5 Things on Friday

So here is my obligatory 5 on Friday post...it seems like the only way that I can actually get all my little tidbits thrown into a blog post! 

Head on over to April's blog to join up with lots of other fabulous ladies! 

 

1.  Momma & Elyse Day Out!  On Wednesday I had several errands I needed to run so I decided to sacrifice Elyse's morning nap for some fun shopping with my girl.  Things were going really well until I went to load her in the car after our trip to Target & spotted a Harold & the Purple Crayon board book!  My daughter had just shoplifted for the first time at 21 months!  Forget the fact that her momma may have given her the book to entertain her for a bit.  I promptly put her back in the cart and marched back into Target direct to the Customer Service counter.  They of course were understanding and thanked me for being an honest mom...I never even considered driving away with that book but it's sad that so many people would have! 

 

We finished up our morning of fun with lunch at Chick-fil-A meeting some good friends...I'm loving that we can have fun day's out together!

 

2.  One of the tasks for Wednesday was finding some small, hand-held toy options for our upcoming road trip to Florida.  We've got 12 hours in a car ahead of us and I need some fun new stuff to entertain Elyse.  We bought a collapsible travel desk so she can color and hold things in her lap & I also came home with some small hand-held animals, new coloring books, stickers, bracelets, Minnie crayons, and some yummy new snacks!  Wish us luck!

 

 

3.  We came to the realization two weeks ago that we will not be building a house. While we are both incredibly disappointed, God obviously has other plans for us and I'm being reminded of the need to be patient.  So...we now adjust our focus and are stalking the real estate listings hoping for our "perfect to us" home to be listed.  God couldn't have made our decision any more clear, but it was definitely not the answer we had initially hoped for. 

4. & 5.   During our mother/daughter shopping day, I also picked up some supplies for a few crafty projects.  I am the LAST person to give crafting advice, but I do have to say that I'm pretty proud of my creations! 

 

First up, a new fall wreath for our front door...about 45 minutes, and less than $30 later and I have a beautiful new wreath.  Thanks Pinterest for the inspiration!

 

 

And up next...a quick little Grandparent's Day craft for Elyse.  We used her finger paints, 2 5x7 canvases, and scrapbooking stickers and came up with a fun little gift for the grandparents! 

 

I'm pretty proud of my crafting abilities the past few days...of course I'm not counting on it lasting much longer! 

 

 

 

Family Fun Labor Day Weekend

You know those weekends where at the end of it all, you can lay back in your bed thinking about all that just happened and sigh with a true feeling of contentment?  Yay...that was me this weekend.  I couldn't have asked for a better weekend to cap off the official summer season! 

 

Friday evening we had a very impromptu double-date with our Pastor & his wife, who have become incredibly great friends.  Elyse was with us so we had a quick dinner at Chick-fil-A, dessert at Orange Leaf, and then we headed to their house for a bit.  Elyse decided she absolutely LOVES Tony & Dana and was being so stinkin' hilarious the whole evening.  It's so fun to watch her start to interact with other adults and be super friendly & engaging with them. 

 

Saturday morning Hubby headed to the golf course EARLY, I headed to work and then we spent the afternoon & evening taking advantage of the nice weather at my parents' pool.  Elyse has become a little fish and I'm so excited to enroll her in swim lessons this winter!  It's just a momma & me class to start with, but I know she's going to love it! 

 

After dinner we headed up to my grandparent's pond where our first born, furry son was able to swim a few laps!  This dog LOVES the water! 

 

 

& then Elyse decided it was time to go home and loaded up in the back of the golf cart.  Check out my country girl & her sassy posture! 

 

Sunday we had church, followed by nursery duty...wow...6 kids 3 and under.  A 20 lb 4 month old.  One little girl who is in the middle of potty training.  Only 2 adults.  Yeah.  Enough Said.  Hubby & I were EXHAUSTED!!! 

 

We spent Sunday afternoon and evening just relaxing at home...and then Elyse went and found her hat & sunglasses.  Apparently she wanted to accessorize even if she wasn't wearing any pants or a shirt! 

Yesterday we finally completed a family excursion that Hubby & I have been talking about since before we were married.  We drove about an hour and a half south to Dogwood Canyon.  A semi-manmade nature park that has hiking & biking trails, horseback riding, a tram ride, and just some beautiful Ozarks scenery.  We rented bikes and a Burley buggy for Elyse to ride in...having really no expectations of how she'd deal with it.  Thankfully she did AWESOME!!  & we had a fantastic morning bike ride and lunch on the property before coming back home.  So...Enjoy our bike ride in photos! 

 

Checking out the first water crossing we came to...she loved all the gorgeous scenery!

An absolutely beautiful, gorgeous day!

