Summer is here!

We kicked off our Memorial Day by breaking out the inflatable baby pool.  Reegan loved it and we'll be making this a regular thing this summer.

 So, we really don't have any pool toys but I found these measuring cups and funnels at the dollar section of Target and thought they would work great for the water table, so for now, they're our pool toys as well. 

 I think Reegan's favorite activity was pouring the water on our feet.  It was actually very refreshing and kept us cool.

 Here I am a few days short of 36 weeks.  Belly Button has fully popped and I think this guy is quickly running out of room.  My only complaint, beside my fear of a 10 pound baby, is my gastric reflux and heartburn that has decided to show up the last few days.  I was lucky and never experienced this with Reegan.

 And of course, there can't be a picture without Reegan in it!

WOF

This past weekend we took a day trip to Worlds of Fun.  Reegan loves to be thrown into the air and spun around as fast as we can, so we thought she would enjoy it.  She did!  She loved being able to "drive" the cars and boats. 

We had a fun day and look forward to going in a couple of years when Reegan can do more and baby boy can ride some as well.  

Our Last Morning

Sadly, when last Sunday morning rolled around, we knew our vacation was coming to a close.  But that didn't stop us from trying to squeeze a few more hours of family fun in!  We headed back to Lafayette Square for some more coffee from Park Avenue Coffee and for some play time in the park.  There was a great playground area and a beautiful morning calling our names...

Reegan gets more and more adventurous by the day it seems.  This playground provided her with a chance to really test her limits!  She was all over the place...on the bridge...

...crawling through tunnels...

...and even climbing up the chain ladder instead of the steps.

Of course, the steps were used many times to get to the highest slide!

This is definitely the highest she's ever been on her own (partly because her parents freak out if she's more than 3 feet up) and she loved it!

See??

Before we packed back into the car for the drive home, we stopped for just a second to get some "air time."  :)

What a great trip!  We had a blast and we definitely plan on a return visit in a couple of years when baby boy can come with us too.  ;)

Day 3

Our third day in St. Louis was spent at the Zoo!  We were really excited about taking Reegan to the Zoo because she really knows her animals well and we couldn't wait to see her reactions to seeing so many of them. 

The St. Louis Zoo is amazing by the way.  For one, admission is free - awesome.  For two, the place is huge and has a really good variety of animals.  And for three, admission is free!  There were things to do that required a fee (the children's zoo, carousel, sting ray exhibit, and the train) but even those things were free of charge for the first hour that the park was open.  So, what did we do?  We bolted straight for those attractions.  :)

First stop, the children's zoo.  They had more goats here!  These goats, however, were much more relaxed than those at Grant's Farm the previous day (probably because there wasn't dozens of people feeding them constantly).  Reegan really got into petting these guys.  She didn't hesitate at all to go up and give 'em a good rubbing.

Next up, the carousel.  Reegan LOVES the carousel.  And this one was big and had all different kinds of animals as the "horses" which was kinda neat.  Ride #1, she chose the gorilla...

Ride #2...the tiger!  And she talked about that tiger the rest of the trip!

After the carousel rides, the free hour was up.  :(  But again, most everything else in the Zoo was free so on we went.  One of our favorite spots was the penguin exhibit.  We happened to come up to it when one of the zookeepers was feeding them!  They were so cute.  They also had an indoor penguin area (that was kept VERY cold) where you could see them swimming and playing.  You could literally get within inches of these guys and Reegan really enjoyed this.  They would splash around in the water and get us wet...she thought this was hilarious.  :)

Reegan loved seeing all of the animals.  We had our stroller with us, but took out the bar that goes across the front so she could hop in and out as she pleased.  This worked great as she would ride from place to place and the jump out as soon as she saw an animal.  She got so excited at every spot!  These chimps were pretty cute...

We did ride the train later in the afternoon.  Reegan would see it passing by all day long and say "choo-chooooo" so we knew we needed to take her on it.  We rode it all the way around the park and she smiled the whole time!

And during that train ride we got a closer encounter with Reegan's favorite animal...

I'd say the trip to the Zoo was a complete success!  We were there literally from open to close (which we didn't originally think was going to be possible given nap time) and we had a lot of fun.  This was our last full day in St. Louis.  We did have something planned for Sunday morning though...



