where we've been all summer

Well, to start off, June sure flew by didn't it!
Along with blank dates on the ol' blog. :(


We saw a lot of old friendly faces in June.
The Laughlins stopped in both on their way to and from Florida and we got to spend some good time with them.  We went to the zoo and we went swimming and just hung out and enjoyed some of our favorite company. :)

The following week, we had a little vacay/staycation of sorts.
Vacation in that we left the town we live in.
Staycation in that we went to the previous town we lived in and stayed at friends' homes. And did a bunch of fun "we miss St. Louis" stuff that we don't get to do anymore... with people we don't regularly get to see anymore.

We left on a Wednesday, (thinking we were getting an early start, but discounting all the freaking summer road construction between here and there)(turned our 5 hr trip into an 8hr trip.) and arrived at the Swinigan's that evening.  So good to see them and let the kids just enjoy each other hear all their good news lately and basically just pick up where we left off last we saw them. :)

On Thursday, Kevin worked and Heather and the girls had a few errands to run, but Heather was kind enough to keep Coen with her all day while Ryan and I took our big kids to Six Flags for some fun in the sun.  We spent the first half of the day in the waterpark, slides (Sawyer and Ryan did the Bonzai Pipeline!!), lazy rivers, wave pools and all.
Lots of water, lots (and lots!) of sun. :)
Sometime around one or two, we stopped and snacked a bit and headed over to the other part of the park.  First stop: take a load off and scope out the park on The Colossus Ferris Wheel (18 stories high!)...

We hit Thunder River and the log ride of course, as well as a few of the big coasters. Savannah opted out of most of them, but Sawyer had a blast. At only 7 years old, he'd not yet been on any real roller coasters... I think he was taken a little by surprise at how fast and crazy it was at first, but he was screaming and laughing and had his hands waving in the air like the best of them.
He did The Boss and American Thunder (formerly called Evil Kenevil) and the new Ninja.
Savannah did the ferris wheel and the carousel. ;)
Ryan did talk her into Batman... because Sawyer was too short for it.  She was hesitant (of course), but they walked up there and there was actually no line, so they got right on before she had any time to really think about it. Ha!
We were pooped that night!

Friday we hung out most of the day, and then all ventured to see one of our favorite local events, Circus Flora.  (It's like a mini, STL based Cirque du Soleil show) Fun, fun!

That Saturday was low key day, with the kids just loving getting to hang out and play together. We got out in the middle of the afternoon and headed to the theater to see Monsters University.

Sunday we bid the Swinigans farewell, met up with some new friends at the Science Center for a few hours, and then made our way to the other side of town to see the Malones.  We had tickets to the Cardinals ballgame that night and we went out for dinner beforehand.  The pub we ate at had a free trolley down to the game, and the kids were giddy to take a ride.  Even though it was pouring and storming. :(

The game was delayed three hours... everyone was a good sport while we made it about half that time (til 8:30) but with five kids past their bedtime and no game start in sight, we gave up and headed back to the house.

tired, bored, good sport cotton candy smiles

We left St Louis pretty early Monday morning and took our time getting home early enough to be able to unwind and relax a little. 

All in all, it was a really great trip, packed with fun stuff and fun people and we're so glad we had a chance to get up there and and enjoy it.