Table rock Lake day 3

Today we woke up and had muffins, bananas tomatoes and grapes for breakfast! 

Then we went on a little nature hike as a little family to see skipping bugs and concrete "ush ooms" along the way. We stopped to play at the playground too!

At 10 am we rented boats and spent about 1.5 hours on the lake exploring Anns making shaw work really hard to paddle us around!

After that,  shaw ran into the condo and grabbed meat,  cheese and pb sandwiches and we all met at the pool, or "ool" as Monica calls it.

Shaw and Monica went back for naptime, and we stayed at the pool for another 1.5 hours or so.  Then we came home,  ams shaw and Sophia went out to play archery with Tessa Pete and Emma in 100 degree heat while I napped for the tail end of Monica's nap.

Then,  after a delicious dinner prepared by judy and Dan,  we drove half an hour into Branson to get some Andy's frozen custard and watch the race cars and other activities that were going on in active Branson! 

We got the girls down about an hour later than usual,  and after a few minutes planning the next day with the rest of the group we all poured ourselves into bed! 

Table rock Lake day 2

Day 2 was lots of fun!  I woke up with Sophia and we snacked on colored Cheerios on our front patio and discussed all of the fun things we saw.  Then she helped me finish some Thank you notes,  and we started breakfast!  Monica woke up about 8, and we were starting on our bacon and cinnamon rolls when shaw joined us and eating ensued.

We met up in the Leach/P condo and prepared to go to Moonshine Beach about 30 minutes away.  It was lovely!  A bit rocky,  but still lots and lots of adventures and rocks to throw.  The girls loved playing with the sand toys, and the floaties/noodles.

We got there early,  about 11 AM before the crazy crowds came. We all packed lunches,  and ate heartily about 12:30. After some dips in the pool after that,  it was quickly time to get Monica home for a nap - and me too!

We got home,  Monica and I napped whole shaw and Sophia played and rested.  I woke up about 4, to find sophia off on a hike with Tessa and Emma and shaw preparing dinner, as it was our assigned day.  We (I of course mean shaw) made "American gyros" - ground lamb cooked in bacon grease, a homemade cucumber yogurt sauce,  tomatoes and pickled carrots, all wrapped up in cabbage leaves.  Sweet potatoes and grapes on the side.  After dinner and some chat time,  we threw the girls in the BIG tub and set off for bedtime. 

After the girls were down,  we enjoyed smoothies at the Leach/P cabin, then home to bed!  Whew!

Tablerock Lake: Arrival and 1st day!

We arrived at our beautiful Lake condo!  We drove up Saturday and arrived safely around 3:15. After driving around exploring the resort,  we decided to quickly hit 5 o'clock Mass that is a mere 4 minutes from the condo,  run through the grocery store that is even closer, head back to the condo for dinner and therefore have a peaceful Sunday tomorrow!  

Sitting at the kitchen table looking nto the living room. 

The huge tub in the master bedroom of the 2 bed /2 bathroom condo. 

Lovely Kitchen

The beloved train that must go everywhere! 

The great play place just down the road (walkable)

DAY 1: SUNDAY

Pool day!  This pool is amazing.  A toddler pool that can be seen in the top of the photo,  a fun little table in the pool,  super fun sprinkler, and bridge in the pool! They also have a grill that opens at 2 PM and they provide towels! 

Gamma and Monica (and Pete and Emma on the side)

Snack time at the pool side. 

Almost everyone in the pool. 

The path between the two condos.  It feels very private.  The other Leach/P condo is across a few trees and a few condos down.  The baby video monitor reaches!

Hanging out on the huge deck

Story time with uncle Pete

Super dad! 

They have a great activity post where you can play with these huge cheese or checker pieces,  video games,  snacks,  theater, check or movies and games, check out stuff for mini golf or archery!  They also have a marina wher you can rent kid fishing rods, paddle boats, row boats and more! 

The Ps were in charge of dinner tonight and they made a fabulous chicken and pepper fajitas with cauliflower wraps and toppings.  Yum! The girls are doing great sharing a room.  No WiFi, so keeping things quiet and unhooked as possible :). 

Baby Boy's Room

The curtains came today!  Yay!  I feel as though this kid's room is finally together now that I don't have the guilt of pink polka dot curtains - hehe.  My fabulous sister-in-law helped me get my act together and organzied the new clothes and helped decorate.  My amazingly handy and generous father-in-law stopped by today to take measurements for shelving for both the girls' room and unknown boy's room.  

These curtains are BLACK OUT.  Most of the curtains in the house are, but these by far bock out the most light and make it midnight for even the noon napper.  fabulous.  

