St. Louis Visit

Parker's school was closed for the entire week of June 25-29, so I took off the week of work (well kind of, did some work from home on Monday and Tuesday actually brought Parker into the office for a couple hours).  The rest of the week we traveled to St. Louis to see everyone! 

Our flight on the way there was delayed and since I was going to miss my connecting flight at Dulles, they put us on a flight through Chicago instead.  Then we had a 4 hour layover.  Parker did wonderfully, we just walked around and around the terminal most of the time, with one stop at a wine bar for Mommy. 

We had such a fun time in St. Louis with lots of quality time with Grandma & Grandpa, Aunt Annie and cousins Jack & Charlie.  On Thursday morning, we went to Faust Park and rode the carousel.

Thursday night was Girl's Night Out at Bricktops at Frontenac.  Amazingly, everyone was able to come so we had such a great time catching up.  Jennifer stopped by the house beforehand to see Parker and P instantly loved her and let her read a book.

Friday morning, we took the kids to Millenium Park and used their splash park.  Parker was a little unsure at first but was soon crawling all around.

That afternoon we headed over to the Francis household for a play date with 14 kids!!  It was a madhouse, but everyone had a blast.

On Saturday evening, my parents invited family & friends over for a visit.  We had almost 30 people and dined on a local favorite...Serra's Pizza.  By this point, Jack had become one of Parker's favorite people.  He liked to make her laugh and the pictures here show Jack playing "catch" with her.  We tried for a shot of all three cousins together but mine didn't turn out that great.

Our flights home presented even bigger problems and we were delayed at Dulles for 6.5 hours on Sunday.  Again, Parker was amazing, but we were both exhausted by the time we made it home.

Because I couldn't let her crawl around on the airport floor, this game was a nice diversion and expend a little energy.

Despite the record-breaking heat in St. Louis and the travel issues, we had such a great time with everyone.  It is so fun to see Jack and Charlie in person and to watch these cousins play together.  Parker warmed right up to Grandma & Grandpa and I think next time will be almost instantaneous!