THIS IS HOW WE ROLL IN THE COUNTRY.

we don't have normal streets and sidewalks to ride our bikes on.

instead, we have looooooong stretches of roads, gorgeous scenery and grandmas to drive us back home and/or ride bikes with us.

mile to lucille's!

hitchin' a ride home!

  

hallie loves riding her bike now and so we make lots of trips to lucille's.

it's a mile there, exactly, so her little legs are pretty tired when we get there.

nothing that a popsicle, some tv time and a ride home can't cure.

we also rode bikes with grandma barb sunday night. it was a beautiful evening and i couldn't get enough pictures of her and hallie.

hal looked precious with her dress billowing out behind her.

love it.

and now everyone say it with me:

pooooooooor henry!

this kid is a champ. we dragged him all over the place all weekend in st. louis, missing naps, late bedtimes, etc. and then we get home and just continue dragging him places.

this picture was just about past his bedtime and you can barely see barb's house in the distance.

he is a total trooper though. no tears. just lots of resting his head on the ground.

precious.

WEEKENDING IN STL.

we spent the weekend in st.louis with aunt kath, uncle phil and dad. it was an awesome weekend.

i really have no words this morning, so i'm just going to stick with pictures.

related: i am just now drinking my first cup of coffee of the day and it's almost 11am.

i will say that it was SMOKIN' hot in st.louis. we went to faust park and it was amazing. perfect playground for hallie/henry, had a BUTTERFLY house and an antique merry-go-round to ride. fantastic.

the butterfly house was phenomenal. like, butterflies everywhere when you walk into the conservatory. you can't touch them, but they do land on you! it was sooo hot in the actual conservatory, hence the miserable pictures of hallie and henry. but i was in heaven! it was seriously one of the coolest things i've seen/been in a long time.

and the whole reason we went to st. louis was to pick up dave from the airport. so it was great to be reunited with him and then visit some good friends at the end of the visit.

it was a fabulous weekend.

PS: i forgot to mention...i got to make another trip to Trader Joe's. seriously, i love that place. i stocked up on my almond butter and tons of other goodies that cost one million dollars here in j'ville. i also tried some new products. sour cream pirates booty = amazing. seaweed snacks = gagworthy. morgan, i blame you.

SERIOUSLY?

honestly, mother?

more pictures of me in the tub?

okay, fine.

if you insist.

here comes the smolder:

how YOU doin'?

ALSO.

this is how henry feels about building a bear.

BO-RING.

HOW TO BUILD A BEAR. AT BUILD A BEAR.

first, pick your poison...err, bear. no child is going to want the "base model" so be prepared to spend at least $20 on just the skin of a bear. (gross)

and then pick a sound! for just $4 you can make it giggle. for $8 you can make it say lots of things.

and then fluff it. and add a $5 heart that beats like a REAL HEARTBEAT because just a cheap "normal" heart isn't good enough.

then give it a bath to fluff it up. for free, thank goodness.

and then dress the darn thing! and pick two outfits, because she really does need a pair of pajamas.

get a birth certificate and then let nana jo pay for the whole thing.

done and done.

also.

it's time to do SOMETHING ABOUT HALLIE'S HAIR!!!!!!!!! but what?

OH HEY. MY KIDS ARE SO CUTE AND AWESOME.

monday was such a regular DAY. but a really, GOOD DAY. know what i mean? sometimes the least exciting days are the best days ever.

there was eating.

and sippy cup attempts.

and hallie became a member of the clean plate club - which was a miracle, seeing how she didn't want ANYTHING i gave her.

and there was henry whispering "dada" and trying the sippy cup while hallie yells in the background about random things.

 

it was.

a good.

day.

WEEKENDING IN WISCONSIN.

we had a glooooorious time in wisconsin. i mean, despite the fact that i was super-duper excited to sleep in and then darling dave decided to wake up at the butt crack of dawn each morning and then wake me up too by watching loud golf videos on his phone.

still.

the girls shopped, the boys golfed and we ate lots and lots of food. it was awesome. and i love brandon and jenna. and bob and suzanne. the company was great. good, good times.

random texts to dave. PS - i love trader joes!

cubanitas!

food! sangria! wine! mojitos! headache!

SHOUT-OUT TO SEEBASS!

also, i really, really, really, really, really, really, REALLY missed my kids. but the smile on henry's face when he saw me sunday was almost worth leaving him.

WELL, WELL, WELL.

guess who got her garden in!

ME!

well, most of it. but still - finally!

i have had the seeds in my car for approximately one million years, so it was time. but every other time i wanted to do it, it was either too windy, raining or got cold!

so last night, i put pete (new nickname) in the stroller with some puffs, and hallie and i planted spinach (four rows!!! yippee!!), lettuce (three rows!) and aparagus. very exciting.

we still have tomatoes, onions (too late?), peppers, cukes/zukes (later) and...radishes. and maybe carrots?  exciting!

strawberries are already blooming, but i have 18 million weeds to pick from them.

we also planted her sunflower and bean plants that she planted at school and have been thriving in our window with VERY little dirty. So we'll see how those go!

now, random pictures.

kids in the bath - hen's first BIG BOY bath (ie: no baby bathtub):

and my father-in-law's latest business venture:

Fly By Night Coaches aka - a big bus.