Christmas in St. Louis and Grandma's birthday


We made our annual road trip to St. Louis to visit our extended family the weekend after Christmas. The girls get very excited about traveling to see cousins, so they were thrilled when they arrived in the late afternoon at Connor and Hunter's new home in St. Charles, Missouri. The kids had an excellent time playing outside. Moira was very good at using Connor's scooter, and Hannah loved their lawn mower. It turns out that the weekend after Christmas was one of the warmest weekends we had all winter; we couldn't have asked for better time.


Once we moved back indoors, Hannah had so much fun playing with Connor--she loved his train-themed room and all of his toys. The kids made themselves right at home in Connor's new house--except at night--it's always so hard to get them to fall asleep in a new place.



The weather the next morning was absolutely gorgeous, so we headed to the riverfront to go to a fantastic playground and take a walk along the river. By this point, Aunt Kate, Uncle Scott, and Alan had joined us, and Scott took amazing photos (as usual) of all of us having fun on the playground equipment. 


Kate was very impressed with my rock climbing abilities :)

Love this photo because of Alan and Moira's shadows




Marty and Alan (they're kinda like big kids sometimes :))

So sweet. Marty and Connor.






So sweet part 2. Marty and Hunter.

We headed down to the riverfront in the center of St. Charles, and we went on a nice long walk. The kiddos had a lot of fun just running around outside and playing, and we all enjoyed the chance to get outside and take in the scenery. It was beautiful.




Katie and Hunter


Love this photo of all of us (Moira is hiding behind Connor)

After trying literally just about every trick in the book to have the girls take a nap before the party in the evening, we put on our party dresses (as usual) and headed to Aunt Carol's new retirement home. We had a nice time catching up with our extended family, and the girls were excited that Maddie and Ethan were there as well. Moira and Maddie are about two months apart in age, and they have so much fun when they get together as well. Hannah loves playing catch or hitting balls, so she had fun at the ping-pong table, and all the kids loved Paul's antics throughout the evening. To be honest, it took a while for Hannah to warm up to the crowd (she was pretty tired); by the time we thought to take their photos, we'd already put the girls into their pajamas.


Paul definitely knows how to keep little ones entertained!



We traveled home to Indianapolis on the same night as the party (sometimes the girls sleep better in their car seats than in a bed at a new place). Soon thereafter, we celebrated Grandma's birthday in a very low-key way. Moira wrote her a book about their adventures to Africa (seriously, I have no idea where this child gets her ideas), and we celebrated her birthday with a delicious banoffee pie made by Aunt Kate.



And this post marks the end of my posts for 2013 (only 8 weeks behind--not too bad, right)? Certainly the highlights for us came in selling our first house, buying a new home, having Nan, Grandad, and Uncle Scott visit us in our new digs, watching Hannah grow up and start preschool, seeing Moira blossom into a leader at school, and so much more. We're looking forward to what 2014 will bring.  


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