Saturday: The Arch and Hockey

 

After the zoo on Saturday we decided it was finally time to head up the arch! Like most things in life, if you don't plan ahead - you have to wait. The arch is no exception so when we arrived to purchase our tickets, the earliest available time slot wasn't for an hour and forty-five minutes. Luckily, there was an arch museum we could wander around to occupy our time. And then when we had seen all we really cared to see in the arch museum, we settle down to watch Aubrey run off some steam in a small open area lined with benches. She had a lot of fun telling a cute couple in the corner she was going to save me and then running to me and hugging me and then repeating the whole process all over again. Luckily, they seemed pretty amused with her antics. Of course, that game got immediately old when another little girl walked through the area with her parents. The two girls imediately sat down on the steps together and started babbling and then ran around hopping together for a good five to ten minutes before the girl's parents finally ushered her away.

 



Actually, all the waiting really took a turn for the worst after we had lined up with our appropriate ticketed time slot. From the time they admitted the ticketholders to the time we were actually in a car and going up the arch was about 45 minutes. This was 45 minutes that Aubrey was not interested in partaking and I have no desire to repeat. She did really well for the first 35 to 40 minutes and then fell apart in a complete puddle of despairation at the very end. As were were standing on the steps, waiting to board our cars to shuttle to the top of the arch, with no exit in sight, Aubrey just couldn't take the waiting anymore and did not want to stand still. She collapsed onto the floor in a crying fit and did not come up or cheer up until we were on our way up, at which point our bipolar daughter was completely happy - her face was covered with dirt from the soles of all of St. Louis, but she was happy.

She loved being up in the arch and looking at the city, and especially the river below. She didn't want to leave.

After the arch we made a quick stop at the hotel to make sure the girls were ready for the hockey game that evening. I was convinced that hockey games were really cold. You know, because they're an ICE sport. Turns out they aren't that cold. They actually aren't really cold at all and we may have been a little overdressed in our winter coats.

On the way to the hockey game we made the mistake of walking down Washington St. This is the main bar strip in St. Louis and Saturday was the designated celebration day for Sunday's St. Patrick's Day. Needless to say, the street was crowded with very sloppy drunk people, which was fine. But I'm pretty sure our adorable family probably caused some bad decisions that evening.

Martin: I know so many people are going to get back to their house and just make a family after seeing us today!

Aubrey absolutely loved the hockey game. Like, EVERY SINGLE PART. She is still talking about hockey a week and a half later and just this morning told me Uncle Andy with extreme excitement about the hockey game she attended. She repeatedly shouted Go Hockey! and Go Blues! and has become obsessed with rolling her arms. After two periods she was tired out from all the cheering and slept through the third period and overtime but then woke up at the hotel and got right back into the arm rolling. On Sunday morning when she awoke the first thing she said was I gotta tell grandma about the hockey game!

And Sylvia slept through all the noise and the entire game! Ingrid's friend, Joe, whom I wish I had a picture of, held her through the entire second and third period and overtime! I am officially calling him the baby whisperer as I have no idea how he kept her asleep for so long without screaming for milk. By the end of the second period I was telling Martin how Sylvia was a ticking time bomb at this point, but Joe somehow kept her cuddled up and sleeping for another hour.

Breakfast and the Zoo

I was planning on incorporating all of the events from Saturday in St. Louis into one post, but then I found myself committing to way too many photos....so I decided to split the day in half.

I had mentioned to Ingrid before our trip that a vacation for me is basically a reason to eat delicious food in a place that is not your home. For some reason I almost always remember most of the meals that mark a vacation, like our family vacation to Lancaster, PA when I was in second grade will always come with fond memories of an amishman waving a thank you to my parents' as her spread manure in a field for not taking pictures and also of a trip to KFC to get coleslaw and biscuits to bring back to the hotel for our family. And my roadtrip with Caton, while epic in many ways, is poignantly marked with the memory of the delicious fried okra I tried for the first time in Memphis. On a school trip to Poland, while everything about the trip was amazing, I will never forget the periogis at a restaurant in Krakow square or the raw fish platters served to us during a meeting with a farmer. I will probably always maintain that England is only an okay country for no reason other than I didn't have any really incredible meals during my trip. You get the point and I just got a little carried away with vacation memories. What I'm really getting to here is that Ingrid really took this statement to heart and delivered a weekend full of delicious food. This breakfast at Soulard Coffee Garden is no exception and the breakfast burrito I had there will forever be in my vacation memory file.

