St. Louis

We pulled out a map, decided how far we were willing to drive, and made a last minute decision to go to St. Louis for Memorial Day weekend. The girls were already out of school and we thought it would be a good way to kick off the summer.

We headed to Forrest Park. Here's the view from the Art museum:

Here's the Art Museum:
The girls looking out over the water:

Proof that I was actually there! I don't usually make it into many photos:

Ladd, Sweetie, and Cutie Pie decided to take a little boat ride. Popcorn and I chose to go to the museum, it was much cooler in there!

We headed downtown and went to the Arch. Here are the girls:

A different view of the Arch:

Taking a rest on the stairs by the river:

Unfortunately I got food poisoning and spent Monday in the hotel room, but everyone else went to the City Museum and had a great time. We decided we need to go back so we all can go to the City Museum and see the Cardinals play!

Taylor Swift Concert

We all had a great time at Taylor's concert! Here's one of the last photos I took, she was waving goodnight:

Sweetie was invited to go with her good friend (sadly, she's moving to Japan!) and we decided it would be fun if we all went. In fact, we had been talking about going to see her in concert just a few days before. It was a last minute decision but I was able to find seats. Here they are anxiously awaiting Taylor's arrival:

One of her songs:
She also floated around the arena on this balcony:

We found Sweetie on the way out (we were actually sitting one section over). They're modeling their t-shirts everyone got:

When I bought the tickets I didn't realize that it was a benefit concert for the tornado victims. Originally this performance was supposed to be their final dress rehearsal before leaving on tour, but she opened it for all to see. We all received a t-shirt and glow stick (which was a hit of the night). Taylor said that all proceeds were going to the tornado victims, and just from ticket sales alone that was $750,000. I was impressed that she did that; actually last year after the awful flooding she donated $500,000 of her own money to help out. There aren't a lot of good role models for girls these days, but if my girls have to love a singer, I think Taylor is a good choice.

Cutie Pie turns 4!

I can't believe our little Cutie Pie is 4 years old! She's not a baby anymore! Here she is with her cute birthday headband. I think she looks much better with her hair out of her eyes, but alas, she won't let me do anything to her hair (and if I do she rips it out).

Cutie Pie really wanted an American Girl doll (she loves Ruthie) but I wasn't willing to spend that much just yet, so I got her the My Generation doll at Target and put her into a purple dress. I think the purple dress is why she likes Ruthie in the first place. She was very excited, and kept saying: "thank you mommy for getting me big Ruthie"

She also got a fun new tent:
Here she is blowing out her candles. Cutie Pie wanted cupcakes and a cake, so we made mini cupcakes and a small cake:
Happy Birthday, we love you!

London, part 2

The wedding was pretty much an all day event, we did go out and get dinner later that night. I had one day left in London and here's the rest of what we saw:

I liked this shot of Big Ben:

Here's CJ in front of the Tower of London. This was one place I really wanted to see, and after a bit of an adventure getting there (curse the improvements they're doing for the Olympics) we finally arrived!
CJ really wanted a picture with a real life, genuine Beef Eater:
The White Tower, built in the 11th century. I found it fascinating to see so many really old buildings:
CJ by a statue in front of the Salt Tower. The White Tower was the first building, it took about 400 years for it to become what we see today.
This wall was built around 1220:
The Tower Bridge:
Another view:
We got to tour Westminster Abbey, they left all the wedding flowers (and the trees) up for several days for everyone to enjoy. I think all but one of the Royal coronations have been held in the Abbey, and lots of famous Brits are buried there. We stood in line behind some very friendly locals; they had lots of interesting info to share and answered our questions.

One last shot of the Parliament Building:
I had lots of fun on my trip, it was great to spend some time with my little sister and we got to see some awesome places!

Royal Wedding

We flew back to London just in time to attend the Royal Wedding! It was very fun! Here we are enjoying the festivities: (this was after the ceremony, there was tons of confetti)

This is what it looked like when we arrived in Hyde Park around 7:30am. It turned into quite the party, England loves their Royal Family. I heard there were over 100,000 people at the park with us!

We watched everything on the big screens, here's part of the ceremony:

The cool part about the balcony appearance is that a WWII bomber does a fly by. Here's a quick photo of that:
It was really cool to be there for the wedding, definitely something I'll always remember!

Verona, Italy

We decided to rent a car and go for a drive. We headed west and drove to Verona. Here's CJ by the water:

Another view:
Our little car, the Fiat 500. It was fun to drive, and got great gas mileage!

We stumbled across Juliet's balcony, here's CJ next to it:

The clock tower in the town square:

A fountain:
More of the town square:
Little old me by the water:

Renting that car was quite the adventure in and of itself. We hadn't planned on driving anywhere but I wanted to see more of Italy than just Venice. We came all this way, might as well make the most of it! I figured since they drive on the right side of the road I wouldn't get us killed, not so sure I could drive in London! Just riding on the bus was unnerving! Anyway, we got the car and I had to go get gas right away. After filling up I couldn't get the car into reverse. Now keep in mind that I owned 2 different cars that had were manual shift, so I know how to drive a stick. The guy laughed at me and said 'no automatic'. Thanks buddy, super helpful! Come to find out there's a little button you have to hold down to shift into reverse, then it stays in gear.

Our map wasn't super helpful, looking back we should have bought a better detailed map, but oh well. After Verona we drove to Milan, that city is HUGE! We spent at least a couple hours driving around lost, trying to find the correct freeway. Their highways aren't numbered, you come across a sign saying 'to' a certain city. That's all well and good, except you have to know where that city is! We finally found our way back, but then how do we find the hotel? I actually drove into Venice and came back out, trying to follow the bus route we rode into the city. It worked, and we got home safe.

Then we had to return the car, easier said than done! We had to park the car on the top level of the parking garage (level 10). Sounds easy enough. We get in there and it's a spiral drive up. I have an extremely LOW tolerance for getting dizzy, it's gotten worse over the years. I seriously have a hard time spinning around in a circle. We get half way and I'm feeling car sick already. At last we get to the top but there's not a place to park. It's around 11am and people are just getting there, no one is leaving. I circle a couple times then head down to check out level 9. Some lady yelled at me that it was private parking so back up we went. After a few more circles I decided to park in an area marked 'reserved'. I had CJ get out and hold up the rope (the car was small enough) and I pulled in. Right after I parked another guy did the exact same thing. I went down and dropped off the keys. The guy asked if I was on level 10 and I smiled and said 'yes'!

Good times!

Venice, Italy

After my whirlwind day in London we flew to Venice. We had wanted to go somewhere else in Europe, and after much deliberation we ended up going to Venice. I've always wanted to go to Italy so I was excited.

Here we are with the Grand Canal behind us:

It was a bit of an adventure just getting here! We missed our connecting flight (late take off, only 1 hr lay over) and had to spend the night in Frankfurt, Germany. They were very nice and got us a hotel room and a flight out the next morning. We arrived in Venice on Easter Sunday.

Some of the street vendors...these carnival masks are everywhere:
One of the churches (sadly I don't remember which one, there are several)...
CJ was always ready to pose for the camera:
It seemed like everywhere you turned was a view worthy of a postcard:
CJ by the Grand Canal:
Another church:
CJ would turn around and say "take an artsy photo" so this is an 'artsy' photo:
St. Mark's square:
The Campanile Tower:
St. Mark's Basilica:
We went on a gondola ride. Here is CJ and our gondolier; Fabio!
One last view from our gondola: