Beckett's Summer Bucket List: St. Charles Food Trucks

St. Charles is awesome. I am so impressed with how lively this little town is. I know I've mentioned it before, but I and just really grateful to have moved to a town that I enjoy so much. It could have been so different!

St. Charles stays busy almost year around. There is always something to do. One of the fun activities they host from spring through fall is their Food Trucks. Every few weeks, the trucks gather, artists come out to play music, and there is fun to be had! Now, this event is probably particularly appealing to me because I. LOVE. FOOD. I especially love an opportunity to experience new foods from different places. Beckett is no different. He'll try anything you put in front of him.

Tonight we had a really great time with my brother & his family at the first Food Truck event of the season. It was a beautiful (although rather chilly) evening, and a perfect opportunity to just get out of the house (and not make dinner!).

All loaded up & ready to eat!

Beckett's first experience with Indian Cuisine. Samosas and Chole. YUM.

Ok. So while not very original, SUPER DELISH.

Staying entertained with our cousins!

Beckett's Summer Bucket List: Play with Bubbles!

Friday night we got to grill out with with Brittany, DJ, and crew. It was a beautiful evening to spend with the fam. Uncle B bought the kiddos red noses, which entertained them for a while. The kiddos also spent FOREVER playing with bubbles!
I feel like bubbles are standard springtime fun in the world of small children. There are very few things that I've seen Beckett get so giddy over. It is an absolute blast playing with bubbles with him and it will definitely be a regular part of our summer fun!

A STL Summer: Beckett's Bucket List 2015

T Minus 127 days until the anticipated arrival of Little Miss Charlie Grace!! We are super excited to welcome Hill baby #2 into the family, but we also plan on making the most of the time leading up to her arrival!

Beckett is at that fun & exciting (albeit exhausting for this preggo momma) age when he’s thrilled by opportunities to run his little legs and explore the world around him. The weather here has finally become enjoyable and we plan to make the most of it! This is Beckett’s last summer as an only child and his first summer as a toddler, so to celebrate he (and by he I mean I) decided we need a STL Summer Bucket List! We hope to hit as many of these as possible as we get to know our (relatively) new city and enjoy some Beckett time!

As always, in an effort to preserve our memories, we plan to document our adventures here! For each Bucket List item, I’ll post of a few of my favorite pics on individual posts and the rest will be in an album here:

Beckett's Summer Bucket List: Story Time at a Coffee Shop

This morning, we got to venture out to Jaycee Park. Avaya joined in for the fun. It’s so much fun watching these two together. Avaya likes to be the big cousin, but unfortunately for her, Beckett is heavier than she is! 

Daredevil Duo!

Hey, Buckett! Let me hold you!

Beckett is just thrilled with the fact that he can run around now. He gets such a kick out of working those little legs. He’s fearless on the equipment and intrigued by other kiddos. We are REALLY enjoying watching him learn and play!

Workin those (not so) little legs!

You go, girl!

"Well, if the big kids can do it..."

Woooaaahh...

Because Beckett still needs pretty close supervision on the big stuff, and because Avaya could spend the entire time on the swings but isn’t quite ready to swing herself yet, I don’t have the luxury of relaxing while the kiddos play. It’s a good opportunity for me to get a little bit of exercise, but after an hour or so running around after two toddlers, this pregnancy momma was worn out! So, we decided to head to a local coffee shop for their 11:00 story time.  I grabbed an ice coffee and the kiddos headed for their adorable little playroom. This coffee shop is seriously brilliant. A play room for kiddos and story time, plus a craft? That’s good business sense right there. Unfortunately, the timeline isn’t awesome for our duo. Beckett usually has lunch and nap time around 11 so he already on the verge of melting down when we got there. Also, our storyteller lady was adorable but seriously lacked enthusiasm in the story telling department. Our two lasted about .6 seconds and lost interest. The teacher in me was tempted to take over. (Just kidding). 

Perfectly timed photo… because they did NOT sit like this long.

Thanks to their adorable playroom, we lasted long enough for me to enjoy my coffee (20 minutes, tops), but then out we were again, off to pick up Eli from school. We probably won’t try that story time again anytime soon, but it would be a great place to meet up some stay at home momma friends earlier in the morning.

My iced coffee - favorite summer treat!

The Bridge Coffeehouse Playroom. BRILLIANT.

We ended the day with lunch together and dessert on the porch. It was a really great morning! :)

Popsicle time! And applesauce for the weirdo who doesn't like popsicles.

Say CHEESE!!! Beckett's first time responding to that "command." 

Beckett's Summer Bucket List: The St. Louis Zoo!

The very first item to get crossed off of Beckett’s Bucket List was the St. Louis Zoo! We got to bring along Eli & Avaya for this adventure and it was exhausting, but SO. MUCH. FUN! Brian pointed out that people probably thought we were crazy with 3 kids, four and under and another one obviously on the way. I’m ok with that.  We usually start our day at the zoo in the children’s area, but then spend so much time in there that we don’t get to see the rest of the zoo, so this time we started in the opposite direction! We tried to let the kids walk (and burn energy) as much as possible, but let me tell you – 3 littles going in 3 different directions will definitely make you consider those kid leashes! Beckett has been to the zoo several times before but this is the first time he REALLY paid attention to the animals. I think he stared at the monkeys the longest. They were so active and fun! 

Anaconda! 

The monkeys were definitely the most entertaining.

Just love. Love everything here.

