We had a great week! We made it back to St. Louis to celebrate Peter’s 2nd birthday, then we moved into our own place, and we had some fun outings!
Our drive back to St. Louis from West Virginia was blissfully uneventful. We made it back in time to go get some birthday pizza with our newest 2-year-old, Peter. He’s such a jolly little guy. He loves to play with Duplo blocks and his trains. He calls them “rains” and always says it with an exclamation point at the end. We gave him a big new bucket of Duplo and he also got to pick out a couple new engines (Percy and Toby) and new track for the train collection.
We packed up most of our stuff and moved to an AirBnB. It’s nice to still be close to Alex’s family, but good for all of us to be settled into a more regular routine. Our place is about a 15-minute drive from the city center in a neighborhood that was built in the 1930’s and 40’s. The area is close to businesses and parks, but is also surprisingly quiet. We are enjoying it a lot. We walked up to Tower Grove Park for the Farmer’s Market and reveled in the perfect autumn day.
We also got to take the boys on a special outing on Friday. We took them to get a bite of dinner, then we had tickets to the train store’s special play night. They each got to choose a new engine or car for their train set and then they played upstairs in the birthday party area for almost 2 solid hours. They had so much fun and they were so good about sharing the space with other kids and taking turns. It was really cute to watch them play and build.
We also took a drive just south of the city to Jefferson Barracks park for another autumn walk. There is also an Italian-American neighborhood called The Hill that we visited for an outstanding dinner one night. That’s about it for now. Hope you have a fantastic week!
Paradise
Happy October! We hope you are enjoying this beautiful time of year! Some people dream of paradise on a quiet tropical beach, listening to the surf with a drink in hand. Not this girl! Give me mountains, especially drenched in autumn color, bursting with new spring leaves, or covered in snow. We are spending October in one of our favorite places–Big Cottonwood Canyon just east of the Salt Lake Valley. We are loving the gorgeous golden aspen with the deep pine greens. Hiking is great and so is the smell of fresh forest! Nathan’s sister, Liz, and her husband, Christian, joined us one morning for a lovely hike through the woods. We got to experience a powerful thunderstorm and then a full day of snowfall. Our condo for the month is just right for us and we love having access to a pool, hot tubs, sauna, and workout facilities. We especially like that we can pop back to the valley to do some shopping or see family and friends. So far, so good!
Fun Family Time
We have had a lovely couple of weeks in Utah. We’ve been able to rest and recover from five months of travel, help Nathan’s mom at her house, and spend time with family.
Full Circle
Five months ago we flew to Rome from Utah. We had a summer of trying new places and experiences and revisiting old favorites and now we’re back where we started. Since we get the question a lot, I thought I would share some of our favorites from our travels in Europe this year.