New Year's Eve in St. Louis

We were in St. Louis Monday-Friday the week of New Year's.  Steve had to work in St. Louis and we tagged along.  Monday night we stayed in a hotel (which I realize the girls haven't done since Olive was a baby!) and went swimming in their pool.  Very exciting for the girls.  Tuesday while Steve was at work, we checked out the World Bird Sanctuary and Lone Elk Park that were close to our hotel.  And we found a cake!

The condor was huge!

 The world bird sanctuary had two indoor exhibits with all kinds of animals, but most of the birds were on a walking trail.  We only saw a few because it was freezing!  Luckily we could stay in the car in Lone Elk Park.  The drive was really cool and it would be amazing in the fall.

The elk walked right in front of our car!  I think I was the only one excited by this.

Tuesday-Friday we stayed at Casa McGuire.  The McGuires have been hunting for cakes all year long to celebrate St. Louis' 250th birthday.  December 31 was the last day to see cakes, so we made the most of it.  There were lots in one spot...

And we also drove around to get a few more.  FBC: The church traces its roots back to the first protestant church for African-Americans in St. Louis, organized in 1817.

Scott Joplin House:  Joplin's former residence and only museum in the world dedicated to him.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: founded in 1878 by Joseph Pulitzer

This is what we looked like driving around...

After all that cake-hunting we ate at Crown Candy Kitchen- the oldest soda fountain in St. Louis.  I appreciated the history...and the milkshake.

Walter came to St. Louis!  He thought he had only been to their house once and it was before Gwyn was born.  Here he is on their finished tree house.

For New Year's Eve, the McGuires invited some friends over for a fun night of tacos and games.  Here is Taco getting his taco. :)

We divided up into teams for Game Olympics.  One game involved trying to pick up a cereal box without using your hands.  It started as a full box and part of it was cut away each round.  It ended up being the size of a stamp.  Some people (not I) were still able to pick it up.  Most surprising fact of the night: Walter was one of them!

I believe my team finished in 2nd place and Steve's team (including Jane and Walter) took first, but I really can't remember.  Hmmmmm.....maybe I should write these blog posts closer to the event.  That probably should have been my New Year's resolution.

New Year's Eve

We were counting up all of the New Year's Eves we spent together, and we figured out this was our 10th time kissing at midnight.  Our first New Year's* we drove to St. Louis with Tamra to go to a college friend's house....and Tamra met her future husband that night!  Although we do different things each year, we usually end up at a friend's house.  Last year we were at the Vroomans' (with a short visit to the Holcombes').  But this year we went out!  We went to the Brooksider with the Baileys and a group of Steve's college friends.  There was a live band, appetizers, and best of all...party hats!  Well, maybe dancing was the best part.  All of the girls of the group were younger than me and none of them had kids, so they were very impressed with me out dancing with a pregnant belly.  We had a great time!  BTW: Hannah rang in the new year sleeping soundly at Grandma and Grandpa's house. ;)

*Steve doesn't think this was our first New Year's.  Tamra can you confirm?**

** Tamra confirmed...my memory was right, but my math was wrong.  Our first New Year's was '00-'01, so that makes 11 times kissing at midnight..

New Year's Eve 2012

We spent New Year's Eve in Weston, MO at the Benner House Bed & Breakfast.  The girls rang in the new year with Granny and Papa in Chula, MO.  It was a beautiful outside with big snowflakes falling all day long.  We were there with the Baileys, Vroomans, and Walter.  We had a great time doing a white elephant gift exchange and sharing memories of past New Year's Eves.  We've spent a lot of them together.  I should really make a list sometime.  I probably couldn't remember all of them, but the blog keeps track of the last few for me: 2011, 2010, and 2009.

 

The guys: leprechaun, normal, cowboy, and wolfman.  Wolfman got his shirt because of some Amazon reviews.

Some unfortunate headgear at O'Malleys.

Someone stole my camera and took pictures of random things around the B&B.  He didn't know he would leave behind evidence.  Caught!

New Year's Eve

For New Year's Eve we went to a kid-friendly pajama party at the Vrooman's house. Hannah wore her pjs, I rocked out in my Seniors '99 t-shirt and pj pants with messy pigtails, while Steve opted for an old sports coat and weird tie. To quote Steve, "If I got invited to a pirate party, I would go as a ninja." He's a rebel. Walter was in town and I talked him into wearing long underwear and pigtails like me. He protested about the pigtails, but I think he secretly liked them. Why else would he have long hair?

The Baileys and Holcombes were also hosting a New Year's party, but it was a dress up party. So after Hannah got some play time with Norah and they both went to sleep, we went to the formal party for awhile. Yes, in my pjs and pigtails. Walter almost tried to change into jeans, but we convinced him that long underwear were really the way to go at a formal affair.

We were back at the pj party by midnight and rang in the new year with noisemakers that amazingly didn't wake the 9 kids asleep upstairs. So it was a good night. We played Apples to Apples, we saw college friends, and we laughed at Walter's underwear. Happy 2010!!

New Year's Eve and Magic House

We went to St. Louis for New Year's Eve.  First we went to the Holcombe's party.  They moved to St. Louis in the fall so we got to see their new house, new baby, and celebrate Joffroi's 30th birthday.  It was a fun time, but I don't have any pictures to show for it.  It was also the first year that both girls stayed up to midnight!   I wanted to get a picture of the landmark occasion, but as you can imagine girls that stay up four hours past their bedtime aren't in the mood to take pictures.  So all I have are a few pictures of us at the McGuires on January 1.  We had a lovely time playing games in our pjs all day.  This picture sums it up: Olive and Gwyneth are playing with dress up magnets.  Hannah and Colin are playing Exploding Kittens (Hannah and Steve's new favorite card game).  And Kevin is building legos.

We got to see their new kitchen!  It almost inspired me to do work on my house.  Almost.

We also went to the Magic House in St. Louis.  Steve and I both have memories of going their when we were kids.  The first time at the Magic House Olive was just a baby, so we wanted to go back now that she can remember it.

These are the serious faces of the president and vice president.

It's hard to see, but she is making a big bubble.

This is an even bigger bubble.

Somebody was more interested in their phone than playing in the sand.

Then he found something to do.  Lego cars.

Our plan was to leave when they got hungry for lunch so they would want to leave.  Excellent exit strategy, except they still didn't want to leave.  They built creations out of craft sticks, cups, and straws for a solid 30 minutes while my stomach was eating itself.  We were finally able to drag them out at 2:00!