Saturday, June 29, 2013

Visit to Grandma and Grandpa's House

I thought I better share pictures of our time at Jeff and Jane's house before we go out of town again tomorrow.  The girls and I drove down to Glen Carbon on Tuesday two weeks ago to spend a few days with Grandma and Grandpa, and then Ben joined us for the weekend.  We got to do a lot of fun things during the week.  It was pretty hot on Wednesday, so the girls played in the pool.  Amelia had a great time splashing and playing in the water, and she even convinced Grandpa to get in the pool with her!  In these first photos, she was throwing a container of water up in the air, and laughing hysterically while trying to duck away from it.  I think it looks like she's trying to do the Thriller dance.


 



Megan wasn't interested in getting splashed, so she sat with Grandma and read a book instead, and then decided to try out Ben's old tricycle.


While we were playing downstairs, Amelia figured out how to slide down the support column.  She couldn't climb up again, but she could hang on like a monkey and then slide down as many times as Grandpa would lift her up.


On Thursday we went to the zoo, along with Anna, Dan & Abby, Becky, Brian, Natalie & Noah (who happened to be driving through St. Louis on their way home from Utah, and Aunt Julie.  We had a nice time looking at the prairie dogs, the sea lions and the big cats, but then Megan started having temper tantrums and she and I spent quite a while sitting by ourselves while Megan tried to calm down.  It wasn't the best zoo experience for us, but hopefully everyone else had a nice time!  That kicked off a fun little temper tantrum stage for Megan, one I hope she grows out of soon.



I love this photo because it looks like Natalie and Amelia are trying to climb into the zebra enclosure!


Megan in particular enjoyed the insect house, but both girls liked climbing on the big bug sculpture.


On Friday we went to the Botanic Garden, which was so much fun!  The girls liked seeing all the fountains, including this cool one that looked like it was boiling.


They LOVED the hedge maze, too, and had to take turns shouting directions from the lookout tower and exploring the paths.


Feeding the koi was also a huge hit.


As was riding the sheep:


But their favorite place was the children's garden, which was like a gigantic play area for kids.  They enjoyed exploring the cave and digging for fossils, as well as walking across the rope bridge (which Megan did with no problem at all).


And since it was a warm day, they really liked playing in the water area and bouncing on the jumpy mushrooms.  Next time, we'll have to bring bathing suits!


On Saturday, Grandpa and the girls picked sugar snap peas and they helped him snap all the stems and wash all the peas.  It was so cute how serious they were about doing their own little jobs.  Amelia cut the ends off with a scissors, then threw the peas in a bucket of water.  Megan got the peas out of the water and dried them off. 


Anna, Dan and Abby came over for dinner, and the girls had a wonderful time trying to play with Abby.  She was content to bounce in her exersaucer, chew on the attached toys, and watch the girls play, but they kept handing her even more toys to play with. 


We had birthday cake for Amelia's and Dan's birthdays; it was a funfetti cake with pink funfetti frosting and pink sprinkles.  Uncle Dan was kind enough to let Amelia blow the candles out all by herself.  Perhaps he wasn't interested in having his photo taken with such a girly cake?


 Then Amelia opened her presents.  She had asked Grandma for fancy pillows for her bed, and she was so excited to hug her soft princess pillow.  She now sleeps with all her fancy pillows on her bed, along with all her cats, a few baby dolls, and a few Barbie dolls.  I don't know how she even fits on her bed anymore.


And finally, we went to Tropical Snow at least four times during the week.  The girls loved it!  Megan said her favorite flavor was "Porcupine Pig" which was actually called Porky Pig, and flavored with watermelon, peach and vanilla, I think.  Amelia liked the Rainbow flavor.






We all had such a great time visiting with Jeff and Jane, and we can't wait to go back to their house next weekend.  Thanks for being such fun hosts!


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