mom flew out with him and stayed for a week. Then at the end my sister flew out, with her youngest Grace, to spend a long weekend before flying back with Austin.

The NEW...
While my mom was here she, my nephew, Ellie and I checked out The City Museum. The place is amazing. I climbed around on things with Austin while Grandma spent time with Ellie. They have this amazing outdoor "MonstroCity'. The best way I can think to explain it is a 3-4 story junglejim. It was fun to crawl around but nauseating at times, especially since I am not fond of heights. Below are a few pictures of my nephew maneuvering, he is in Camouflage so you might not be able to see him.(haha!)

The OLD FAVES...
Nate and I have renewed our membership to the botanical gardens. They are so pretty, all times of the year, and just relaxing. And as I have found with my nephew...FUN! They currently have an artists work on display they you can touch and climb on. Austin and Ellie both enjoyed it.

There was also an indoor exhibit for kids about trees and forest animals. The gardens really surprised me at this visit. Who knew there would be so much for a 13yr old and an 11 month old to do...without entering the Children's garden.
Ellie and Austin nesting...
Ellie the owl. She wasn't too thrilled!

We had a great time with grandma and were sad to see her leave. We still have more time with Austin though!!!

Disconnected

Well it has been a while. After all of our traveling and visitors our computer died. I felt almost disconnected being without the internet, almost sad sounding isn't it! The worst part of it being we almost lost all our photos of Elyse. I mean all of them from pre-birth to now. I CRIED when Nate told me this. Luckily he was able to reboot and get the majority of them back YEAH!! The only month we lost was June. Which is a bummer because we had so many great pictures from out Texas visit. Well we now that we are back on line ENJOY!

Playing with Lexi...

Since she has been crawling, and pulling herself up on EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!! Ellie loves to play with (Or TERRORIZE) the dogs. Here Lexi is trying to relax and Ellie didn't want her to...

Tunnel vision

Ellie got a 'new' tunnel and is really enjoying going back and forth. Also trying to get the dogs to follow her through!

Pretty pose

Elyse's personality is just bubbling and it shows in her pictures. I just really enjoyed this one because it shows a whole different side.

Yee Haw Texas!!

The latest of our travels took us to Texas. We were able to catch up with friends from Michigan, some we hadn't seen since graduation. It was also my first time to Texas, we had traveled through when I was young on out way to Arizona but never stayed. Elyse, again, was great on the plane. She has been such a great traveler and I am grateful! This way I do not dread going anywhere. Anyway, Texas!

We stayed with our friends the Hatch's. They have a great place that housed us all. "Us all" being Paul, Kori & their 9 month old son Dane. Natalie & her two kids Ava (3) and Alex (1 1/2), Sara ( who is pregnant!), Ed & Jody (who are also expecting!!), and of course Nate, Ellie and I. What a group huh! Here we are...


Ellie had a blast with the kids, especially Dane! She kissed him, poked him in the eye and pulled his hair!! (you can see the video for your self!)

Then she kisses him!!

We went to the pool everyday.



Ellie was so exhausted the one night that she fell asleep in her highchair. This was precious in itself but then Dane started talking and Ellie motioned to shh him! It was classic.


The gals had a great time celebrating the pregnant ladies. Friday morning we all went to the spa and got out nails done and then gave the gals a surprise shower! It was a great time!

Saturday we went to the zoo. Ellie loved it, as long as the animals moved!! We also went into the children's zoo where they had a bird feeding area. Ellie loved it and kept trying to grab all the birds we were feeding.

Sunday we celebrated Father's Day, Nate and Paul's first official! (I made the crowns)


Also on Sunday we visited with Mike, Susan and Kate. We had a nice lunch and swam in their pool. Ellie really took to Mike. He also let her drink watermelon lemonade, he knows the way to her heart!

We had such a great time visiting our friends. The only bad thing is that now Nate wants a pool, UGH!!