Hi, ol' friend. It's good to be back. And I hope you had a restful, peaceful Advent and Christmas season. There is so much to update you on, but let me first share with you our photos from a St. Louis trip back in October. Yep, October. My computer has been collecting dust for the last few months and I've been re-teaching myself how to be present to my family by unplugging, un-blogging, and deleting social media (that's another post for another day).
In October we went to St. Louis to meet up with our good Louisiana friends Greg and Rebecca Fontenot. Brad and Greg met in med school and have been buds ever since...and the minute I met Rebecca I knew we would be lifelong friends. They have two kids the exact ages and genders as ours (Peter and Elizabeth...see, they even have similar less-weird-versions of our names!) And they are just about the kindest people you could ever meet. Here's a recap of our trip:
I think my favorite memory from our few days in St. Louis was seeing the boys at the zoo. We had such a fun day! Pier went crazy over the polar bear and the hippos. Heck, I did too if I'm being honest. If you've never seen a two year old see zoo animals the joy is contagious, let me tell you. Some other stand out memories: attending mass at the basilica, visiting the science museum, and throwing the frisbee in Forrest Park. Peter and Pier were really sweet playing together...they always had to hold hands or give each other hugs (there were also tantrums -- mostly Pier lol -- because of toys, but I don't like to dwell on that typical two year old behavior ;)). We were there for only four days but Pier kept referring to Peter as "my best fwyan". Heart melting.
Traveling with kids is exhausting but always worth it. Except that time we all caught a stomach virus from said Fontenot family the day we got back to Indiana and were basically dying for a week afterword.... I'll spare you the details on that one.