More of our trip to IL

While I was in IL for the weekend of our family reunion, I decided to stay into the next week a bit and get to visit with my Mom and Dad and Aaron's family in St Louis too!  I also got to see 2 of my siblings since they were not able to make it to the reunion either.

First we stayed at my family's house for a couple days. 

We had to eat at Monical's while we were there.
Us with my brother Matt and his wife Sherri

Collin getting his first taste of Monical's pizza!
He loved it and ate about 5 pieces by
himself-they're the square pieces not the slices!



One of my other favorite things in Bloomington-
the Constitution Trail
Grandma and Brady enjoying a nice evening
(with me and Collin close behind)



Then we got to surprise Erica for her birthday and showed up in Edwardsville.  She said it was the best present ever! :)

We went out to the Cheesecake Factory for her birthday (no pictures of that) and spent a couple more days there with them.

My sister and nieces came to visit us there since we didn't get to see them at the reunion either.  I have awesome in-laws that makes my whole family part of their family and lets them come and visit me there whenever I am there!  We went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and played all day at the house together before they had to go back home that night.

 

Sadie, Brady and Ava trying to figure out what flavor of wings
they want on the little flavor wheel



Rub a dub dub-4 cuties in the tub!

We threw them all in the bathtub together, got their jammies on and the girls had to head home.  Melissa stopped to get gas and the kids were already asleep before she got out of town! 

Before we went back home, we decided to eat at the City Creperie (YUM!), do a little shopping in St Louis with Grandma and a visit the Magic House.

I took a really funny video of Brady playing around in one of the empty dressing rooms at the mall while Teresa and I were trying on clothes.  Let's just say he was spanking himself and jumping around.  I can't upload it though because it was on my cell phone and I don't think Blogger can figure out how to read it!  Darn it!

Here's our pictures from the Magic House, the Children's Museum.

I have to say it was quite large and quite impressive.  Brady loved everything and Collin was dying to get in there and play with stuff too!



"This is President Gray-get Air Force One ready!"



"I'll tell you how I'm going to solve this budget crisis.."



Climbing on the 3 story beanstalk from Jack and the Beanstalk



You can catch a fish in the big pond

Then you can release it at the other end
and watch it go back "downstream" to the pond. 
How clever is that?

They even had a whole section for 2 and under
and Collin had a blast in there

 

Construction site



We could not get Collin away from these mushroom
drums from Alice and Wonderland!

me and Brady touching the static ball in some "hair raising fun"



I'm so glad that we decided to spend the whole week and got to have so much fun.  I think everyone had a good time, except Aaron who was home by himself the whole week! :( 

I took this picture in the car about 45 minutes from home.  We had to take a major detour off the interstate through the country because of all of the flooding in MO and IA along the river.  I think the country roads rocked them to sleep!  Don't worry-I slowed way down to take this picture and there was no one behind me!



So peaceful!  Look at little Collin's hand
holding onto his car seat

It is good to be home and not in the car.  I am also happy we will get to see family again at the end of August for Collin's birthday.  And this time they have to come to us! :)

Family Reunion

Every year on my Mom's side of the family, they have a family reunion at the end of July.  My Mom has 5 sisters and so it is all of them and their families plus some of their aunts and cousins too.  A lot of fun and a lot of craziness-in the best way!! :)  Not everyone was able to come though because of some crazy Chicago weather (torrential downpour the night before and crazy humid and hot temps).  So we were a little smaller in number but still had a good time.

But I finally got to go after not having gone for 4 years because we lived in Arizona.  Unfortunately, Aaron did  not because of his work schedule and not being able to take the time off.

It was great to see my aunts, uncles and cousins that I really only get to see once a year at Christmas (and some of them not even then).

First we stopped at my Grandma's house to see her (my Dad's Mom) before heading over to the reunion.  It was fun seeing them playing with some of the same toys I remember playing with as a kid as well as some new ones she has picked up for the great grandkids.



Grandpa with the boys at my Grandma's house



Some of my aunts and uncles chatting

Kissing cousins-Mya and Collin
She is  my cousin's daughter and they are
about 1 month apart in age

Brady fishing in the pond at my Aunt Nina's house

Group shot

Hopefully next year more of us will be there and the weather will be a little more kind!  I hope to also be able to talk a little bit more to some of them because it seems like I was chasing little Collin around most of the time instead of being able to sit and visit!  That's the story of my life right now and I'm OK with that! :)

A little of this and that

Even with the crazy hot temperatures we've had here, we've managed to keep ourselves busy and inside as much as we can.  I know, I know, over 100 degrees is nothing in Arizona.  I have lived with that for the last 5 years.  But the humidity here is a killer!  I'd much prefer 110 in the dry hot air than here with heavy, wet air!  I hate humidity!  I get all sweaty just going into the garage and buckling the kids in the car!  Ugh!!  It is supposed to cool down a bit soon.

Anyway, here's a couple random pictures I have from the last couple days.

Little buddy is big enough to ride with brother
in the car cart at the grocery store!

 We went to the indoor bouncy place and Brady bounced and played for over 2 hours.  Collin wanted to get in there so bad and do it but he was just too little still!  There were so many kids there that day that I couldn't let him get on anything really because he would get flattened!


