Christmas Part 2

      Nana and Pop came for a few days. Here is Grady helping Nana with the Happy Birthday Jesus cake.

                 Some more baking....

            Though Grady loved all of his Christmas gifts...

His favorite might have been his Thomas the Train Spin Brush.

        Worn out...

              Enjoying Pop's gift...a chocolate fountain!
     After Nana and Pop left, we went to the Festival of Lights. Grady enjoyed the carousel with Daddy.

Christmas Visit with Me-Mama and De-Daddy

       De-Daddy and Me-Mama came to visit this week for Christmas. Grady had lots of fun baking gingerbread men with Me-Mama. 

     He is very proud!

          Grady had his tools out and mentioned that he wanted to "build animals Noah ark." We gave him this box from a Christmas gift, and he pretended it was Noah's ark. He put toys in there, and also had a few other passengers along for the ride.

      Grady was very excited about the train set he got from Me-Mama and De-Daddy. Here they are testing it out.

      Earlier in the week we exchanged gifts with the Creeches. Grady and Tyler both got this tee ball set. Grady insisted on wearing his baseball cap while he played. 

Another Birthday Outing

         For Alex's birthday he wanted to canoe down the river.The people who rented us the gear acted like we were crazy. "You know, if you fall in you could get hypothermia." Maybe they knew more about taking a 2 yr old on a canoe than we did. Grady did a great job of sitting and "paddling" for the first 30 minutes, but then wanted to walk around and stick his hands (arms) in the water.

Thankfully, Alex had a grip on his shirt and he did not fall in.

Birthday (Christmas?) Lunch

       To celebrate my birthday, we went to The Cave Restaurant. Yes, it is a restaurant in a cave. The problem was that Grady was so tired after waking up at 5:30 this morning and then having a late lunch, he did not behave. Luckily, there was only one other family in the restaurant. (That is never a good sign for Sunday lunch.) Please note my new black boots, a gift from Grady and Ellen, and located and shipped by Emily.

          It was hard to get a good picture in the restaurant because, wait for it, it is dark in the cave. But the only word to describe the decor is "tacky yuletide". 

      Another example of the decor.

          The best thing about this cougar is that Grady kept calling it a "puma." I have no idea where he learned that! Diego? It was very entertaining for Grady because there were also 2 fish ponds and a waterfall inside the cave (behind Grady and Alex).

             The food was pretty good and we can now check off "Eat in a cave" off of our bucket list!

Silly Stuff

          Not only did Grady wear this swim diaper as a hat, but he forced me to, as well (no photo of that). He would say that my "biper" was dirty and make me switch to a clean "biper" over and over again.

Grady loves to wear boots- mine, his, or dad's.

         Grady likes to pretend he is going to run an errand. He gets his hat, his "person" (purse), and keys and says he is "going to Wal-Mart, see you tomorrow."

Grady after getting into my toiletry bag. 

        One of the prizes Grady got at a Halloween party was these inflatable...swords? I don't know, but they were loads of fun (for both!)

Grady's "ABCBs!" (Disregard how messy the apartment is in all of my videos!)

Halloween Festivities!

       We have been busy the past few nights going to Halloween and Fall Festivals in town. Here are some pics, and Grady gives a video recap at the end. 

Nana and Pop Visit

         The first thing we did was impress Nana and Pop with our celebrity connections. Here is Nick Cannon from America's Got Talent. They were auditioning people right near the Arch, so we watched for a minute. He was riding in a Clydesdale drawn carriage sponsored by Anheuser-Busch (they sponsor lots of stuff in St. Louis).

      We visited the St. Louis Zoo again, this time hitting the carousel and some of the animals Grady didn't see last time.

       Grady was especially excited to see the giraffes! He thought they were scary because they might bite him. When I said they wouldn't bite him, he said, "Go play!" Then I said that they would bite him if he tried to play with them.

       Something else Grady thought was scary were the penguins. It is just too cold and loud inside the penguin habitat. He remembered it being scary last time we visited.

       We visited Union Station, which is now a mall. There were some beautiful ceilings in one area, but mostly just a mall.

       Pop and Grady also took advantage of the hotel's pool.

        This picture was taken approximately 6 PM outside of Rigazzi's restaurant. It was famous for being the place where Al Capone was arrested. When we finally got seated and ordered after 2 HOURS, we realized he was easily captured here because the wait was so long!!

       We also drove through Lone Elk Park and saw elk, bison and deer wandering in the woods (and road). Grady really couldn't see from his car seat, so he got to sit up front in Pop's lap. 

          We had lots of fun with Nana and Pop! And Alex was there, he just didn't make the pictures.  :(

Me-mommy Visit

       Last weekend we had the pleasure of having Me-mommy visit! We stayed in St. Louis one night and came back to our luxurious apartment for the other two nights. In St. Louis, we visited the City Museum. It was very interesting. Lots of places to climb. It would be especially fun for the older cousins, but Grady could not enjoy all of it. He did like the big ball pit...

   talked Me-mommy into going down the slide with him...

and climbed the trees.

        Alex was really interested in taking Grady to the plane that was suspended several stories in the air, seen below. (Do you see the kids climbing through the "slinky" from the plane, way in the air?) Alex took Grady and climbed up a very narrow spiral staircase to get to the plane. He was worn out, but it was worth it! Grady enjoyed "flying" the plane.

      We then went under the Arch and toured the little museum they have. It was pretty neat- a stuffed bear and horse, a tee-pee, old West wagon, and this leather boat we are so thoroughly impressed with. 

       That night, after getting lost several times (with a GPS!) we finally found the restaurant where we wanted to eat. It was called Crown's Candy Shop, and since it had been featured on the Food Network, we thought it should be pretty good. The menu selections were basically just sandwiches that were okay. When we realized that they had a contest, "If you can drink 5 milkshakes in 30 minutes, they are all free" we realized that it was on that show where the guy does the food competitions. So it was not on the Food Network for the delicious food. BUT, the food was fine and the Hot Fudge Sundae was the best I had ever had. Homemade hot fudge that you couldn't eat if you had dentures. Grady enjoyed a little bit of everybody's "i hweem."

       

     Back on post, we visited the plane, boat and tank Grady always asks to "sit on." 



      He still did not get to sit on them, as there were signs forbidding it, but he did get to see them up close.