Good Times With Friends & The Family

Last weekend we took a road trip to St. Charles to hang out with some of my college volleyball teammates and their families for the weekend. The prep work of packing for 5 people (Wes packed his own), filling a snack bag and drink cooler, and all the baby items I couldn't do without was somewhat of a daunting task but I only managed to forget to pack both Levi and I's pajamas. A normal what could be a 4 hour road trip took us every bit of 6 hours. We had several bathroom stops as Levi has been great at using the potty, but he just has to go often and we would stop so I could nurse Reid. And poor Levi got sick on the mix of jelly beans and cajun trail mix that he snacked on so we had quite the mess in his car seat the last 20 minutes of the drive. Thankfully we were staying at my sister's house the first night so we had access to the washing machine and the garden hose to hose down his seat. Wes was tempted to hose Levi down too, but we didn't think it would look good blasting a 2 year old with the hose. Ha!

On Saturday, we attended the Tartan Days Scottish Festival down by the River Walk. The weather couldn't have cooperated more nicely.

We ate lunch at the Little Hills Restaurant and Winery while waiting for the parade to begin. While eating at the winery with 4 kids isn't the most romantic experience, the bottle of strawberry wine that Wes and I split sure made up for it.






The Tartan Days Parade

Jaidyn and Addy were quite concerned seeing all the men wearing "skirts". We had a nice little culture lesson on Scottish attire.

The kids enjoyed the dogs parading through the streets even more so than the candy being handed out.

You don't see law enforcement officers on horseback very often.

Watching a small group of people playing bagpipes. Why is Jaidyn holding the foam football between her legs? I didn't even notice that until posting this picture.
We all just lounged around on blankets in the grass and the kids played with the hoola-hoops, bubbles, and in the mud most of the day.

Showing off their spiders they purchased from one of the booths set up.

Levi took a tumble down the hill right into the mud so he was shirtless most of the afternoon.


Reid is so sweet! He didn't sleep much all day, but did manage to catch a few ZZZ's under the shade tree.

Later that evening, all our families went out to eat and finally agreed on Buffalo Wild Wings. Our other choices were too busy and didn't have room to seat a party of sixteen. By this time of the evening we were all so exhausted and it would have been much more enjoyable to have ordered pizza and eaten at the hotel or back at the festival. Oh well, lesson learned for next time.

All of us girls. Pretty sad I am bigger than Tara who is almost 8 months preggo. And I am just loving the splotchy sunburn that I have going as I could see the imprints of Wes's hands on my shoulders.

The entire bunch of kids



Griffin was so good entertaining the younger kids all day. I think Addy had a little crush on him as she kept wanting piggy back rides and would just watch him and smile.



Poor Tara, 8 months pregnant and squeezing in the back seat with all the kids. Thankfully we only had to cross a couple of parking lots to get back to the hotel.

The four of us girls had plans to go out for awhile, but exhausted from the full day we decided to hang out at the hotel and enjoyed each others company in the breakfast lounge with a bottle of wine. Wes, the wonderful dad that he is managed 3 of the kids in the pool by himself and my sister watched Reid for a while so I had a couple hours with just the girls.

Not wanting to waste Sunday all day in the car, we decided to take the kids to the St. Louis Arch before heading home.












This was the longest road trip that we have attempted since Reid was born and while I am not in any hurry to do it again soon, I loved every minute of the time with my family and friends.

Reid is the BEST baby. The only time he is fussy is when he decides he is ready to eat and he just doesn't give much warning and wants to eat immediately. Three of the past 4 nights he was went to sleep around 10:00 and slept all the way through to at least 5:00 in the morning. Ahhhh, what a wonderful feeling it is for me to get a full night of sleep. And his grin with those chubby, chubby cheeks to too cute!



"Property of Mom"


Last week Levi and Addy were riding around the house on their horses. Giddy-up!