St.Louis Road Trip Part 1

Last weekend my mom, dad, Grandma Linda, cousin Calvin, Aunt Stacey, Uncle Brad and cousins Reyna, Tyller and Anabell made a trip out to St.Louis to visit my great-grandma White-Gardner and the rest of my Grandma Linda's family, which includes her two sisters, Aunt Sally and Aunt Joan and all of their wonderful children and grandkids. We made it a long weekend by leaving on Thursday and coming back home on Sunday. We fit so much in while we were there and it was a lot of fun. We thank everyone for all of their great St.Louis hospitality while we were there. It was great to see everyone and we'll be looking forward to visiting again sometime soon.





Me playing on the slide in Aunt Sally's backyard. I spent a lot of time going back and forth between the slide and the pool!

My cousin Morgan helping me go down the slide. Morgan: Anytime you want to come to Lawrence and babysit me, you're more than welcome.
Aunt Sally and Uncle Charlie's dog, Nikki. Nikki was also a great host during our stay. She was extra helpful in cleaning up the floor after all of my mealtimes. Again, I love animals so this was a bonus to spend time following her around because I was missing my own dog, Duce who was busy at home folding the fort down.
Uncle Charlie, cousins Dylan and Calvin and my Dad and I in the dugout at the new Busch stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Here we were busy discussing the batting lineup for the next innning. Serious stuff man.
Boys hanging out in the dugout.
The regular crew plus my dad's cousin Joan, daughter of Uncle Charlie and Aunt Sally and Dylan's mother.
2006 World Series Champion tropy!
Me doing a little "Cardinal Dreaming"
Calvin looking at me wondering when I'm going to get out of his mug and quit taking so many picutres.
More stadium pics.
A cool plaque showing the old stadium layout vs. the new stadium layout.
Showing my Cardinal spirit.


The boys posing at the Arch museum.
We did not go up in the arch b/c when my dad saw the size of the seats used to haul people up, he said "No, I don't think so."








Then he said No, #*&% No when he found out that these contraptions were built to seat 5 people while going up. I guess he's not real hip on tight spaces with a lot of people.

Calvin and my dad and I standing next to the arch.

The crew next to the arch getting ready to go into the museum.
Cool view of the arch.



Calvin and Grandma Linda relaxing after a long trip to St.Louis.
Aunt Joan on the piano bench and Aunt Sally sitting on the floor.
White Castle! It's a tradition ~ It's the first place we stop once we pull into St.Louis and the last place we stop at before leaving town.
Me crawling in Grandma Gardner's walker basket. If it is something I can crawl into, resembles a box, is big enough for me to stand in, I'm going to find a way to get into it.
Grandma was so kind to let me plant myself in her walker basket. I'm sure it won't be too much longer and I won't be able to do that little trick anymore.

On our way to St.Louis we stopped at Kingdom City, where we've been known to lose a wallet or two, but always manage to find it. We let the two boys run around in the McDonald playground.

Happy belated birthday Victoria!

My cousin, Victoria, turned 2 last weekend. My mom and I went to Victoria's birthday party last weekend. We had a wonderful time and I got to see a lot of my mom's family that I had not seen in a long time. They were all amazed at how much I've grown. My cousin had a big Hawaiian pool party in celebration of her birthday.

Happy Birthday Victoria!

Having fun in the sun.

More fun in the sun.

One of her presents was "life-size" Dora and Diego. Diego and I hit it off right away so I quietly snuck out of the living room with my new friend to go show mom.

We had a lot of fun swimming the afternoon away. Our moms actually had to drag us out of the pool at 9 p.m. b/c we were having so much fun we didn't want to go inside.

Anyone who knows me knows what I love best...animals! Dogs are my favorite because it reminds me of my own dog, Duce, at home. Everywhere I seem to go I am always able to find an animal friend. This one just happened to live in the backyard of my cousin's house and still provided me lots of entertainment, even through the fence.

Little Victoria hanging out with me the next day.

My favorite part of staying at my Aunt Donna's...the 7 foot tall ESPN shoot/throw/kick game. It lights up and talks to you and the best part is that you are actually supposed to throw/kick things at it and all of the adults in the room are ok with it. It was a lot of fun.


When our parents asked if we had a good time together we both had to pause for a minute before shouting out "Well YES, of course we did!"

Pictured here is my mom's Aunt, Aunt Donna. She is Victoria's grandmother. I'm really happy that they are living in Wichita now because they have always lived out on the east coast and never close enough to drive to in a day. Now we can go visit more often and mom can get caught up on some family time.

Pictured here is my mom and me with my cousin Victoria and her mom, Stacey. Stacey is my mom's cousin and they are really close in age, just like Victoria and I. Now with all of us living closer we can hopefully spend some more time together. Thanks for the birthday party invite. We had a great time!

Playing catch with Grandpa Don

When my mom and I went back to my Grandpa Don's house a few weeks ago I kept myself very busy.

Grandpa Don and I attempted to play catch with a "big boy" ball and glove. It was pretty cool. I can't wait to get my very own some day.






I also learned how to shoot some pool on Grandpa Don's bumper pool table. Mom told me I was supposed to use a cue to shoot the balls into the pocket, but she wasn't comfortable letting me loose with a stick indoors and I found it much easier to do it the easy way.




When I actually get the balls to go where they're supposed to I let out my victory cry - I throw my hands up in the air and cry out "YES!"