Day 2

Day 2 was spent at Grant's Farm.  Reegan woke up still very sleepy and I was afraid the day was going to be rough, but she recovered pretty quickly.  If you ever go to St. Louis, check this place out.  Pay to park, but free admission.  It started out with a tram ride through the grounds which was kinda like a mini safari...or what I would guess a safari is like.  I think I enjoyed this part more than the other two, amazing! 

Once inside it was kind of like Deanna Rose, but bigger and better!  There was an area to feed the baby goats a bottle of milk.

 

Reegan watched Jason do it, but those baby goats were a little too aggressive for her liking.

They had turtles, giraffes, zebras, the Budweiser Clydesdale horses, and elephants. 

Reegan wanted to get as close and personal as she could.  That girl would come alive at each animal exhibit we saw.

There was so much to see that we pushed naptime back a little bit and that resulted in Reegan taking a very long nap, so long that we didn't have time to go to the magic house like we planned, and really only had time for dinner and more sightseeing.  The weather was amazingly perfect, so it would have been a waste to spend the afternoon indoors anyway.  We went to dinner at a seafood restaurant and I think this was the only meal that we ate indoors.  After our meal we stumbled upon this amazing neighborhood with a georgous park.  Lafeyette Square.  This was my perfect place.  The park was amazing, beautiful and had a breakfast place and coffee shop on the outskirts.  Plus, the houses were perfect. 

Seriously, we had so much fun on this trip and it was exactly what we needed after the crazy few weeks we have had.  It was nice to get away and not have the stresses of everyday and not be thinking about all that we want to accomplish before our house gets a little more chaotic.  Plus, I don't think I have ever seen Reegan happier.  She woke up every morning to us in the same room and she fell asleep at night with us laying in bed with her.  She was amazingly good and I was more proud than ever that she's ours! 

Day 1

We're back from our vacation and getting right back into the swing of things.  We had such a great time in St. Louis!  It was a fantastic time as a family and we really enjoyed ourselves.  We had SO much fun that we took over 400 (400!!) pictures.  Don't worry, they're not all going to be on the blog.  However, we did want to share as much as we possibly can, so we're splitting our trip up into several posts.  :)

We left bright and early on Thursday morning to head out.  We drove to Columbia before stopping to grab some breakfast at McDonald's and let Reegan play in the playplace.  Our friends Adam and Becca travel down I-70 often with their two boys and said that this McD's had a great playplace...they were right!  It was huge.  So huge that Jason had to help Reegan climb up some of the levels.  :)  Reegan had a lot of fun right off the bat.

We pulled into St. Louis right around 12:30 and were able to check into our hotel* early.  Perfect!  We were hoping this would be the case.  We rode up to the 27th floor and got everything situated. 

*We booked our hotel on Priceline - this is the second trip we've booked using the "Name your own price" feature.  It's AWESOME.  The hotels we've gotten have been perfect and CHEAP!  I highly recommend it for anyone who knows the exact dates they want to travel.

Here's our view...

Reegan got her own bed for the trip!  She was really excited about the big beds.  The first thing she did was get her "friends" (Big Bird, Elmo, and Teddy) and climb up to the pillows.

Our plan for Thursday was mainly to head to the Arch.  Luckily for us it was a very short walk from our hotel!

The ride up was exciting for this little one!  (Jessica was not a huge fan of the little "pods" that you have to ride in, but it didn't bother Reegan at all)

Up at the top Reegan LOVED looking out the little windows!

She really seemed to get a kick out of being up so high and looking out. 

Stop #1 on the trip was a huge success!

After the Arch, we just took the rest of the afternoon to stroll around downtown St. Louis.  Jason wanted to go by Busch Stadium...

Then we found this park right in the middle of downtown.  So cool!  Reegan had fun running around and using up all of the energy she could.  :)

And she really liked the giant rabbit that was there.  She is so fun to watch these days.  She just gets so excited about new things and just loves to play, play, play!

We grabbed dinner down in Laclede's Landing - a restaurant/entertainment area by the river - at a place called Morgan Street Brewery.  The weather was beautiful so we sat outside and enjoyed our meal. 

Day 1 was a lot of fun!  We were off to a great start and ready for the rest of our long weekend.  Stay tuned for more...