Family Pictures

Before we went to FL we had family pictures done... and here they are! One of the girls I was friends with in high school is now a photographer, and a damn good one at that. She used to be a speech pathologist before she had her adorable little boy, and now she uses her awesome kid skills from behind the camera. If you want to stalk her, you know you do! Visit her WEBSITE or her BLOG or her NEWBORN BLOG or her FACEBOOK PAGE... Thanks Emily Lucarz Photography for our new family pics, here are some of the ones we were given. It's SO hard to narrow down, she took awesome shots...




This one melts my heart


The boys were against the arch in these pics

Riverfront

On the steps near the arch

And, I can't narrow these down at all...

Clark's been a big kisser lately

And gives the BEST hugs

Sauce faces

Dex looks like a little angel here

Dexter's Turn

My final post about Grandma & Grandpa's time in STL. We tried to take Dexter to the pumpkin patch while Clark was in school one day, since he missed out when Clark went on his field trip. BUT, of course they were closed on Mondays (and for some reason I missed that when I looked up their hours). Oops. Thankfully there were some sweet workers on the farm that saw Dexter's sad little face and let us come in and play for a little while. Needless to say we'll be back again this season. We went several times last year (fun, cheap play date!) but that customer service solidified them as my favorite pumpkin patch in STL. If you're in STL want to check out their site CLICK HERE.

Dex couldn't get enough of the slide and the giant tire swing. He was all giggles the entire time.

And then we headed over to the Science Center to check out the big dinosaurs. I didn't want take advantage of the pumpkin patch's kindness and spend all morning there :)

Dexter does a lot of pulling on me throughout the day- he LOVES being held.

And just in case I only post pics of him smiling, he does this a lot too, haha. At least he has a cute cry face. This is him refusing to get off the ground, since he wanted me to go pick him up... again.

Rock n Roll Saint Louis Marathon

Yesterday morning I ran my second full marathon, barely. I was exhausted from shooting a wedding the day before, and generally not feeling tip top. But I crossed that finish line and had a great time jogging through all the south city neighborhoods. It was a super fun (and hilly!) course. I mentored a team of almost 90 people through Team in Training and here's a team picture in our hotel the morning of the race...

The start line... 22,000 runners setting out on their journey.

There was great crowd support along the way- and I was cracking up when I saw the mimes "cheering"

At mile 6, I ran past Rebecca & Jeremy's street. BONUS!

I was sooo tempted to head to the left... but kept going right. This street goes right into the park by our house. The course went one block away from our house (another temptation at mile 22 :)

Mile 16... I got to see my boys. LOVE! It was the first time they've seen me out running on a course. I sat down for some snuggles, and rested my legs. It was super hard to get back up, haha.

But the boys took off on the course "running with mommy" and I had to chase them down :) We were in Carondelet Park here, it's right by our gym. I swear I didn't come in last, although the course looks EMPTY in this picture.

And at the Grand and Russell intersection... Parkway West cheerleaders, hilarious, since that's where Michele (one of my running buddies) and I went to High School!

I laughed when I saw this sign... it seemed pretty sick and wrong. 5ks are long enough, right? 40k?!? This is Lafayette Square, Mile 23, and we ran right past my office. FUN!

And right before crossing the finish line...

And, post race near our cars... finally. Kind of tough finishing 26.2 and then having to walk another 10 blocks to the car, haha. I was SO tired! And sadly, Rich had to fly out to Phoenix while I was running so I didn't get to see him after... and have been flying solo with the boys since the race on sore legs... but I don't feel as bad as I thought I would, which is a huge bonus!

Pumpkin Patch Awesomeness

While Grandma & Grandpa were visiting Saint Louis we took the kids to the apple orchard to pick some apples... the weather was amazing (and even on the hot side) and the kids had so much fun! HERE is a link to the rest of the pictures- of course I took way too many of them!

the three musketeers- Clark, Dexter & Gabi

Rebecca, Jeremy and Gabi

Peek-a-boo!

Dex was super down with the camel

BIG jump!

And the boys got to ride a camel and some horses. They haven't stopped talking about it since then.

We picked a TON of apples, and made some hot apple crisp with them.