St. Louis :: Sunday

Homebound!

We stopped and ate brunch before heading out of town. . .

 

At Stratton’s Café!

The food was really fresh and yummy!

Then we hit the road. We made a pit stop in Sikeston, MO (so I could use my Carter’s rewards that was about to expire! I stocked up on play shorts for S and jammies for A) and grabbed Stratton a snack. We drove through some really hard rain, but not much storming. When we got to about Paragould we got a text that Craighead County was under a severe thunderstorm warning. I didn’t get too concerned, but kept an eye on the radar. We didn’t actually drive through much of that storm, I guess we went around it. So when we got home we were surprised to see this as we pulled into the driveway. . . .

Our Maple Tree died. I guess the wind did it in? It made me so sad! We had it planted the June before Stratton was born, when we had the front re-landscaped, so it’s almost 4 years old. I guess our anniversary present this year will probably be a new tree! Or maybe I will get Jarrod one for father’s day. . .and oh by the way you can plant it.  . . he’d love that! Haha.

After unloading, and assessing the dead tree situation. We jumped in the truck and headed to Hickory Ridge to pick Arden up (and the dog, they actually both stayed with gigi and pops). Arden was happy to see us, but didn’t act like she felt too good. Even though she wasn’t running a fever, I ended up taking her to the Doctor Monday and no surprise, she has another bad ear infection. They gave her a shot of rocephin and put her on another antibiotic. Luckily we have an appointment with the new ENT on Wednesday! I hope they don’t make us wait too long to do the tubes! I am ready for her to get well and stay well!

St. Louis :: Saturday

We did manage to get up and out a little earlier. We stopped into a St. Louis Bread Co. and ate breakfast before heading to Grant’s Farm. I don’t know if I mentioned this but the weather was perfect! Mild temperatures, especially for June and little to no humidity! At night it was actually kind of cool! (Monday night at the ballgame, after being a human target for a bird passing by. . .it just hit my left leg thankfully! I ended up having to buy a sweatshirt I was so cold.)

Grant’s Farm was a lot of fun! Stratton enjoyed it as much as the zoo, I think. We spent a few hours there, there aren’t as many animals as I remembered but plenty to keep us busy. By the time we left he was passed out in the stroller and we took him to the Clydesdale barn, but he was so tired he could have cared less! He looked at the ones in the stables and then was ready to go!

Riding the truck/train thing to Grant’s farm

Riding the carousel with mom this time

Feeding the baby goats! He would have stayed all day with those goats!

And he got to ride a camel (he wanted dad to ride, too)

After we left Grant’s Farm it was around 1:30 and we were starving so we thought we’d try to find Fitz’s Rootbeer and bottling company. I had seen where you could watch the bottling line from the restaurant and I thought that might be neat to see. We got lucky and they seated us right in front of the bottling line windows! It was really neat to watch. The food was great and of course the root beer was fantastic!

Right in front of our table was all the action!

After our adventure at Fitz’s we went back to the hotel to rest and clean up. Turns out we all feel asleep and I woke up at 5:30pm! We had planned to spend some time at the Galleria Mall and then stop in at the Cheesecake Factory for supper and dessert. Well it was 6:45 before we got to the mall. I did call ahead and make reservations for us at 7:30, but by the time we got parked and went into a couple of stores (Janie and Jack and Sperry) it was time for dinner! I wasn’t that hungry since I pigged out at lunch, so Stratton and I shared a small plate of chicken skewers and salad and saved room for the best part. . . the CHEESECAKE!!

 

Oreo on the left and Peanut Butter on the right.

Pretty good end to a great day!

St.Louis :: Friday

We didn’t get up and around as early as we would have liked. Jarrod had a bit of a cold and wasn’t feeling too great. We had planned to go to the zoo in the morning and then have lunch and do some other things in the afternoon. Well, it took about an hour to get to the zoo and get parked. It was crazy! We had to park on the side of the road because all the parking lots were full!

Dillon and Brandye were in St. Louis to see the game on Thursday night and they also went to the zoo on Friday, they got to park in the lot, but they were there before us- I guess the early bird gets the worm! We rode the train around the whole zoo first.

[Pictures taken by Stratton on the train]

Then we went through the River’s End area and met Dillon and Brandye for lunch there. (not what I had planned at all!) I was actually pretty decent for zoo food. After lunch we headed on to see the rest of the zoo and they were already done with the whole park! I forget how fast you can go when you don’t have a kid in tow!

He got to pet a sting-ray!

No fear.

Riding the carousel (with Jarrod- heehee)

We saw all kinds of animals. . . .

Zebra and there was a baby!

and there was a baby camel, too.

