St. Louis Trip Photo Dump

My mom stayed in AtL for a few days and then we drove back to StL on Wednesday.  We stopped at Patty's, a restaurant in Kentucky that we always stopped in growing up after family reunions.  I felt like it was a right of passage for my girls to be there and eat!  It is very old time, they serve drinks in mason jars, have the most wonderful fried pickles and strawberry butter, and their bread is baked in flower pots!

We were only in StL for 72 hours, but we packed it in with a visit to the zoo, play time with Baby B, and lots of quality family time!

G said the bread grew out of the flower pot!

The girls helping Grandma make hamburgers.

Tummy time for baby Brendan

Photo-op at the zoo!

New Sea Lion exhibit that Uncle Tom's firm helped build!

This orangutan (sp?) got so close to Elia!  Their faces are so weird looking!

Bobby, the ever patient and fun loving Uncle, teaching G to pump gas. 
She held her nose the while time!

Baptism/Atlanta trip Photo Dump

It took us 14 hours to get to AtL.  We ended up stopping at Cracker Barrel for dinner 12 hours in.

The star of the weekend: Anna

Dad and Anna

Bath-tism dresses as Elia called them.

Uncle Ryan showing off his skills.

Grandma and Anna

God-Parents and God- Child

Gettin baptized.

Love this one.  Its like a family with 2 sets if twins and a baby!

The McHugh side

Sweet Uncle Ry holding back the hair.

I made bubbles for all the kids at the Baptism reception.  A pinterest find.  Bubble solution was great but the pipe cleaner wands didn't do as well as I hoped. 

Slippered cousins

G, as usual, always helping when a baby is around!

How cute is her swim suit!

Sweet action shot.

Skyping with Aunt Shanny and Baby Brendan.  All 4 cousins were pushing and shoving to be front and center.

It was a fabulous trip!  Plans are in the works for a 2 week stay at Aunt Megan's house next summer.  It is the perfect hosue for cousin camp.  Miss those crazy boys and sweet Anna too!

St. Louis in August

Our (well my) main reason for going to St. Louis was to put on a shower for Colleen. That was Saturday night, and it was sooo fun. It was St. Louis themed, so we got lots of different food from vendors in St. Louis. Colleen is the cutest bride to be ever. I took no pictures (as usual) but here is a pic of the cute invite Shannon and Megan put together.

Chris' main reason for going to StL was to see the Giants play the Cardinals. Too bad they lost both games Chris went to! He took Gianna on Sunday.

The weather was seriously amazing the week we were there. I met my friend Angela at 2 different parks with her little one, and we went to the park down the street from my house quite a few times. That is cousin Austin looking cute.

We went to the zoo on Monday. It is probably about a mile from Shannon and Tom's house. So we parked a little ways away (for free) and walked across the highway to get there. We got there around 4:30, and the attendant let us in with the warning that the zoo closes at 5! It was the perfect amount of time and there weren't that many people there so there were no crowds to push through. Elia called everything from the hippo to the elephant "dog". Pretty cute. We actually didn't get outta there until 5:30, no one told us to leave!

Elia looked at the map to tell us where to go.

One morning we went to the library I always went to as a child. They completely gutted and remodeled it recently, and it is gorgeous. They had really cute chairs too! Grandma had tons of fun reading to the girls. They have been obsessed with reading lately, especially Elia!

My mom and I and the girls went to the Central West End for a morning to get a feel for all the wedding festivities. Gianna is calling it the Wedding Contest these days. We practiced walking down the New Cathedral's aisle (that church is freaking beautiful) and got to see where the reception is and the hotel block. Colleen's wedding is going to be so hip being in that area! We took a few pictures outside the cathedral, since you aren't allowed to take them in the cathedral.

My last day there we celebrated Aunt Colleen's birthday. We spent that last day outside as much as possible. Can't wait to go back for the wedding in December!

Backseat Driver

As if she isn't bossy enough to Chris and I AND her sister, she found another place to tell us what to do: the car. She gets in her car seat, pulls out the atlas and says, ok, we have 5 minutes to get there. Then after a minute or two one of us will ask her how much longer we have to go and she will say something like 13 miles. Each time there is a different answer. SOOOO cute!