 

After breakfast, we spent the remainder of the morning methodically perusing the St. Louis Zoo and taking in all the animals. Aubrey LOVES animals, but surprised us all by taking each animal in stride and just looking forward to the next sighting rather than becoming consumed with the animal in front of her. One animal she really did get excited about was the hippo. I think this is because it kept swimming in a circle and coming back up in the exact same spot.

 

She also really enjoyed the butterflies.

Ingrid warned us in the beginning of our adventure that she LOVED sea lions and that became very obvious when we actually came across the sea lions. As soon as their habitat came into sight it literally took every fiber in Ingrid's body to stay on the path to get to the exhibit and NOT cut straight across the grass Once inside the very awesome exhibit (you are actually surrounded by water and sea lions on every side except the floor) she watched the sea lions and exclaimed, I love EVERYTHING about this exhibit.

There were a lot of penguins, but this one in particular looked a little worse for the wear. Martin affectionately named him Scragglepuff.

And by the time we left, Aubrey was truly tired - falling asleep on Martin's shoulders before we even made it to the car.

Reunion

On Friday afternoon in St. Louis the city was infiltrated with midwestern teenager girls playing volleyball. They were high on the freedom of being away from their parents for a weekend and super excited about being in a city. And after driving through the the Missouri back roads on Sunday, I can't say I neccesarily blame them for being giddy. As teenage girls tend to be, they were extremely excited about EVERYTHING. Martin proclaimed we are not letting our daughters play volleyball. I told him I think it's just a teenage girl thing and NOT specifically a volleyball girl thing. I didn't bother to inform him that they were basically acting exactly as I would have as a teen. Needless to say, tickets to go up the arch were sold out that day.

It didn't matter because it was 70 degrees outside and the river was calling Aubrey's name! If the teenage girls were excited about everything else, Aubrey was just thrilled to see the Mississippi River.  And I told the story at least twice about how monumental it was for me to see the Mississippi River for the first time (in 2010) because I devoted so many hours to playing Oregon Trail as a youth.

Ingrid is ready to pose for this picture, but Aubrey is intently staring at the water as she is in every picture taken near the water. Scroll back up, you'll see.

And anything with grates needs to be walked over immediately.

After spending sometime playing in Arch Park, we went to the restaurant Pi (like the math symbol which I don't know how to type) for pizza (pretty clever name, huh?) It was early in the evening so we ordered two appetizers and settled in to try a few different kinds of beer.

We eventually decided we had overstayed our welcome at the restaurant as it was starting to fill up with the dinner crowd and the corner we had commandeered for Aubrey to run around in was starting to fill up with guests. So we got pizza to go and returned to hotel room to enjoy the amazing view and catch up for the evening. This is the part of the night where Martin and I really put our best foot forward to show Ingrid how cool we still are, even with two children. And when I say we really showed her what I actually mean is we fell asleep at eight o'clock while Ingrid was on the phone. I'd say Ingrid is at least five percent to blame. Leave us to our own devices for more than a minute after the sun goes down and you really shouldn't expect any better.

First Stop: Columbus

Our first stop on our family vacation was Columbus, Ohio where my brother, Alex is an engineering student at The Ohio State. Aubrey was very excited to see her uncle and was undetered by his very collegiate getup of a Polo sweater, khaki pants, boat shoes and a mustache(who is this kid??) She prompted started climbing all over his bed and asking him a million and one questions. Then, after Martin and Alex investigated all the Columbus restaurants that have been featured on Man vs. Food, it was deteremined that we would dine in Germantown that evening.

