St. Louis!

This past weekend, I traveled to St. Louis with my GNO girls. We all started on the same team at Humana about 9 years ago and, even though, we are all in different jobs now we still are very close. One of our original crew, Ashley, moved to St. Louis so we went to visit her. We had a blast on our girls trip, AKA, the weekend we ate and drank around St. Louis!

We met downtown and hit up our favorite lunch spot - Main Eatery. 

Their Blue Plate Special is THE BOMB.

We drove to St. Louis and had our first arch-spotting!

Ashley wasn't off work yet so we hit up Happy Hour at a pub near her house.

The next morning we had brunch and Carla ordered a mimosa.

And was given a half bottle of champagne. OH. 

We had plans for the zoo and botanical gardens on Saturday but it was raining so we modified slightly. St. Louis is the "beer capital" of the world (maybe America? maybe the Midwest? Not sure but they love their beer!) so we headed to "Beer School" at one of the craft breweries - Schlafly.

We had some samplers while we waited for our class/tour to begin.

I'm not really a beer drinker but it was decent, and when in Rome, right?

It was still raining so we headed to the City Museum, a self-described adult playground. It was WILD. 

Basically, all kinds of caves, climbing structures, slides, etc.

I got in a lot of the tunnels but some were a bit intimidating for me. 

Only 3 of us braved the caves. And it was literally like a cave system. Dark with all sorts of nooks and crannies.

We crawled around for awhile, using our phones as flashlights, until we found the steps for the 10 story slide.

Ashley caught this pic right before I left story 10. Super fun!!

We had to leave some people behind who weren't quite as adventurous! :)

We all enjoyed the spin top chairs.

We headed to 360 Rooftop Bar for amazing views of the city.

Still a little yucky but nice enough to sit and enjoy the fire. And a little dancing!

We had brunch at Rooster's in the morning and it was AMAZING.

I have no idea why I gained 3 pounds this weekend. Not any idea?

One last selfie before we hit the road back to LV.

We passed the time playing Catchphrase and giving ourselves tattoos from Jennifer's Fruit Stripe gum.

I had so much fun with my girlfriends. We laughed A LOT.

Chris held down the fort at the house.

Whew! And I'm done for a bit. My girls trip was planned for several months and the Disney trip kind of fell in my lap last minute but it was pretty tiring being gone 2 long weekends in a row. Glad to be home and settled with my family!

Disney Institute

Lucky for me, my mom was chosen to participate in the Disney Institute last week. It's a leadership program that Humana offers for managers. Only 30 people across the company were chosen and she was one - go mom!

So, since she had a free hotel, I decided to tag along for a few days. I brought my trusty 5 year old sidekick with me as well. 

We got up early Wednesday and headed to the airport.

Silly Maddie at 7 am.

We landed at 10 AM and headed directly to the Boardwalk for some lunch, sunshine and pool time.

From snow to sun in less than 2 hours - I'll take it!

Our view on the Boardwalk. Gorgeous!

I forgot my sunglasses but my buddy packed extra so I was good.

On Thursday, I let Maddie pick her favorite non-park Disney things. This included shopping, riding the monorail, and more swimming.

We had fun at the arcade.

Girlfriend wore herself out!

Then we watched grandma "graduate" from Disney Institute.

On Friday we spent the morning at Magic Kingdom.

Maddie ready to get some autographs and ride some rides!

But first, Tia had to have a nutritional breakfast.

 

It's difficult to see that this cinnamon roll was the size of a small head. I mean it was HUGE.

 Drizella and Anastasia

Fairy Godmother 

Mom-Daughter Selfie at Pirates of the Caribbean

Dumbo!

Maddie and Tia spinning CRAZY on the teacups. I get sick just watching them!

We had a little rest at the hotel (Maddie was NOT tired, she said)

And then walked to Epcot for dinner at the Flower and Garden Festival.

  

Side note: Not sure why I packed any clothes for her. She spent the majority of the time in bathing suits or her Tiana dress. I let her choose only one dress to bring and that green dress got some major loving! 

We missed sweet Sydney girl while we were gone. But she was LIVING IT UP with daddy.

Raisin toast!

Sydney's date night at Graeter's.

In Sydney news, she moved to Madeline's school last week. She is transitioning so well! I will miss her old school but it's already been very helpful having the girls in one place. 

Fun with Friends!

We had a great weekend with friends!

On Thursdays we go to the Y with the girls. We let them stay up a little later since they stay home with me on Friday. We almost always meet Stella Murphy at the Y.

 The girls spend all day at school together and then are apart for about an hour before we meet up again. And every time they act like they haven't seen each other in YEARS. It's hilarious. All of the Y workers laugh at them. 

On Friday we went to story hour at the library. Can you spy my two blondes up close and personal with the reader?

Saturday, Maddie and I had pedicures and went to a baby shower for my friend Taryn. And I didn't take a single picture - ugh! But, suffice it to say, my pregnant friend is really cute.

That night, our pals Hudson and Sloane came over. 

 Nothing better than happy, clean kids!!

On Sunday, we had Rolfe's birthday party.

 Of course Sherri made that cake. Of course she did.

The party was at a bowling alley and Maddie shared a lane with the Harbridge kids.

She had to get a little help from the roller.

We had cake and pizza and enjoyed a Stars War birthday for Rolfe!

Random!

I forgot this funny picture from my last post. Maddie and Dane were setting up a cafe in the basement while the adults were upstairs. We came downstairs and cracked up laughing.

All of Maddie's Build a Bears were having lunch - and a couple of beverages! - at the bar. 

We've had some warm weather this week and have been playing with our neighbors!

Maddie and I are headed to Orlando next week to visit Tia and she is getting herself ready. 

WOOHOO! Happy Friday-eve!