Visiting St. Louis: Part 2

Unfortunately, as I go through pictures, I realize I didn't photo-document our St Louis trip as well as I should have. And my usual photographer was back in England!! Darn. Oh well, here goes: the second couple of weeks in STL!

I had a few instances of "reverse culture shock" coming back to the States -- pretty much all in a good way. I was nervous to drive on the right side of the road again, but it came back easily after the first few turns. I am much more aware now of the friendliness and customer service oriented culture of the States now, and loved being back in the world of chatty cashiers, solicitous Home Depot employees, and smiling fellow grocery shoppers. I have found the "reserved" British demeanor to be an accurate description -- they are just not focused on interacting with strangers around them. (A fine way to be, just different.) I also felt so comforted having Charlotte into her pediatrician's for a check-up and vaccination catch-up while we were St Louis -- talking to her ever-reassuring doctor always makes me so calm and happy about how she's doing. She is now caught up on her vaccines until she's ready to start kindergarten. That's so crazy to me! Walking around the grocery stores back in the States was also newly eye-opening -- SUCH a huge variety of everything is available. The produce section at Schnuck's is about 6-8 times the size of the produce section at my local grocery here in England. However, most of the produce in England is actually produced in England (or very nearby), whereas in the States you might get pineapple from Hawaii, blueberries from Chile, etc. 

Anyway, our second full weekend in St Louis was a whirlwind of a time. Our wonderful friends Ash & Kyle and their little Graham came up from Tennessee to visit us. Chris and Colleen came in from Ohio to visit us. Add in a family party, a trip to the zoo, a game night at our old house hosted by Kate, and dinner at the Kendricks' -- it was a little crazy! But we loved getting to see everyone and just wished we had more time to spend with our out-of-town visitors. 

That week, we stayed busy as well -- visits with the Ellerbusches, a baseball night out with friends, a playdate at Creve Coeur Lake Park with my friend Carrie and her little boy, shopping at the outlets for myself and Charlotte, fixing the internet issues at the Hennekes' house (all the better to Skype with, my dear!), and various housekeeping appointments at our old house kept me hopping. 

The next weekend, Charlotte and I had lunch with my friend Marsha, then attended a birthday party for our friend Claire who was turning 4. Charlotte had the time.of.her.life on the bouncy castle/water slide combo. She needed help going up the steps, but then was a total wild woman going down the slide into the shallow "pool" (only about 4 inches of water) at the base. She must have done it non-stop 20-30 times once she figured it out. We were the last ones in to get cake and ice cream because she kept asking to do it "one more time? one more time?" She seemed a lot older and braver than her her 20 months would lead you to believe! The next morning we went to brunch with our friends Andrew and Alissa at Winslow's, went to a pool party at Tim's parents' house in the afternoon, and then I went to dinner with Kate and our cousin Karen (spiciest salad ever at Crushed Red) before enjoying a fire pit night at Karen's house, complete with roasted marshmallows and lots of laughter with Scott, Nick, and Maggie too.

On Labor Day, we had a pool party at the Hennekes' house for Paul's mom's side of the family. Charlotte was totally enamored with her 2nd cousin Molly, and shadowed her around a good deal of the time. Charlotte was newly comfortable with swimming after spending nearly 2 hours in the pool at the Kendricks' house the day before, and loved "jumping" off the edge of the pool to me (I held her for the full jump/land in the water) as Molly jumped simultaneously. They also had a rocking good time dancing to the Blues Brothers soundtrack inside. Charlotte also made a new friend in Uncle Chuck ("Uncle Chick") when he helped her repeatedly try to wear a pair of huge flip flops that wouldn't stay on her feet.

Dancing with Molly while eating pink Goldfish

Uncle "Chick" helping with flip flops

Enjoying cookies with Molly. Annie's hoping for some dropped crumbs...

Jumping in the pool together!

The rest of our last week in St Louis was busy with seeing my friend Kristi, shopping, visiting the Botanical Gardens with Kirsten & Evie, visiting my Mercy co-workers one day at lunch, and spending time with the Kendricks. We also had a very fun "Aunt Katie" day -- Kate took off work on a Wednesday to spend some quality time with Charlotte. We went to the Magic House in the morning -- Charlotte's first visit -- and to Eckert's farm in Belleville, IL to pick apples in the afternoon. It was so much fun! We almost struck out at the Magic House -- it wasn't supposed to open until noon according to the sign -- but we asked and were let in around 10 am. Charlotte just loved so many parts of the Magic House -- but especially the mini grocery store and the bubble organ. She wasn't so sure about having her hair stand on end! She loved picking apples and eating them off the trees -- she seemed (again) like such a big kid eating an apple off the core. We enjoyed a delicious comfort-food dinner at their cafe that evening. I will definitely be back at Eckert's in the future -- what a fun afternoon.

Listening to music before heading out "on a 'venture [adventure]"

Charlotte needed a LOT of fake milk at the grocery store at the Magic House

Playing with the big "Lite Brite" with Aunt Katie

Bubbles!!

Housing a sub sandwich... kid can eat.

Modeling her new hedgehog backpack from Aunt Katie -- I love it!! (and so does she)

Riding on the tractor at Eckert's with Grammy

Mmm... Jonathan apples

Pull harder! But don't fall down!

Our trip came to a close when we left St Louis on Sept 12. Paul's mom came with us, which made the trip much smoother, especially when Charlotte wasn't too happy to be sitting on the airplane in STL waiting to fly to Dallas because the left engine wouldn't start! Charlotte was a champ on the overseas flight though; I was dreading the long Dallas to London flight, but it actually was kind of nice because it gave Charlotte a longer window to sleep between meal services. I didn't sleep much at all, but C (amazingly) slept for about 4.5 hours!! I was so proud of her. It didn't hurt that we were surrounded by a group of southern-accented senior citizens traveling together who thought she was "just the cutest thing" -- it really put me at ease. She had some pretty awesome bed-head when she woke up :)

It was hard saying goodbye to everyone, not knowing yet when our next trip back to the States will be. Likely next summer at some point, but it's still an uncertainty. Stay tuned for our adventures back in England and Croatia!