St. Louis 2011 ~ Friday & Saturday

Every year, we look forward to our trip to St. Louis.  Rudy starts getting all nostalgic and we both start planning every activity and meal.  Our first stop on Friday (7/1) was in our old neighborhood – Glenn Brooke Woods.  We were excited to see and catch up with our friends Jen and Broc and their kids.  The kids played and we visited and got all caught up on the latest happenings in the neighborhood.  It was wonderful to see our sweet friends and they even treated us to dinner.  I was awful and didn’t get a single good picture.  I was too busy chasing kids and talking!

We left the Browns’ house and headed north to Florissant.  We got to Jerry and Sherry’s house and felt like we were at home.  We let the kids stay up waaaay past their bedtimes while they got reacquainted with their great aunt and uncle who love them as though they were their very own grandkids. 

Saturday, we had a lazy morning, then went to the neighborhood pool (which is much more awesome than ours) and had fun splashing and playing in the water for a while.  When we got back to the house, we had burgers and hot dogs.  After our late lunch, we loaded up for our trip downtown.  We’ve spent some portion of the 4th of July weekend at the Arch 10 out of the last 13 years.  The group that goes with us changes a little every year, but we are always there with Jerry and Sherry.  It’s always unbearably hot.  It’s always crowded.  There’s always a chance of rain (and we’ve gotten rained on several times).  But…there’s always a great fireworks show.  There’s usually a great concert (Best = Hootie & the Blowfish, Worst = Cyndi Lauper).  There’s always a fabulous opportunity for people-watching.  There’s always overpriced fair food and cold lemonade.

 

We’ve taken babies (sometimes not so intelligently) and we’ve taken grandparents.  We’ve taken Caleb every single year of his life – and Nola too, for that matter.  This year was no exception to the rules.  It was over 100 degrees when we got down there.  I wasn’t sure how we were going to make it.  We had water-spraying fans, lots of water to drink and we took turns taking the kids into the shade. 

At one point, I took Caleb to look for the kids’ area.  We walked all the way around the Arch and back.  He was excited to see the flooded river.  By the time we got back to our seats, I was starting to feel sick from the heat.  I was glad to see that some shaded space had come available and our crew had moved into it.  It made all the difference in the world.  We were joined this year by Rudy’s uncle Doug and aunt Lisa, as well as our friend Joy and her kids.  We thoroughly enjoyed the Steve Miller Band concert, which was the reason we chose to go on the 2nd instead of the 4th.  Nola entertained us with her dancing throughout the concert.  After the concert, we enjoyed the fireworks.  Caleb was able to watch it without covering his ears (or eyes) and Nola sat in my lap for most of it.  She would laugh when the sky would light up and would even sometimes cry when they fizzled out.  Both kids were sound asleep by the time we got out of the city traffic.