Giant slide



Inflatable baseball game-the ball hovers over the
tee and you can hit in the holes on the opposite wall



Finally at the end there was no kids in this one and I put him
in there to play around for 10 minutes before we left.  He had a
great time and threw a huge fit when I had to drag him out!
I kept his pacifier in so he wouldn't put his mouth all over everything!

It was 8 pm when I took these pictures!  We were out driving around after going out to eat for dinner and decided to stop and play for a few minutes because it was all shaded and it was much cooler out.



Collin loves swinging!



All my boys having fun

 





Aaron's weekend trip

Aaron's Dad received some tickets from his boss at work to go to the U2 concert in St Louis.  He asked Aaron if he wanted to come because this is his favorite band.  So Aaron took Brady and they went on a little weekend road trip to St Louis for the weekend.  Grandma had fun with Brady while Aaron and his Dad went to the concert.  Collin and I had a nice relaxing weekend at home and it gave me time to catch up on some house work and relaxation!





If you could pick a perfect place for the concert to be for Aaron it would be Busch Stadium.  Now if the Cardinal's were actually playing at the stadium while the concert was going on Aaron would be even more happy!  But that would pretty much be impossible since the stage took up the entire field!

So they thought they had some pretty good seats to the concert-right behind home plate!  But they didn't realize how good they actually were until they got there and found out that they were Cardinal's Club seats.  That means they get premium soft seats and there's an inside eating area and they get as much free food and drinks as they want before and during the event.  At one point they had some serious security around and it was because Bono's wife was in a nearby box walking by.  Crazy!  Those tickets were pretty expensive and they couldn't believe that they got the tickets as a gift!

During the concert

Aaron and his Dad had an awesome time and he is so glad that he decided to drive there for a short visit and go!  (There was much going back and forth about whether or not he wanted to and if he could with his work schedule.  He decided to go last minute.)

Keeping busy as best as we can

I found these on my phone and had to share.  A couple weeks ago we went to a dinner at Aaron's boss's house-the General.  Right before I went to pick up the babysitter, Brady was playing outside and somehow Bo was out there with him.  When I told them to come inside, Bo comes in like this:

 I couldn't get Bo to cooperate fully for a picture but his whole other side was soaked!  He dumped a 1/2 gallon container of bubbles on the dog!  I didn't have time to really give him a bath or anything so I dried him off as best as I could, got the babysitter and we went to our dinner.  He was getting kinda scruffy looking anyway so I took him to get groomed the next day and didn't have to deal with the suds myself!

I had to take a picture of the street that the General lives on.  This is on base and they are old brick houses with flags on the porches and huge trees lining the street.  It is also right across the street from the old "parade grounds" where they would stand in formations and stuff like that.  Now they have a nice running/walking track around it and it's really nice.

General's Row

 Here's how we've kept busy at home this summer

Just for fun!
Brady wearing my headband
and being goofy!

Favorite thing to do-
make a mess by pulling out all of
the plastic containers

Brady has to join in on the fun

 We took advantage of a cooler temperature day to go to the zoo.  I really like the zoo here.  It's quite large though and it is very hilly.  And I have the bigger stroller that Brady can sit/stand behind so pushing 2 kids up and down the hills by myself is quite a workout!  It's times like these that I miss the Tucson zoo because it was the perfect size and there are no hills!

Brady's not really scared but it kind of looks like it in this picture!
The gorillas here are huge and usually right up by the glass!

Family picture!  ha ha

Petting the goat in the petting zoo

 

Train ride!

It is quite a trip up and down the hills to make it to the zebras, giraffes and rhinos.  So we took a train ride that took us all over and we saw everything so I didn't have to push it all over this time.  It's $5 a person (not counting Collin) and closed during the colder months so we don't ever do it but we did this time.  That's all Brady could talk about!  I'm surprised that he even remembered that we were there at the zoo looking at animals.  He would have been happy if we showed up at the zoo, rode the train and went home!

Keepin' cool

It is starting to get pretty hot here so we have to find some things to do that won't keep us inside all day.

We went with some friends to a lake near here and had a nice picnic and played in the lake.  So, I'm not too crazy about lakes because 1.  They're dirty and muddy looking. 2.  There's all kinds of gross things floating in there.  3.  You can't see the bottom or what you're stepping on.  4.  You know that people probably don't get out if they have to "go" - that's all I'm gonna say about that!

But this lake was OK as far as lakes go.  At least it was more like a beach with a sandy bottom and not gross mud/seaweed junk on the bottom.

Brady is trying to get Collin to have a good time

Still not convinced yet

Brady trying to use his new-found love of the water and swimming skills

Finally he is enjoying himself

Getting a little too care free!

 After working in the yard yesterday, Aaron wanted to wash the cars.  Brady loves helping Aaron so he got out there too.  But Brady's cars also needed to be washed too so they both got it all taken care of!

All lined up-scooter, car, tricycle

Grandpa Purcell's genes are definitely in this kid! 
Talk about attention to detail!

 And speaking of keeping cool.....I had to include this because he is looking so cute in his little outfit!  Love my little man!