North American Tour, Part 2

After our fun week in New Hampshire, Paul had to return to England (work, boo). Charlotte and I took advantage of the fact that I'm not working right now, and returned to St Louis to visit some more with friends! We spent a couple of days in town, then headed south to Tennessee to visit the Schillings! I was a little nervous about the long car drive by myself with Charlotte, so I timed the drive to start with her afternoon nap time (ish). She slept for over 2 hours (!), then we stopped for dinner, then she read a couple of board books and fell back asleep. So perfect, I thought I had it down to a science (ha!) so I tried the same timing when we came back to STL... no dice! She cried for about half the drive despite stopping for energy burn-off a couple of times. Poor kiddo didn't quite get why we have to live so far from our friends... I agree, Charlotte.

We spent a great few days in Murfreesboro. Highlights included playing on the big local playground, a mama's only paint night (thank you SO much Kyle! babysitting 2 under 2... major points), playing in the inflatable pool, going to the local Children's Museum, shopping with the kiddos, a trip to urgent care for Charlotte's first set of hives (not really a highlight), and just getting to hang out with my best friend. Seeing our kiddos play together was awesome too -- now that they were 16 and 20 months old, the 4 month age difference seemed much less and they were romping around together.  We had to do a little refereeing as toy sharing is hard when you're 1. :) But overall they loved giving each other hugs and asked about each other when they would wake up from naps. So sweet.

Eating lunch together at Jason's Deli... the High Chair Brigade :)

Entertaining each other in the mirror at Old Navy

SUPER excited to be arriving at the playground!! Graham plays it cooler in the background.

Sliding with help from Graham & Kyle

Cutie pies!!

She loved sitting on this little mini construction equipment at the Children's Museum.

Love those chubby legs on the baby sized lawn chair. Also -- obsessed with carrying the bubbles around.

After we left Tennesee (sad face), we were briefly back in St Louis for about a day and a half before we flew back to England with Paul's parents.  We got to see a couple of friends once more before leaving, and went to Grant's Farm with Aunt Kate! I'd never been before, but it was a lot of fun. She wanted to drink the baby goats' milk (yuck! they were in baby bottles though so... understandable) and loved the tram ride. She was mildly interested in the other animals and wasn't scared of the horses this time! She even bravely patted the Clydesdale on the nose once.

Our flight back was a bit rough, as I've already mentioned in another post. Our flight from STL to Atlanta went just fine, but the overnight flight to London was long and tough. We had issues with not getting to use our carseat and having seats that were horribly placed next to the busiest lavatories on the plane. Eh. I won't get into it any more, but it was good to land and get home! I wish we had gotten to see more friends in St Louis especially -- I had especially hoped to stop by work to see people, but ran out of time. Next time, I hope!