There he goes again! On the run!

Our guide.

Here mom. Let me help. 

All 4 kiddos.

My Favorite B & D Story Ever

Recently we celebrated (and by celebrated I mean said, "Hey! It was 5 years ago today") our 5 year anniversary of being engaged. Today, I came across this gem of a story that I documented shortly after. This was before we had a blog, so I thought I would go ahead and add it for future reminiscing. 
So I give you: My Favorite B&D Story Ever February 13, 2010

Engagement Shot

I thought something was weird when Brian was incredibly nervous about giving me my Valentine’s Day gift. He's so not that guy. Saturday was cute though. Katie, Rachel, Jamie, and Haley were all there. We got up in the morning and all went for a 3.5 mile walk. Each of us had our own afternoon plans. Brian and I had dinner reservations at P.F. Changs and plans to watch the UK vs. UT game afterward at BWWs (which we won, of course - Go Blue!), but he had not told me the pre-dinner plans. Of course, I asked Brian my most consistent question in life: "What should I wear?" Usually he couldn't care less, so his job is to inform me what the activity will be, and then I get to decide the proper attire. Unfortunately, he didn't KNOW the activity. He kept saying that my gift would decide what we do. I kept thinking, "But YOU know what the gift IS!" Intrigued by the mysterious gift, I threw on sweats - my go-to outfit. During this time, Brian mentioned more than once that his gift was homemade. He wanted to open it in my room – because he was nervous about displaying his creative abilities for my roommate and Katie. I could tell he was slightly uncomfortable, but he also stated he thought he did well this time. You can imagine how intrigued I was; and fairly disappointed that I had chosen to buy him books about poop. He opened his poop books: What's Your Poop Tellin You? and What's My Pee Tellin Me?. Then I got to open my gifts! In the bag was a brand-new UK shirt. I knew I was getting it. It was the bribe for giving up my "Valentine's date night" to watch UK basketball with the boys. What he didn't know is that, to me, that's the perfect ending to an evening. I love B-Dubs during a good game. As I looked back in the bag, I found a jar and a card. Brian had me open the card first.  Inside the card was a folded piece of computer paper. I could feel Brian hovering nervously as I read it. It kinda made ME nervous that he was so obviously nervous. The top of the note was a paragraph of sweet-nothings. I'm a lucky one, girls. Following was an explanation of the Idea Jar - Brian's gift to me.

See, recently we had read a book called 52 Projects. I love it and would recommend it to all of you! It's a book of random and creative things to do. Most of them take less that a day - maybe just and hour or two. We had read the book on a road trip to St. Louis and decided we would work through the book together. In the note, Brian explained that as we read the book, he got the idea for our own idea jar. On the label to my jar is a inside joke/favorite quote from our relationship: "Hey, I've got an idea..."  He went on to explain that together, as we came up with random things we'd someday like to do, we would drop them into the idea jar. Then, we would pull them out as we have time. He had started us out by filling the jar with possibilities for the day. No wonder he couldn't tell me what to wear. The choices for the day were all things we [would] love to do or had discussed before: dog park, sidewalk chalk masterpiece, hand & foot, red box, make a crazy dessert, print pictures for an album of us, invent our own board game, go to Mardi Growl parade, and map out cities to someday visit in the USA. Even now I think about how well he knows me and how much I would LOVE to do any of those things.

I was so impressed at the thoughtfulness of the jar, and REALLY excited to pull it out and do a random activity for the day! He ended the note with, "I hope you pick the one you really, really want!!!" Well, I did pick the one I really, really want. I was already jittery with anticipation over our afternoon activity. I squirmed and giggled as I reached into the jar to decide our next step. I pulled out a piece of paper and IMMEDIATELY FLIPPED OUT. I don't think the words, "Get Engaged" even had time to fully register in my head before I was ATTACKING Brian on the floor. It's all a little fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure he was on his knee with the ring out. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh Oh my gosh. I was shaaaaaking from head to toe. OH MY GOSH! I can still hear myself squealing in between kisses. Poor guy. Wonder if I hurt him? Anyway, as I continued to attack, full force, he goes, "Well, can I ask you first?" Well of COURSE! So I convince myself to crawl off of him. HA. That didn't last long. He still didn't have time to ask before I started kissing him again. More squealing. Then I remember trying to stand up and telling him I had to call my mom before I realized that he STILL had not asked the question. Ok. Caaaalm down Denise. I sat on the kitchen floor - well kinda. I was more like bouncing on my butt on the kitchen floor - as he gave what I'm sure was a very wonderful little speech. I totally wasn't concentrating. I do remember watching my hands shake as he slipped my ROCK onto me left finger. This was the first time I'd slowed down enough to look at it. Perfect. It was PERFECT. I'm pretty sure I said that - in a few select, high-pitched words.

As soon as I had my ring, I ran through the house and jumped up and down. More squealing. I'm engaged! I'm going to marry my best friend. Holy cow, I can't breathe. My first phone call was to my mom. Of course she didn't answer the phone. I remember being REALLY frustrated. How could you NOT answer the phone after I just got ENGAGED! Ha. Eventually I got ahold of her and made a few more important calls. Just a few - so if you didn't get one - it's not cuz I don't totally love you. As I made calls, I jetted around the house, dancing and squealing and jumping and kissing. More squealing.  I'm engaged! I'm gonna marry BRIAN!!!

The next day at our church Sweetheart Banquet