Love

Being a wild Indian while crossing the bridge!

Hey momma...LOOK!

My little explorer checking things out!

Gorgeous!

She was more interested in the waterfalls and the fish than smiling for photos with momma!

Elyse had a pretty cute chauffeur all day!

Sitting pretty in her Burley pull-behind, eating raisins and happy as a lark!

Glory Hole, another beautiful area! 



My life

Just another gorgeous waterfall to end our excurion!

 It was the perfect family outing to cap off the weekend! 

 

We finished up last night with my first homemade apple pie of the fall at a birthday celebration for Hubby's dad!  We had a crowd favorite...pizza for dinner and then apple pie a la mode for dessert!  And then the long holiday weekend was a wrap!

We Met in St. Louie, Louie!

So this past weekend after a fun triple date on Friday night, a friends' baby shower for Elyse & me on Saturday morning and work for Hubby on Saturday morning, we headed out to St. Louis for a quick little getaway. 

With crazy schedules, it's nearly impossible to plan a family vacation with Hubby's parents, his sister & her husband, and their two boys.  However, we were able to carve out about 24 hours to spend together doing some pretty stinkin' fun stuff! 

We met Saturday evening in St. Louis at our hotel in Union Station all decked out in our Cardinals gear & headed to the game.  We rode the Metro (or train as it was called to our nephews & Elyse) to the stadium along with hundreds of other Cards fans.  Elyse had been to a game last year, but she couldn't even walk yet--this year she was much more into everything going on! 

Our seats were in the Redbird Club which provided access to an air conditioned area for eating or just hanging out--it was still pretty warm even with a 6:15 start time, so it was nice to have this option for Elyse & our nephews to walk around in the cool air. 

We decided to leave after the bottom of the 8th inning, as a Cardinals win was pretty much in the bag, and we didn't want to have to wait too long for the Metro since we had ONE. TIRED. TOOT. on our hands! 

*Side Note--we took Elyse's pack-n-play for her to sleep in, as none of us really sleep very extremely well when she's trying to sleep horizontal while Hubby & I sleep vertically!  She hadn't slept in a pack-n-play in over a year, so we had no idea how it would go...but she slept wonderfully until the next morning!  So, we're definitely making room for the pack-n-play on our trip to Floriday in a few weeks! 

Sunday morning we woke up and decided to grab what should have been a quick breakfast at Steak-N-Shake before any activities.  Well...what should have been a fast experience, turned into over an hour for breakfast and a little girl named Elyse who was so ridiculously patient even with having to eat breakfast almost 2 1/2 hours late!  Ughhh...

We finally finished our breakfast and headed to Grant's Farm, which is a zoo-like, park but with much fewer animals, space, and people...but still tons of fun!  It's home to the famous Budweiser Clydesdales and has lots of fun attractions including a carousel, goat feeding, elephant shows, water misters, camel rides...and maybe most importantly...snow cones!  ha!

First stop after the tram ride was the goat feeding area...they should seriously have a warning that this area is not for children under the age of like 8 or less than 50 lbs--those goats meant serious business when it came to their milk!  Of course this could have had something to do with the fact that we were there first thing and you would have thought the goats were starved to death!  

Next up was the carousel, and oh what a difference a few weeks made!  Elyse did NOT enjoy the carousel at Silver Dollar City, but this time she was all about it!  She rode on her own horse all buckled in all by herself!

Next was the small area of water misters...these might have been the highlight of the visit!  I went through with her first just to see if she liked it at all...

The answer to that was YES!!!  She ran through multiple times.  First with cousin Hunter...

 

And then with Daddy, Cousin Hunter & Cousin Jackson!  She was soaked, but loving every minute of it!  

And of course, what do you do after getting soaked when it's 90+ degrees outside...eat snowcones of course!  Elyse didn't eat much of hers, but she definitely enjoyed it and even shared a bit with her cousins!

The boys both wanted to ride the camels, and we tried to get Elyse to join in as well, but when it came her turn to ride with Daddy she was having NONE. OF. IT.  So thankfully we got our refund and went on our way--but the boys definitely enjoyed their rides!

We roamed around the rest of the park checking out all the Anheuser-Busch memorabilia and then after a tram ride back to the parking lot we walked over to see the clydesdales.  I'd seen these gigantic horses before, but their sheer size just almost takes your breath away.  They are such beautiful animals. I didn't really get a great picture of one because they were all huddled in the shade, but it was still a pretty cool sight! 

After a quick snack, we all headed down I-44 in our separate cars, already thinking and planning about how we can make a similar trip work next year. Elyse loves her cousins Hunter & Jackson so much...and I'm pretty darn sure the feelings are mutual!  We are so thankful for precious time with family...so fun & such a blessing!