The German part of Columbus ended up being super cute with brick streets (that were actually well-maintained....ahem.....ITHACA) and cute little bookshops and restaurants. It was a section of town that I would gladly wander about in the daytime. And the German food was amazing! I'm not a huge fan of sausages. I eat sausage. I like sausage. But I never really crave sausage. But the German Potato Salad was AMAZING. And the German Meatloaf......Just like my Grandma's! I am now determined to find her recipe. It's melt in your mouth meatloaf!

Alex downloaded a memory game on his phone to keep Aubrey entertained during the wait for our table. She was so excited about playing it she also made him keep it out throughout the entire meal and completely ignored the crayons brought to her by our server. She was so entralled in the game, I briefly contemplated downloading it on my own phone, but then quickly decided my patience would be better served if I didn't have to spend the rest of my life telling her she can't play my phone at this minute.Then we dropped Alex back off at his house so we could keep moving while the girls slept in the back and Alex could meet up with his friends to drink and discuss a bottle of wine otherwise known as the Fancy Fellows (seriously, who is this kid and where is my brother??)

How Traveling with Two Children Kicked our Butts

Last Thursday we set out on our first family vacation of four! While the vacation as a whole was spectacular and the girls were, in general, fantastic, there were definitely a few trying moments that made it seem like we possibly weren't really ready to vacation with a toddler and an infant.

....like when we were 12.5 miles into the trip and Aubrey started throwing up in the backseat. And not just throwing up, but throwing up in epic proportions. Throwing up in such huge quantities that there was no way the mess would be cleaned up on the side of the thruway (we had to quickly disband this plan as Martin shouted to me Get back in the car before we become a stastic! ) and she had to sit in her puke clothes until we could rush to the nearest rest stop and strip her down, wash her in the sink, and change her clothes while Martin did his best to clean the car and sacrificed his shirt as a barrier between the (now wet) carseat and Aubrey.

....and when after visiting my brother in Columbus we decided to make some time while both the girls were sleeping only to arrive at a hotel in Indiana at midnight and find Aubrey's pants soaked through with pee.

...and then just a few hours later as we were intensely cleaning the carseat in the hotel room and giving both the girls a bath, Aubrey refused to get dressed and then peed on the bathroom counter and Sylvia peed all over the bed while Martin tried to dress her.

...and then just a few hours after that when we pulled over to feed Syvlia and change Aubrey only to find that her third of four pairs of jeans were completely soaked! But the upswing to that one was we quickly found out it was just water from a leaky sippy cup.

Yes, if you haven't figured it out yet....getting to St. Louis was very similar to Oregon Trail.

At one point Martin turned to me and said, There is no way we can do this with three kids, ever!

Of course, after arriving in St. Louis things got much, much easier. There were a few hiccups. Like when Aubrey puked over a plate of crepes or when Sylvia cried through an entire dinner. But by that point we were pretty much numb to any issues and looking at every situation with rose colored glasses. Like...Aubrey puked over a plate of crepes, but hey! we caught it all in a plate! and hey! the waitress didn't even notice it was puke in the plate! And...Syvlia screamed through an entire dinner, but hey! the restaurant had a comfy chair for me to feed her in! And it was pretty empty so we only ruined a handful of people's dinner!

Coming soon.....the highlights of our trip

Siri???

I was on vacation last week and so decided to head up to Boston with Aubrey to visit my best friend, Caton, for a few days. I was there Tuesday through Thursday and Caton was working all those days so during the day, Aubrey and I toured around and saw the sites ourselves.

 

 

It was a great trip and I had a chance to spend Wednesday catching up with an old friend from college that I haven't seen in four years! (It's sad to think I've been out of college for long enough to go four years without seeing a friend.) It was great catching up with her and hearing about all the awesome things she is doing (saving the world doing amazing neuro-research, something I would never have the patience for)

 

 

In my head, before leaving on this trip, browsing through Boston with a two year old while being seven months pregnant was going to be a breeze. Even as I write that I realize just how ridiculous it sounds. And believe it or not, it wasn't as easy as I anticipated. Carry a twenty pound belly and a thirty pound child gets pretty heavy fairly quickly. And Aubrey got tuckered out from walking pretty quickly too. Above, you can see her sleeping on a windowsill while I enjoyed lunch with a friend.

