The summer fun began this week with a trip to St. Louis with Mom, Abby, and all the kiddos. We started out early Tuesday morning headed to St. Louis to visit Grant's Farm and to take part in some frivolous grocery shopping. We made it to our destination by 10:15 and the fun began in the scorching heat. All were covered in sweet smelling sunscreen and off we went to see the animals and enjoy a free beer.
I was blessed to have my best friend, Jenny, meet us to enjoy Grant's Farm. We were able to meet her new daughter, Audrey, and to spend time with her adorable little Emma. (They are both in the pictures above in case you wonder who the extra kids are! and there is no picture of Jenny because I knew if I loaded one of the ones I had, she would kill me because of how she looked.)
The kids had so much fun after they warmed up to each other and I loved having a few short hours to sort-of catch up with Jenny after not seeing her for a year. We all quickly found that it is hard to have a long adult conversation between chasing little ones and feeding babies.
Mom found us a nice hotel that had a free "Happy Hour" and free dinner. Nanny likes to conserve her cash for other things; that's part of why we love her so much! We enjoyed a nice dinner of all carbs and some delicious "chicken sticks"; then off to the swimming pool we went. Matney loved the water and just cooed and cooed the entire time, even going under twice.
Wednesday morning was met with 7 refreshed women and children who quickly left on the next adventure for the "frivolous shopping" part of the trip and some major bribing of the big boys. (If they behaved and let the mommies have some fun they would get ice cream--bribery isn't a bad thing--it worked.) We went to two of our favorite stores to buy nothing less than............groceries....what, did I just say groceries? Yes, I sure did and they are wonderful groceries that SW MO does not supply to two girls who love to cook! Viviano's is an adorable little Italian grocery on The Hill in St. Louis that has everything from fresh salami to italian bread crumbs. They have wonderful pasta and oh my goodness, the blue cheese is so yummy. After leaving Viviano's with three boxes of goodies between Mom, Abby, and me, we headed to Trader Joe's. Three full carts later filled with delicious Kona coffee beans, olive oil, fresh bread, super delicious cranberry oatmeal cookies, and wine, wine, and so more wine amongst other things, we were done grocery shopping in the big city and ready to head home after some stratigic packing of the "Burb".
We had a wonderful time on our mini vacay and can't wait for next year as it will be the 3rd year we have gone with everyone, however, we have decided the kids might stay home with the daddies so they mommies keep their sanity.
This is my last week at home so having the outing to St. Louis and our outing this weekend to the Lake is helping to keep my mind off of leaving my baby girl. How quickly 8 weeks has past and changed my heart and soul in a way I never expected. Matney was such a trooper on our trip and I cannot wait for all the countless adventures life will bring us to share as Mother and Daughter.
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