Trip recap

Ok,  back  to my trip update :-)

So Wednesday afternoon we took  off  and drove to Lee's parent's  house to spend the night. It splits up the  drive to St.  louis nicely that way. We knew that Lee's brother and family were planning to come back  Friday for  a wedding, but  thought we'd be missing them. Then to our surprise we found out that they'd be there Thursday morning, so we got to spend an hour or so with them before we left!

Ryan is 8 months old now...and officially bigger than Brielle! :-)

He wasn't  so sure about Uncle Lee at first...it's  been a couple months since we saw him last!

But then Lee won him over!

He wasn't a fan of me stealing him from his mom either

But we won him over (for a second) with the ball!

And here's one  last Ryan picture, just  because I think it's cute haha. It was taken after we left Thursday, but isn't he cute in his little button up shirt? ;-)

Ok, so then Thursday we drove the rest of the way to St. Louis.  Our first stop was the Cheesecake factory--yum! I love that  place and we don't have  any near us...the closest is like 3 hours away. Then we did a little shopping and continued on to  the hotel. I honestly can't remember what all  we did the rest of Thursday haha...we swam and did the hot tub  at the pool (pretty much every day! Lee says we're getting a hot tub for our patio haha)...we also bought some new Cardinals stuff for the games (I got a new tank top and tshirt)...we drove  around St. Louis, etc.

Friday morning we did the Botanical Gardens. They had a Japanese lantern theme going one there right now. It was really pretty, but  HOT. So I  appologize for our sweaty appearance :-P

We took our camera remote so we were able to get a few pics. But we were limited because I told Lee not to bring the tripod because I didn't want  to mess with carrying it. Plus there are only  so many pics you can take of yourself ;-)

After the Gardens we ate lunch in basically  like a "little italy" neighborhood. The we went  to  have frozen custard at Ted Drewes. Apparently it's a well known place that  Lee knew  of. And  OMG I had the  best dessert my lips have tasted I think  haha...it was a peice of apple crisp on the bottom, with custard on top, drizzled with caramel and nuts etc. It was heaven.

Lee got a raspberry shake

Then we went back to the  hotel  to swim and relax before the baseball game. The game Friday night was fun, and we won! We were  closer than I'd ever  sat before...like row 25. It was hot hot hot though. I  actually wasn't bad until  around the 7th inning, but  I made it  haha. I enjoyed lots of ball park  food too!

Saturday we slept in (no kids, gotta sleep!) and then drove around a bit before having  lunch at Hard Rock  Cafe. After that  we went to the  St. Louis Science  Center (it was geared towards kids, which we knew...we'll  have to take our girls back some time)....but t he reason we were there was to see The Dark Knight Rises in the Omnimax theater....so good! Lee hates seeing normal movies because we have a big  tv and surround sound at home, so he thinks it's a waste of money to go anywhere....but  obviously  we don't have  an Omnimax ;-) I'd been to one in college and lee  had been  to one a long time ago, but never to see a full length feather  film. It definitely  took  a little bit for our eyes to adjust to the giant dome screen (I mean seriously, bat man's face surrounding you in a giant dome haha...kinda weird ;-) ....but  after a few minutes our eyes had adjusted and I only had to look away for 10 minutes during the really intense fighting scenes because it was making me motion sick haha. But for an almost 3 hour movie I consider only  10 minutes pretty good!

After the movie we had  to  go back  to the hotel  really quick and change for the 2nd Cardinals game. This night we had row 6 seats (behind the green  seats)!

They had a little  opening ceremony for the anniversary of the 1982 world  series title

Saturday  wasn't  nearly as hot and we won again :-) And more good ballpark  food haha.

Sunday we had  to head back  home!  (Oh, and during all  of our driving, etc. I wanted a book  to read...so before we left  I decided to give  into the craze and read the Shades of Grey series, which I downloaded to my nook. And let me just say, there are a hell  of a lot of kinky, sinful people out there reading to make this such a bestseller!!! :-0 LOL...but it definitely is a quick  read and I just  have the last half of the 3rd book left to read ;-)

And while we were gone I had  my  parents take  pictures  of the girls' fun...so here ya go!

Thursday they played  with Sawyer and Harper...

Playing with one of my mom's two dollhouses--spoiled!

On Friday  I believe my mom took  them to play at the mall ...

Funny story about t he mall....my  mom was going to buy Raya some flip flops she  said, because Raya always wonders why Sawyer has  flip flops and she doesn't (which is because she refuses to wear them and most don't fit her feet right ;-) ....but anyways, my mom said she was trying to get Raya to get some *pink* flip flops, and they were looking around...and they got to one store and were asking the sales lady who I guess found some *purple* flips flops. My mom told Raya  something like "oh, well  Raya, don't you want *pink* ones?" ....and apparently Raya tried the purple ones on and looked at the saleslady and said "no, these are just perfect!"  haha....so Grandma, needless to say, bought her purple flip flops ;-)

My mom bought divided  plates to have at her house too!

My mom said the girls would wake up early  and then watch  cartoons in her  bed...and also  watch tv in her bed  at night after baths.

Playing in bed!

On Saturday my mom had one of her sisters (and her  daughter), a sister-in-law, and her mom over and they  went  out  shopping for the day.



Brielle cried  when anyone  looked  at her rmom said. Even with  the suckers as bribery ;-) And also my mom said Raya  insisted on calling my little cousin "Gabby" instead of "Addie" lol...but no  surprise Raya adored "Gabby" haha

While shopping my mom got Raya some Puma shoes  for preschool...honestly Raya doesn't own a single  pair  of tennis shoes! Only  fashion boots  and sandals haha. My mom got her the  cutest pink and  white ones--same ones shown here  ....thanks Grandma!

My Aunt  Angie gave the girls some dress  up clothes that Addie/"Gabby" doesn't use anymore....looks like  my dad played too!

Then Sunday my parents  ran errands  with  the girls and they ate lunch at McDonalds  and played in the tunnels

And we picked the girls up Sunday afternoon! Raya  got a special  present from us when we got back :-)

Poor  Brielle didn't get anything....Lee said she was too little  to know  the difference, and thankfully so far she hasn't noticed Raya's new stuff!