We spend the ENTIRE day there. We got there around 10:30 and left around 5:30! Whew! I guess we got our money’s worth (especially since it’s free!). But by the time we were done we were all exhausted, however only one of us could pass out. . . He’s getting too big for his stroller, but he still likes to ride in it. I think we are going to have to invest in a sit and stand stroller of some sort (Kristen, when you get a chance do some research for me) to deal with Stratton and Arden in the near future.

We decided that since it was getting so close to dinner time and there was a restaurant that was on our “list” near by we might as well try it. The Boathouse in Forest Park was a really pretty place on the lake. It has a pretty park beside it and it’s super close to the zoo. We got to eat outside on the patio and it was so nice! They also welcome dogs and if you bring your dog with you they bring them their own dog bowl of water! How cute is that?! After dinner the boys took a peddle boat out on the lake.

After dinner we tracked down a cupcake place I had heard about called The Cup. If you know us, you know we like cupcakes! Jarrod considers himself a cupcake connoisseur (and he’s pretty well skilled and experienced in cupcake consumption!) It took us awhile to find it, as it’s smack in the middle of the Central West part of town (which is a happening place on a Friday night, apparently.) It looked like a very hip part of town, I think I saw a  sign somewhere that said “urban eclectic ”. Pretty neat place, a lot of old mixed with new. . .Anyway, after making the block several times in really slow traffic, we decided that Stratton and I would just jump out and get them and Jarrod would make the block and come back around and pick us up.

We took them back to the hotel and ate them. They were super yummy! The manager at this location’s name is Jon Baker. . .how ironic is that?!

St.Louis :: Thursday

We haven’t done anything special with Stratton since Arden was born, and I feel bad for him. We try to give him special attention, but it’s hard especially lately with Arden being sick so much. So, when I found out the Monsanto meeting was in St. Louis this year, I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to have some time with just Stratton. We decided to have a “special Stratton trip” and do some fun things with him by himself. My meetings were over Thursday at noon, so when the rest of the Armor team left for home I stuck around and Jarrod and Stratton made it there about 2:30pm. If you are wondering about Arden, she got shipped to Gigi and Pops house.

Thursday night we had GREAT tickets to the Cardinals game (my 3rd Cardinals game of the week) and we had a fun time. Stratton really liked it. And he ate the whole time; hot dog, cotton candy, nachos, cheese fries, popcorn. . .I don’t know where he puts it all! It was a good game, too! They had 7 or 8 home runs! And every time there was a home run they shot fireworks, which Stratton loved!

Catch up

Seriously? I just noticed I haven’t blogged in a month. That’s VERY unlike me, so it goes without saying I’ve been a tad busy!

Recap: In the past month we’ve been to 4 birthday parties; Lainey, Sawyer, Archer and Ella! I helped my friend Lori with Ella’s Minnie Mouse party and I hope she gets the pictures back from the photographer soon and I will post some of them, it was really cute.

Stratton had 3 t-ball games (2 were rained out), they wrapped up the season last Tuesday and had pictures, I can’t wait to see those!

Arden has had 2 ear infections. And we went back to the ENT (we are not impressed with the doc, so we are switching to another clinic) and will have to have tubes in the near future. We have an appointment with the new ENT tomorrow morning. I took her yesterday because she’s got the crud again and sure enough, another ear infection. We are running out of antibiotics to take! I hope they can get her procedure scheduled in the next week! I am ready for these ear infections to be done with!

I had a jewelry party. First time I have ever hosted a “sales party”. It went well even though the turnout was really low.That’s what I get for having something on Memorial Day weekend.

Jarrod has been working some crazy overtime. The week before last he was only home  2 nights before 9pm and a few nights were later than that. I think he had 40 hours overtime in the past 2 weeks! So needless to say, I have had the kids by myself quite a bit and luckily they’ve been pretty good, but I’m not a very good single parent!

I had a meeting in St. Louis (the annual Monsanto Partners Meeting) and then the boys came up on Thursday and we had a mini vacation, so I was out of town for a whole week. . .whew! A week away was tough. But Jarrod and I decided to make the most of it and we had a special trip planned for Stratton, more on that later.

Looking ahead things don’t get much better. Arden turns 9 months tomorrow! I’m sure they will do Arden’s surgery asap, Father’s Day is coming up, then VBS, we have the kids pictures scheduled with Jessica King again on the 22nd, two jewelry parties (Brandye and my mom both booked parties!) then I have a meeting in Minneapolis the last week in June (that Jarrod gets to tag-along to), Arden is has her 9 month check-up and Stratton will turn 4! All in the next 5 weeks!!! Wait. What?? Did I just type that Stratton will be 4?! I’d better get busy! I am turning into one of those mom’s that wait till the last minute (the ones that swore I’d never be and constantly berate because they should know their kid is having a birthday since it’s the same time every year and they have no excuse. . . .) Yikes. Maybe I’ll serve some crow with the cake and ice cream?