Here is the changing table below new curtains.  

Fun flowers on the side are leftover decorations from my work baby shower last week. 

Rocking chair and boppy.  I was so excited to see a blue boppy cover in a fabulous bag of boy clothes my sister Sarah sent to me!  Can't wait to put it on! The blanket was made for me by one of my School of Religion volunteers.  So soft! 

Lovely quilt that mom gave us.  Camping, turtles and fish!  The banner was also a sweet decoration from my work baby shower made by one of my volunteers - so kind!  Green breathable bumper, and animal crib sheet and green crib skirt.  You can't see it, but there is a black onesie that Shaw's parents got him for his birthday that has the Black Keys on the front (one of Shaw's favorite bands - I gave him concert tickets for the Black Keys his birthday this year!).

We still have some empty green wall space, saved for family and newborn photos!  Also needed: Crucifix and Mama Mary/Guardian Angels.  

Alright kid - any time now. :)

6th Anniversary Weekend!

What a whirlwind of a weekend!  We dropped off our beautiful girls at my blessed in-law's house at noon on Saturday, then we headed for the hills.  Shaw told me the secret plans on the way  - a low key weekend at a hotel, dinner at our favorite restaurant in the WHOLE WORLD Justus Drugstore, sleep-in the next morning, and we had the day kid-free until our family dinner with my in-law's Sunday evening.

We started at Zona Rosa (our old stomping grounds when we lived in Atchison) and bashed around there for a few hours.  We had fond conversations about prior anniversaries, hitting a deer with our Elantra on our anniversary on our return trip from Zona Rosa, other anniversary dinners spent at Justus.  My mom gave me wonderful advice about writing down what you do to celebrate your anniversary every year to keep forever, so I will be going back for the last 5 years to blog about our adventures in the past.  What a great thing to have for future reminiscence!

Anyway, at Zona Rosa we started off grabbing a quick lunch at Panera.  I needed something light and delicious so it was the perfect spot.  Shaw mostly despises Panera, so it was kind of him to come along :) This was followed by light shopping at Old Navy, then hitting up the local record/Dvd/VHS/Comic book store.  Shaw recently purchased a record player (after saving up his Amazon gift cards for almost a year!) and loves the hunt for records.  As of now, he has one record to his name, but the hunt is just as fun!  

We walked around Zona in 100 degree heat for a bit, stopping in stores for the air conditioning as well as to enjoy little boy clothes in all of the fun stores! We bought one newborn polo romper at Marshalls just because it was SO CUTE!  

From there, this pregnant woman needed a break!  We went to the hotel - the Drury Inn by the airport (chosen due to the great location to our dinner destination).  We have been joking about staying at a Drury ever since our Chicago cousins told us about it.  Owned by Catholics and chock full of free amenities!  We checked in a bit after 3.  From 3-10 PM they have free soda and popcorn in the lobby!  Upon check in- you also received drink tickets for that evening.  From 5:30-7 you can get 3 free drinks/person from the bar in the lobby, as well as TONS of free hot food.  I'm serious about the amount!  They had hot dogs, a nacho bar, baked potatoes, mac and cheese, and lots of snack food.  FOR FREE.  Granted, not the highest quality of food, but SUPER fun.  Really, anything free for me is fun.  We grabbed 4 drinks (equivalent to about 1.5 shots of bottom shelf burbon) to bring back up to the room for Shaw for later.  We had a great two room suite (albeit right next to the elevator and ice machine :) ) and I LOVED setting the AC for about 65 - just like you mom! 

Then, we hit the road for our 6:30 reservations at JUSTUS!

Shaw sneakily taking a photo of the cool open kitchen behind me (and me too I suppose).

We had an AMAZING waitress who was really fun and energetic, very knowledgeable but not stuffy. She had the bartender, who is known country wide for his fabulous mixing abilities, make me a delicious mocktini with cucumber and lime!  Shaw had two amazing cocktails as well.  We started dinner at 6:30, and we weren't finished until 9:15.  All incredible dinners should last about 3 hours! 

This is the amuse bouche, or "perfect bite".  (read: delicious and free).  It was a crostini with terrigon chicken sausage, saurkraut, housemade 1000 Island dressing, Shatto goat cheese gouda cream sauce with a pistachio on top. Seriously would have been happy with 12 of these for dinner and gone home VERY happily!

She then brought over THIS dish, which we did not order, and said "we have to have a little chat".  The kitchen accidentally made two of these housemade pasta dishes when they only needed one.  She told the chef, Jonathan Justus, that she had this "super cute couple" who she would love to give this to!  SOO kind!  

