Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The first Hip Mamas of St. Louis outing!



So the Hip Mama's of St. Louis meetup.com group accepted me into their ranks & Hux and I went to the Palm House at Tower Grove Park to listen to music. When we got bored, we wandered outside, ran into hip mamas who were headed to the playground and had fun playing in the fountain & at a new playground-see Hux's photos (note to self-always pack a swimsuit in the summer-but had wet bag and extra clothes so 2 points for me at least). Happy to meet moms Teresa with Rex, Erin with Bianca and Megan with Carlos and excited for more outings.

Then off to Missouri Baking Company for Chocolate Drops (suggested by Jackie-essentially a soft cookie with chocolate donut icing), pizza dough (suggested by Hip Mama Teresa) and assorted cookies-Hux wanted the drop cookies with "egg" on them (despite not wanting to eat eggs anymore) -then he happily ate the cookie with "egg" -aka apricot jelly on top...can I count this as a fruit serving?

Next, a trip to the suburbs for Costco (developed large prints of the 3yr old photo collection), Target, Goodwill and Artmart for final supplies for Hux's room -will have to wait one more day until big reveal.

Off to talk to my "girls" in the stacks!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Moving in to Apartment, Sweet Apartment in St. Louis




So we are happily settled in St. Louis and have explored the Central West End a bit. Here's the breakdown:
Thursday, June 23rd-at 2pm Cindy, Tom, Hux & family friend Jeffrey arrive from MI to load all our stuff in the UHaul, Sarah's car, Chad's car and the Wright family Tahoe. Becky, Alex & Baby Amelia also arrive bearing pizza, breadsticks and Mrs. Goodman's cookies-hurrah!

5pm -the caravan departs.
8pm-the caravan stops outside of Indianapolis for the night.

Friday June 24th-Sarah arrives in St. Louis early for internet guy appointment, scout out the land & to sign lease papers. The rest of the caravan shows up around noon. Sarah's Dad & Jackie arrive with subs and groceries to feed the crew. Jackie & Cindy go to Costco with Hux, while everyone else moves all the stuff in to the apartment. The best part is the "hike" to dinner where Tom (Chad's dad) bitterly complained about walking several blocks to a new favorite location-Drexel's Public House-where an excellent meal was enjoyed by all once Tom realized that he was not going to die getting there :). Also, the assembly of Hux's bed and the IKEA furniture quite fun.


Sat June 25th-Unpacking, organizing, Sarah's Dad & Jackie come bearing mattress frame that Sarah & Dad put up-go Team Ressler!, Chad & family taking the train to drop Jeffrey off at airport to fly home & becoming familiar with big box stores in our area -good times by all! Pi pizza for dinner-yum again!

Sun June 26th-Chad's parent's 40th wedding anniversary-WOW! We celebrated by going up to the top of the arch (okay Chad stayed below with Hux because he didn't want to go). We took the metro down and wandered around the arch park-awesome, but the Mississippi River is flooding the street down by the arch-crazy thunder and lightening the night before (we decided we needed to know the emergency plan for our apartment building around 2am).

Then more Wal-mart, Costco etc shopping and a lovely anniversary dinner at Red Robin-yum fried food!

Mon June 27th-We bid a very sad farewell to Tom and Cindy (Hux is still not over his ability to get any popular movie action figure of his choice simply by walking into Walmart with his beloved Nana-yes, we now have new Cars 2 figures, about 5 green lantern figures, and the exclusive-to-Walmart two pack of Transformers---which of these movies will Hux actually get to see? Cars 2 only, but he'll have the action figures from every blockbuster to make up for it!).

Hux, Dad, Jackie & Sarah all went to the amazing St. Louis zoo-free (except for $12 parking and any ride you would like to experience) -and truly awesome animals-zebras, cheetahs, lots of penguins in freezing penguin house, an ostrich even (why I love them so much I don't know). Hux's penchant for tearing up in order to get toys had no effect on Papa and Gigi who turned a blind eye to his crocodile tears (pun intended) for the safari animal pack in the penguin gift shop - but Jackie did get him a lovely smoothie to meet his dietary fruit needs instead-go Jackie!

Enjoy the pictures that show our neighborhood, our apartment and our adventures so far. Tomorrow, Hux's room after I've been slaving for a night and a day to make it fun!

Hux 3 yr old photos in Cinci (NOT St. Louis)

So I will post more later tonight, but here is a link to a few of the professional photos that we just took in Cincinnati with Hux & grandparents last week before we headed to St. Louis this week. Yes-it's been a crazy few weeks.



http://karahphotography.blogspot.com/2011/06/final-round.html

Cindy has been taking pictures like crazy for me to add to the blog so check back later for actual St. Louis photos!

Sarah


Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Off to St. Louis Next Week!

Hi everyone,
Our adventures begins next Friday, June 24th in St. Louis, Missouri where Huxley, Chad and I will be spending the year. I'm off on a sabbatical from teaching so Hux and I (and various friends and family who come to visit) will be exploring the city with us. I'll keep you updated as to what we're doing here -lots of pictures etc!