The rest of the summer....

Well, I really slacked off at the end of the summer, and I have some great posts coming up now that school has started, so I decided to do a kind of wrap up of the summer...

Cole did a week long soccer camp and really liked it. I think it was the hottest week of the year, but thank goodness the littles were first thing in the morning and only for an hour. Doesn't he look like a pro in this pic? Well, he's got the soccer pose down at least...Kate continued her cheer. This pic is from her final summer performance. She absolutely LOVES doing her cheer and for some reason she really thrives when performing in front of an audience. She sure did not get this from me! I should do a whole blog on this one, because the video is pretty funny...

Kate and I had a few Mommy and Kate dates over the summer. Kate actually told me this was her favorite part of the summer, which obviously thrilled me. We went to the movies, got our nails done, went shopping, had lunch or visited museums. I think they were my favorite part of the summer too.

Here are a couple of our days... Lunch (followed by shopping), the Nelson-Atkins Museum and the last one is us getting ready to head out flower girl dress shopping to the American Girl Doll Store and lunch.

Grandma Mary and Grandpa Mike came for a visit. It was a GREAT time and Kate and Cole were really sad to see them leave. Here is the kiddos holding their signs waiting to pick them up at the airport. Fun times and silly Cole.

I love this special photo...Sweet smiles...The VERY best part of the end of the summer was Daddy coming home from his 6 week long trip. We all REALLY missed him and are so happy to have him home!Kate went to a back to school tea party at a neighbors home. What a great idea!We had meet the teacher day and Grandma Mary got a VIP tour of Kate's school. Here they are outside of the planetarium by the koi pond.Cole started school a couple weeks after Kate so we found what we could to keep busy... I thought this was a cool pic of Cole at open gym--getting some energy out on the trampoline.And Cole had his meet the teacher day. This is Cole with his wonderful teacher Mrs. Staples. She is the same teacher he had last year, and her LOVES her! Now that you all are caught up on the summer I can move forward. There are lots of great pics from the first days of school and other events that I would really like to share with you all.

I would love to hear from everyone and know that people are actually looking at this . :0) Enjoy!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July Everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday. We had a great day and kept really busy. We played in the water, ate watermelon and grilled bratwurst and went to the fireworks. All the things that should be done on Independence day, but it just felt like something was missing all day long. What was missing was Daddy!

Kate and Cole were all decked out in their patriotic finest...

There were lots of fancy show cars at the fest. This was Cole's favorite.

I'm not sure Kate could have been much more patriotic... Here she is waiting for the fireworks to start.

Self portrait! Only one person missing.

Cole being silly in his 3D fireworks glasses.

The ground fireworks over the lake. It was really pretty in person...

There is definitely something to be said for celebrating The 4th of July on a military post, the patriotism is amazing, the tears are flowing when the National Anthem is played, there was live artillery (one blast for each state in the USA) and I think this may have been the best fireworks display I have seen in a long time. Hey Oliver, let's watch the fireworks as a family next year!

St. Louis (part 1)

We are not taking a big vacation this summer because we will be going to Florida this winter for my sister Ali's wedding, and Oliver is gone to Virginia for about 6 weeks for a class. We decided to take a short trip to check out a bit of the midwest. This time we took a train and went to St. Louis for a couple days. We had a great time, and there is so much to do in St. Louis that we were wishing we would have had at least one more day.

The train was the first part of our adventure, the kiddos were super excited to not be buckled in and to go on a "real" train.

Cole was so excited to have all his cars in his lap. He can't do this in his car seat. The kiddos were very excited about the pool at the hotel. They had just completed a round of swimming lessons and were feeling quite accomplished.

We, of course, had to have some Barbecue while in St. Louis. Kate really enjoyed her ribs.

On the first full day we went to the most amazing Children's museum. It is called the Magic House and it was highly recommended by many people. We can see why. I, in turn, highly recommend it to anyone traveling to the St. Louis area with children. We spent the whole day there, and I still don't think we saw the entire museum. So much fun!

Cole making music...

The Alice in Wonderland exhibit.

Kate and Cole climbing Jack's Beanstalk

Kate made it to the top!

These "floating" balls were pretty cool.

Cole's hair didn't make quite the affect that Kate's did.

Bubbles...

Kate inside a bubble

Cole LOVED "working" on the car!

I had too many photos to put them in one post. The next post will highlight the rest of the trip, which included the St. Louis Zoo and the Arch!

St. Louis (part 2)

On day 2 of our mini vacation to St. Louis we headed to the zoo. It is actually a great zoo. We were there for about 7 hours and really enjoyed ourselves.

This big guy was by the parking lot. Getting ready to head in...
The hippo was snoozing in the water...
Kate was MOST excited to see the elephant. Here she is showing off the elephant on her dress. This elephant was actually (very) pregnant. We even saw the baby moving in her belly! This was quite amazing. What is more amazing, was finding out that elephants are pregnant for 22 months! This baby is due in December.

The sea lion show was cute. Kate was a bit bummed she wasn't chosen to assist.

We took a short break for a little lunch.

Cole on the train. A bit smaller than the train 2 days earlier...

A carousel ride. The animals depicted on the carousel are all endangered animals.

The penguins are always pretty funny.

Cole wanted to show off the alligator, since he had one on his shirt (like Kate did with the elephant.)

One final photo on the way out (the only family pic of the trip...)

Next, on the the ARCH!

Daddy would not go up, but Kate really wanted to so I went with her while he and Cole checked out the Marine Day's exibits on th ground... This is the little "pod" of an elevator we took to the top.

Kate and I on our way up!

At the top...

It's quite a ways down there... Oliver doesn't even like to look at this photo!

We saw this after leaving the arch, and had to get a pic of Cole Street on Cole Street...

One final Arch pic on our way back to the train station...

Kate and Cole ready to head out...

We had a great time, and will have to plan another trip to check out the City Museum, the Clydesdale's at the Anheuser/Busch tour, see the rest of the Magic House, and see that baby elephant when he comes!

Now we are just waiting for Oliver to come home from Virginia...