The big 2-0... months, that is!

Just 20 short months ago Allie was a little blob who slept all the time.

Is this the same kid? She's growing up so fast!

Adventures in Missouri

We loved every minute we spent with family down in St. Peters, MO. On Thursday we went to this big recreation complex that had, among other things, a gym and an indoor pool. The indoor pool was a good choice as it was strangely chilly outside that day!

Allie took a liking to her cousins Carson and Cole right away. She'd been reunited with them less than an hour earlier, and decided to hold their hands as we all walked in to start our adventures.

First thing's first. We headed to the gym where some of us shot baskets. Mama even shot a few and even made one. Allie enjoyed throwing around a little football we got for the pool, though we didn't actually use in the pool.

She loved just running around. And she looked extra adorable running around in those cute little flip flops that Mama bought especially for this trip. She doesn't keep them on when she's sitting, but she did just fine walking and running in them.

I took quite a few pictures here, but unfortunately most of them came out blurry. There's Dada and cousin Cole in the background of the above last. Dada likes to brag about his basketball skills and I found out he doesn't exaggerate too much... he's actually pretty good.

Then it was time for the pool. It was a bit cramped, especially when we first got in because it was so crowded. But there were a lot of fun activities.

I think any time spent in water is Allie's favorite. We were in the pool for about two and a half hours. We were definitely tired and ready for dinner by the time we got out! We went to dinner at this pizza buffet restaurant where we all stuffed ourselves. Allie got nice and messy, of course. She loves her pizza!

The face of exhaustion

Allie didn't nap for three days. I calculated her sleep deficit, meaning the missed naps and shortened sleeps to be 12 to 15 hours. That's not to say she wasn't tired!

At times on our trip, she would sit perfectly still for awhile with Dada or Mama. This is unheard of most of the time.

Even at the very beginning of our trip to the zoo last Friday, the exhaustion on her face is evident:

But then we had incidents like this one, at 9 that evening after the zoo, where Allie sure didn't look like she was ready for bed despite being exhausted:

Surprisingly enough, we put her in the crib, and even though the adults were still in the room talking and drinking wine, she fell asleep. The next morning, she again awoke too early but decided to rest with Mama for awhile:

When we got in the car to go home a few hours later, she promptly fell asleep for her first nap in three days. Unfortunately it was for only 45 minutes, as she woke up when the car came to a stop in a construction zone.

No wonder Allie's been cranky so far this week!

Getting there is half the fun

We started on our vacation road trip early Wednesday morning. Our darling Allie didn't nap at all along the way. We didn't stop much to walk around because we thought she was going to fall asleep. She didn't. So we had a cranky baby for the last hour or so of the trip.

Wednesday night we stayed near the St. Louis air port. A good friend of mine lives nearby so we went to visit her that evening. It became obvious we couldn't spend too much time in one place, especially not the hotel room, because of Allie's affinity for touching everything she can reach.

She's a goof ball for sure. It was challenging to look after her, but she sure was entertaining!

Purses galore

One of the highlights of our trip to see Julie, Carson, Cole and Grandma and Grandpa was that everyone spoiled Allie rotten. I've written on here a lot about how Allie loves purses. Well, Allie had two new purses to explore.

Allie explored Aunt Julie's purse first. It was big with lots of pockets and zippers.

 Aunt Julie even let her take some things out.

Including this rice krispie treat! Allie played with it for hours. Well, for the trip from the pool to the pizza place. Its actually still in the car. I'm sure it doesn't taste too good after being in the hot car for several days.

Then Allie discovered Grandma's purse. She picked it up and wouldn't give it back. So Grandma let her have it on the car ride from the pool to the pizza place. Between the rice krispie treat and the purse, she was in heaven.

Home sweet home

This about sums it up: We're tired and very happy to be home! Allie didn't nap a wink until this morning (read: no nap for THREE days) in the car for only 45 minutes. On the way home we stopped at my parents' house to pick up Monk and also for the cookout for my brother Justin's birthday. Allie fell asleep in the car again in the hour between Rockton and home. She was so happy to be in her own bed that she didn't make a peep when we put her to bed. I expect her to sleep A LOT tomorrow.

We had such a fun trip seeing Aunt Julie, cousins Carson and Cole and Grandma and Grandpa Durso! I wish we could have all stayed together longer. At the same time, however, we're happy to be home and VERY happy we have tomorrow to decompress. I suspect I might even be ready to go back to work on Monday.

I have lots of fun pictures to share from our road trip adventure. Stay tuned!

Fun first day of summer!

This afternoon we went swimming. We weren't sure we'd be able to because thunderstorms were predicted. There were a few pop-up showers, but that just made the weather hotter and more steamy - perfect for a swim!

I think its pretty obvious from these pictures that Allie LOVED the pool. At 4:20 we had to get out for the 10-minute safety check. Allie cried and didn't want to come out. We finally wrangled her and decided to head home because we'd been there almost an hour. We didn't want to do too much for our first time at the pool.

After the pool we went out to a nice dinner at Panera. Allie had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and yogurt. If every restaurant had PBJ, going out to eat wouldn't be a problem! After we finished our dinner we walked over to Cold Stone Creamery. Allie shared with our ice cream and loved it. She had her own spoon and enjoyed having bites, whether she got something on the spoon or not. She made quite a mess of herself. I didn't have the camera though to capture that fun!

For the second part of our vacation we're heading down toward St. Louis to see Aunt Julie, cousins Carson and Cole along with Grandma and Grandpa Durso! We're looking forward to seeing them and having even more summer adventures.

Dining al fresco

Our first day of vacation was spent relaxing. What's more relaxing than snack time out on the deck?

Not much.

Thinking inside the box

Its funny to see how simple objects give Allie such delight. The last few days, we've had a diaper box that hadn't quite made it upstairs yet. Complete with some of the diapers that came inside, it was a great place for Allie to sit awhile.

Dada's Day

The day started out right with chocolate chip pancakes. Saturday was a crazy day, so Allie took an early nap on Sunday. I ran 9 miles while she slept. And then we just hung out watching golf and baseball. But we lost interest in that so we decided to head out for a bit before we went out to dinner.

We went to the UW Arboretum and walked one of the trails. We walked about 35 or 40 minutes. We might have walked longer but it was damp because of rain earlier in the day and the mosquitos were out.

Allie had lots of fun goofing around in her stroller.

After the arb, we went out to dinner at Biaggis. We love Biaggis. We really love the bread and oil at Biaggis. But the rest of the food is also excellent. They cover the tables with paper there. They gave Allie a pack of crayons and she went to town!

Dada and Mama joined in the coloring too.

Here's Allie's art.

At Biaggis, kids get free sundaes. Mama and Dada liked that! So did Allie!

When we left the restaurant, we walked around on the sidewalk and Allie loved seeing the fountains outside the shopping center!

We had a great Dada's Day! And we're looking forward to even more fun tomorrow.