"This is the best day ever!"

Last weekend we made our annual trip south to St. Louis to visit friends.  I always look forward to this trip because I get to spend a weekend with one of my best friends and her family.  We took off Thursday afternoon after Karsten got done with work.  It is roughly a 6 hour drive which we thought was nothing since we had recently got back from our Colorado vacation.  We put the DVD player in with movies, some books and of course some snacks and drinks and took off around 12:50pm.  We made a few stops including supper in Hannibal and made it to The Wyse's around 7pm.  The boys started playing immediately.  Logan is 4 and he and Jackson get along SO WELL!!  I always think it's almost creepy how well they play together.  Layla and Tristan got reacquainted and we just relaxed for a bit before bedtime. 

Friday Justin had to work so we decided to head to a nearby park to play in the morning.  Laurel Park is not too far away from the Wyse's and it had lots to do.

 The kids started with the swings, always a fun time.

Then we walked along some trails.

 We then found that one area of the playground had water spouts that would spray out onto the equipment.  We spent the rest of our time at the park here.  They didn't wear swimsuits but it didn't matter.  The boys just took off their shirts and got drenched!

 Tristan even got in on the water fun!

We went back home to eat some lunch and put the children down for naps.  Somehow, Angie and I managed to get all four kids sleeping AT THE SAME TIME!!  We were feeling pretty good about this so we decided to leave Karsten home with the sleeping kids and go get ourselves a pedicure!  Good decision.

The Thompson's also live in the St. Louis area so they came over for supper that night.  We had brought Edgewood Locker brats (yummy) and homegrown sweet corn (even yummier) with us for supper that night.  The kids played outside in the pool and slip in slide while the food was being prepared.  The title of this post refers to Jackson.  He and Logan were playing outside running around from toy to toy and pool to slide, etc.  At one point Jackson climbed up the slide to go into the pool and yelled at the top of his lungs "THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER"!!  By the way, the pool had a leak and managed to only keep in about 2-3 inches of water.  But they didn't mind. 

 Tristan was very proud with himself for climbing onto the trike.  He really couldn't do anything but sit on it as his legs were way to short to reach the pedals.

 Angie decided to try out the slip in slide...

 The boys made a car wash!

Jackson being thrown down the slip in slide

We enjoyed a delicious supper with the Thompson's and got a really nice visit.  We even got to meet Ellis, Jeremy and Trista's little guy who is almost 11 months old.  I'm pretty sure Ellis out-ate all the other kids! 

He's such a little Jeremy look-a-like!!

Saturday we planned on going in the city to check out City Gardens.  This is a newer area filled with water features.  It was awesome and the kids really enjoyed it.  

 Tristan took a little bit to warm up to all the water, but then he had a blast!

 Jackson and Logan

 I love this picture of Logan!  You can tell from his face how much he is enjoying himself!

 The boys thought it was fun to sit on the shoots of water

Caught Jackson in mid jump!

We got to play for quite a while but then it started to rain and everybody had to get out of the water.  We thought at first that it would stop raining soon so we waited it out for a bit.  When it became obvious that it was not going to stop and we were already getting soaked we decided to walk in the rain to the cars.  We also did some puddle jumping on the way back to the cars.  By the time we got to the cars WE WERE DRENCHED!!  But no one cared, it was actually pretty fun.  We got dried off and changed and headed home for a late lunch.  The afternoon and evening were pretty relaxed, just lounging around the house.  Saturday was also Justin and Angie's 6th wedding anniversary.  After the children went to bed we got out some wine and celebrated by reminiscing of that great day 6 years ago.

Sunday morning we packed up and left for home around 10am.  We had a great time in STL as usual.  The Wyse's are the best hosts!  Until next year....