THANK YOU!!

We had a WONDERFUL trip to visit Brian and Andrea. So wonderful in fact, we decided that we are going to make it an annual event. :) :) Don't worry, we told them that while we were down there, we're just not springing this on them now :) :) How much fun will that be especially when we all have kiddos running around, playing together... I CAN'T WAIT!!

But seriously, THANK YOU SO MUCH Brian and Andrea for your hospitality, your Magellan :) your travel recommendations, but more importantly, your friendship. We are so lucky to call you guys friends. WE LOVE YOU!!

The Drive Home

We got up and headed out of Edwardsville about 9:30 their time. We drove about 3 hrs to stop in Nico's favorite place... now mind you, the only time he's been this way was on our way down, but he LOVED it for some reason... it's a town called Brazil. :)

The trip to Brazil was good, Eli slept almost 2 and a half hours, so it was awesome!! After a quick lunch and some running around and pointing at big trucks, it was back to the car. I sat in the back with Eli and we watched 101 Dalmatians. The doggies kept him pretty quiet!! :)

It seemed like a much shorter trip home... I'm sure Eli sleeping almost 1/2 of didn't hurt!! :)

Dinner and Custard

Saturday night for dinner we grilled out. Without even knowing it, they cooked everything Eli LOVES... hot dogs, corn, pasta salad and pineapple. It was nice to all sit down together for dinner. We really love these 2!! They are such wonderful people and they were AMAZING with Eli. We CAN NOT WAIT for them to have kids of their own!

After dinner, plant watering -Brian and Andrea just got new landscaping and it looks AWESOME... especially the ball spruce. For those of you, who were like me before I made the trip down, here's what they look like.

Nico and I love them so much we want to put them in our landscaping!!
OK back to my story... after dinner, plant watering, and some playing outside, it was time for Ice Cream, or I guess it's officially called Frozen Custard. We went to this mom and pop Custard Stand in Edwardsville. It was GREAT!! Eli had a little bit of everyone. Can you tell he had some of my chocolate? Can you see his little chocolate "soul patch"

After ice cream it was back to the house for night night for Eli and movie watching "The Bucket List" for us. Brian had to work WAY early the next morning, so we took some pictures before Eli went to bed.

The Ball State Boys!! :)

Gateway to the West

On Saturday, we made the trip downtown to see the famous "Arch." We were hoping to go up to the top, but didn't know if the lines would be too long.
After an interesting trip into town... The GPS kept wanting us to go on roads that were closed because of the MAJOR flooding of the Mississippi River... we parked and walked.

See the stop sign!!???

Along the way, we continued to see the effects of the flooding.

Then the Arch came into view. It really is SPECTACULAR!! Nico went a little crazy with his all his pictures of it, but he got some awesome ones!!

This is one of my FAVORITE!!!

Then we went inside (or actually underground) to see if we could go to the top. After some help from a guide, we learned it was like a hr and a half wait... a bit too long with a toddler. So, it gives us another reason to go back and see Brian and Andrea. But we did tour around the building. One major section was a Museum all about Western Expansion...I was in HEAVEN!! It was so cool. Eli really liked the wagon and the animal displays.

As we were leaving it started to rain, but it was WELL WORTH the trip. Next time WE ARE going to go up it!! :)

Here's our parting shot of the Arch from the parking lot.

Eli's Favorite Part of Our Trip

Even thought Eli can't speak in full sentences, if you'd ask him what his favorite part of our trip to St. Louis was he'd could answer clear as day with NO hesitation....

"Doggy!!"

Brian and Andrea have this WONDERFUL Boston Terrier Ryleigh that Eli FELL IN LOVE WITH. "Doggy" was the first word in the morning and the last word right before bed time. Ryleigh was great with Eli. They played catch, chased each other, and gave LOTS of kisses!

Nico even commented a few times about what a great dog she was... and you know for Nico to say that.... WOW!!! Don't know that he's convinced yet that we need to get one, but it was a good start!!

So before we left, we had to get a picture with Eli and his mommy and Ryleigh and her mommy

Dinner with Andrea

Brian had to work late Friday night, so we took Andrea to dinner. We went to the 54th Street Grill. It was YUMMY!!

Eli especially liked the bread they served... I think he ate most of the loaf himself. Here he is with his "cheese" smile!!

Of course we had to get some pictures...

After dinner, Eli went to bed and we watched Michael Clayton. :( That movie required WAY TOO MUCH thinking for the 3 of us!!

Our first full day in St. Louis was a hit!!

Day 1-The St LouisZoo

Brian and Andrea don't actually live in downtown St. Louis, which was great for us!! They had a HUGE back yard with a swing set so Eli was LOVING IT!!

But they only live like 30 minutes away. So each day when Brian and Andrea went to work we went into town. Here's our first picture driving into St. Louis

Neither Nico or I have ever been to St. Louis, so we both were SO EXCITED. Here's the Cardinal's new Stadium. As Nico puts it, you could smack it from the highway.

Since Eli loves animals, the St. Louis Zoo was a natural place to take him.

They had quite a few animals that our Fort Wayne Zoo doesn't, so we visited those first... Bears and mommy's favorite, the Hippos

Then we saw some our zoo has... who can pass up elephants and chimpanzees??

We each had our picture taken with Eli and a different animal...

Nico, Eli and the Flamingos

Eli and I with the Polar Bear

It's always nice to see other zoos... helps us appreciate the one we have here in Ft. Wayne!!

Road Trip with a 18 month old... Crazy???

Let me just begin the St. Louis posts with these very important 5 words...

WE LOVE THE LEAS FAMILY!

We called them less than a week before we came and asked if we could come.Not only that, they have like a zillion people coming next weekend and they were still OK with us coming and crashing their weekend!! :)

It took us about 6 hrs to get there. Eli did pretty well. I kept him up in the morning, thinking he'd be SUPER tired and want to sleep most of the way... BACKFIRED!! He slept about an hr the WHOLE TRIP!! The final 3 hrs. I was in the back seat with him and we watched Veggie Tales and Baby Einsteins Videos.

The last 45 minute were a bit rough. He wanted out, so what did his phenomenal parents do?? Turn up the Hip Hop Music really loud and sign and dance with him in his car seat.

Sorry have no pictures of the trip down... I know shocker, but I was busy keeping an 18 month old busy!! :)

But all in all, I'm proud of him... My kid sitting 6 hrs is a MAJOR accomplishment!!

Parkview Playground

Last week, before we went to St. Louis, we took Eli to the Parkview Playground.

He had a great time. He even made a little friend...

Little Praiser's Daycare was there too, that's how he met his friend. :) Tammy-they were all wearing their green shirts. I almost called you and told you to have your kids put on their green shirts and come on down... so at least they could have warn them more than once. :)





While we were there, Samaritan landed CLOSE to the playground. All the kids (and Nico) ran to watch it land.... it was pretty cool though!! :)