Pasta Pecan Watercress: house made pasta, spicy pecans, watercress sauce, Maytag blue cheese anglaise, golden beets, spinach

Then, came what we actually ordered!  Top:  Fried goat cheese with orange marmalade, and spring greens. 

Bottom: Pork Fritter:  lightly breaded house made headcheese, horseradish dressed romaine, spicy mustard sauce, tart cherry sauce

Smoked Mushroom Rib Eye Steak  Peidmontese beef, grilled romaine dumplings, sesame dressed fresh spinach, cauliflower, smoked mushrooms, caramelized shallot blue cheese sauce, pine needle essence

‘Rare Hare Barn’ Stuffed Rabbit, bacon, rabbit mousseline, pistachio, loin, sunchoke/turnip/carrot sauce, sherried potatoes, endive, roasted pickled grapes, celery, grilled onion

Chocolate Hickory Nut Cake

cocoa Chantilly, honeyed chocolate paint,

salted caramel, bacon brittle, popcorn ice cream

Autumn Trio

Pecan tartlet with orange marmalade, paw paw panna cotta with

cherry/sweet vermouth, blue cheese cheese cake/fig filled donut

We we given a TINY glass of sparkling wine as the perfect end of the meal (complimentary of course). Overall, an AMAZING dining experience. 

After dinner back at the Drury about 9:30.  How great to be back at the hotel so early for a LONG night's sleep! 

We woke up in time for the delicious breakfast in the lobby, then back up to the room to pack up.  It is AMAZING how fast one can get things done without the little ones around.  Much more efficient, but not as cute that's for sure.  

We hit up 11:00 Mass at St. Charles Borromeo in KC, MO.  A quaint little church with a rock star priest. It has been a VERY long time since going to Mass without the girls.  I missed their smiling faces and craziness, and it was strange to actually follow along with the readings and listen attentively to the homily. It was truly one of the best homilies I have heard in a great long time, with a bunch of humor and beauty.  It was a beautifully reverent Mass with lots of incense! 

We then drove to Baked in Westport for a lunch/brunch (see: the world's largest pancakes)

I found one of Monica's favorite parts of her train in my purse to keep us busy as we waited!

Then to Half Price Books to casually peruse records and books.  No purchases. 

Then a quick drive through a Westport staple: The Filing Station Coffee. 

Then home for a few minutes to unpack, then to dinner with my in-law's, and to pick up the girlies!  Thank you Judy and Dan for watching our girls for the weekend!  What a blessing! 

6 years married to the love of my life - woohoo! 

Shaw's Birthday

We had such a lovely time celebrating Shaw's 29th birthday!  We started off with Shaw's family at Harry's Country Club, which is known for its Scotch selection.  

Here is Shaw selecting Scotch flights for both him and his parents. 

I then surprised him with a stay at our favorite B&B, The Southmoreland on the Plaza, staying in the Winstead Room (yes, after the restaurant!)  Thanks mom and dad for taking the girlies!  

Our beautiful little patio. 

We checked in after Harry's, in time to spend about an hour enjoying the Bed and Breakfast, and indulging in the cookies and drinks they offer in the evening.

Then off to a late snack of fresh oysters on the outside patio of McCormick and Schmick's on the plaza.  We hit the jackpot with an outside couch right overlooking the street musicians on a FABULOUS evening. 

Then, we walked around Westport, walking by some new restaurants that we would like to try sometime.  Grabbed some super cheap pizza (thanks Frontflip!) at Joe's pizza, then off to a VERY late movie (Edge of Tomorrow - the new Tom Cruise movie) at the CInemark. 

The Southmoreland has the MOST AMAZING breakfast ever.  It started with oatmeal with fruit and honey.

Then, an amazing pavlova with whipped cream and berries. 

Followed by eggs benedict.  The ham was shaved very thin.  I was super full by this time (and eggs benedict is not my favorite) so Shaw ate most of mine.  We were full for the rest of the day I think!

We then stopped at some firework stands and headed home to pack for St. Louis, then off to my in-law's for the 4th of July/Shaw's bday party!

Lots of delicious meats and cheeses! (My parents dropped the girls off at my in-law's house on their way to St. Louis)

Shaw is the master of the firework ceremonies. 

Little observers.

Monica LOVING Shaw's birthday presents.  Dan made an amazing fire work rack as well as a prep table for the grill, complete with beer holders.

Later, we woke up the girls, piled them in the big wagon and watched the corporate woods fireworks,  a mere 2 minute walk from my in-law's.  What a lovely celebration!  

The next day we left bright and early for St. Louis for the Rielley family reunion weekend.  Whew!