Our First Family Vacation .... Watch Out St. Louis!!!

The time had finally come, we are taking our first family vacation....just the 5 of us. Yes, there is something incredible different about taking a trip home to see friends and family and going to a hotel to a place you have never been before...and let me tell you, this isn't as easy as Bryan and I thought it was going to be. I think it all started when we got a little too relaxed because we didn't have a plane that we had to catch at some ridiculous hour of the morning, we were just going to get in the car and drive, and it was all good..until Thursday morning arrived and we were nowhere ready to just jump in the car and go, but you know what, it really didn't matter because we were on our way and whatever we forgot, there were stores and we could buy them!

We made it to st. Louis at about the time that we had planned and checked into our hotel, which I think was the highlight for Rory, and Brendan and Jack were thrilled to have new places to explore, and Bryan and I were quickly doing some baby proofing!

Our first full day of vacation in st. Louis had arrived and it was hot hot hot and humid humid humid, and it was the coolest day in the forecast for our trip so we headed out early to the zoo! The place was huge and thankfully very shady. Jack had a horrible reaction to some plant at our first stop in the zoo, so he wasn't happy about being in the stroller in the heat and having his poor little eyeys and nose running. We powered through and saw all kinds of animals, like the elephants and rhino and the hippo, which I thought was pretty cool! We took a ride on the carousel and the cute little train, which is where Brendan and Jack lost a great battle to the over tiredness and passed out on the train ride. So that is how we ended the day at the zoo.

Our next day adventure was to see the Nick jr. Live show, which was a total surprise for the kids. When www cam around the cornerr to the theatre and rory saw the sign with the wonder pets and a backyardigans and Dora, she was over the moon! We got inside the beautiful theatre and had to wait a little bit for the show to start and rory couldn't sit still she was so excited. We had no idea how the boys would react, but we we ere both ready to scoop them up and walk out if we had too so that a the other could stay with rory. Well, as soon as the lights dimmed and the music started and moose from Nick jr came out, all three of the kids faces lit up

Fancy Nancy strikes again!

We spent Saturday in the backyard just hanging out, kids playing in the pool, and just enjoying some much needed family time.  Rory brought out her Fancy Nancy "Ooh La La, it's Beauty Day" book and decided that she needed a foot soak.  The pictures below need no description, except to say, Fancy Nancy has another little fan.

Happy Birthday America!!

4th of July!!  How did this sneak up on us??  Rory just finished school last week, at least that's how it feels.  It has been a very crazy month or so in our house, hard to believe, right?  Since Bryan graduated from SAMS (School of Advanced Military Studies) he has been traveling back and forth to the Pentagon working on the confirmation of GEN Austin for the post of Commander US Forces-Iraq.  (You can find more information about it here and also a video of the hearing, but Bryan wasn't in the room for the hearing, so you won't see him, but it's interesting nonetheless.)  So we've been missing Daddy a lot around here, so it was great to get him home Friday night, and he's home for a while without much work planned...YEAH!!!

We had a great family day celebrating the 4th at Uncle Kevin's house with Kevin, his kids, Bryan's mom and our wonderful neighbors the Kranc's, or as Rory refers to them, Ms. Molly, Mr. Ryan and our neighbors, meaning their kids Molly and Ben.  The kids had such a great time, not one fuss the entire afternoon, and considering it was 8 kids ranging in age from 7 to 17 months, that is quite a big deal!  The kids ran around, blew bubbles and played a little baseball. 

We managed to dodge the raindrops all afternoon, and then unfortunately the skies opened up just as we were getting ready for the fireworks.

Now, you should know that where we live on Fort Leavenworth, we have prime location to watch the fireworks from the comfort of our backyard.  This is beyond fabulous for many reasons; 1. no fighting with crowds or traffic, 2. the boys can be put to bed and stay there, 3. Rory loves fireworks, but really hates the noise of them, 4. we can watch them in our pajamas!!  So when the skies started to pour down Rory began sobbing, "Rain and thunder please go away, I want to see the fireworks" and there is no point in trying explain what a raindate is!  I kept checking the facebook page of Fort Leavenworth page that had the fireworks info, and they said they were still on, but then the thunder started...oh lord!  So in an effort to stop the sobbing I took out the little popper streamer things and we had fun with those for a while, but there were clearly not fireworks.

Well, finally there was news, and indeed they were going to have the fireworks, I'm pretty sure it was because because the weather for the next night was going to be worse.  So off we went into the backyard, umbrellas and raincoats, and our neighbors braved the rain to come and stand in the rain for show. 

Rory was thrilled when the started, but then they started to fade away as dancing in the rain became the thing to do....oh well!

It was a wonderful day and the kids had tons of fun, and that's all that really matters!

Happy Birthday America!