 

 

But spendind a little bit of time relaxing and hanging out in Caton's apartment turned out to be pretty fun. I got a chance to catch up on some vacation reading and Aubrey made fast friends with Caton's dog, Elly.

 

 

Spending time with Caton was also spectacular and Caton never fails to make me laugh until my sides ache.

 

Me: (on the phone with Caton) Hmm I wonder about...(I actually can't remember what I was trying to figure out, but it was something.

Caton: Oh, hang on. I can probably ask Siri.

Pause in conversation

Caton: Siri???

Me: Nope, it's still me.

Caton: Oh, I guess maybe you can't talk to Siri while you're on the phone.

Me: It sounds like you're calling to her as if she's a Genie or something.



Museum of Play

I've been away from the blogging world for way too long. I'm starting to get the shakes. Regularly scheduled programming to hopefully resume now....

Because Aubrey has way more toys than neccesary for any two year old child. And because I really like the idea of doing things rather than getting things, we decided to have a family day and take Aubrey to the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester. You guys....This place is AWESOME!  I remember going with the McKenna's once as a kid and loving it then, and now almost 20 years later it is truely just as cool as it was back then!

Aubrey really enjoyed the Sesame Street section and spent a good hour or more playing around in here. Martin, who doesn't have the interest of a two year old kept asking her, Do you want to go play with something else, at which point she would promptly run back to one of the exhibits within the Sesame Street display that she had just been playing with and resume her play.

And really, who can blame her when there are circles to turn that turn letter blocks.

And PVC pipes to bang to make music.

We did eventually leave Sesame Street.....The Dora Exhibit was a close second in terms of favorites for Aubrey.

The whole experience was so much fun, I think I've decided that from now forward birthdays are for going somewhere and doing something and not for physical presents.

Martin also had a lot of fun finding his inner child...

Martin: Check out my house.
Me: You want me to take your picture with it?
Martin: I think you probably should......I would have made the coolest pioneer! We would have had a kickass log cabin!

Wine Tours are my Life

Someone recently told me when they interview people and ask them about themselves, they like to hear the people talk about something other than their kids - so they always ask what the person would do on a day to theirselves. I started thinking about this and quickly came to the realization that I use almost all of my days to myself to go on wine tours. I love them! Even when I can't drink and resign myself to driving.

This past Saturday I went on a wine tour for my good friend Kylie's birthday. As expected, it was a ton of fun. Kylie and I ended up with a little thing going where the server would ask me if I was tasting, I would say, Kylie would inform them of my pregnancy and then I would inform them of Kylie's birthday.

I think one of my favorite parts of the wine tour was our friend Katie's absolute enthusiasm for wineries. At one winery she kept walking around and saying I want to buy this place! with the exact same amount of excitement with each retelling of her goals.

Also, the games I was subjected to by my dearest friend, Caton, in the car really made the entire trip. And yeah....so I couldn't remember that the capitol of Poland is Warsaw....so I learned a little something....And Mike had difficulty with the rules in every game....but it really wouldn't be a car ride with Caton if there wasn't games.

Georgia Peaches

Katie Mason Epstein emailed a few photos out from our trip to Georgia and I wanted to share. I mean. check out my form in the photo above. Unfortunately, what you're looking at is just a really dramatic throw on my part and the chances that my bean bag landed on the board are slim to none.

And all of us together. Don't we look adorable!

Instagram

I just recently downloaded Instagram during my vacation in Georgia. For the most part, my thoughts are really conflicted. Part of me thinks I am just taking a photo and lowering the quality with some sort of filter, but another part of me can't quite help loving the pictures it creates. As I've already mentioned - I didn't take nearly enough photos on vacation, but here's a few, instagramized.



cornhole, baby. 

roasting marshmellows

climbing stairs

smile!

My former roomies!

All together now

More cornhole - with a helper

Riding a toy gator with a new friend

cows

Holding hands is such a treat

playing in the sand

relaxing by the water

a night out

gator time