Fourth of July

Even though we had been in Missouri for less than a week and Scott had to be at work the next day, we decided to take a break from unpacking on the Fourth of July and go check out the sights & sounds downtown.

One thing we've loved the most about St. Louis so far has been the parks. The city (and the little cities in the suburbs where we live) work hard to keep the parks clean and safe and beautiful. There are zillions of little parks all over the place and also some pretty amazing big ones. Our first taste was the Jefferson Expansion Memorial park, also known as the home of the Gateway Arch.

Tree-lined paths...the shade sure was a nice break from the heat.

"Okay, Dad, let's go! I'm ready to see all the things!"

"Hmm. On second thought, I think I'll just take a nap."

We feel pretty cool to live in a city with a metro system. We've visited several big cities that have them, but St. Louis is the first place where we can ride like locals. It's not a very big system, but there's something about zipping around in underground trains that just makes Trax in Utah seem like chump change. We're lucky that we've got two stops within a 20-minute walk from our house--it makes getting downtown for big events super easy.

The arch viewed from the metro station

Hard to see, but that's the Mississippi seen from the
Metro. It was my first time seeing the river since we
got here!

Luke is a metro-riding champ. Makes it even more fun
that his fare is free :)

This is our closest metro stop. There are these weirdly
beautiful light sculptures hanging on both sides of
the platform that Luke loves to watch. 

St. Louis puts on quite the show for the Fourth. "Fair St. Louis" means 4 days of concerts, air shows, food, carnival rides, and fireworks, all under the arch. (Well, not totally under the arch--we kept hoping that the stunt pilots at the air show would fly through the arch, but despite getting close, none of them ever did.) The biggest show of all was the fireworks on the night of the Fourth.

We were a little apprehensive about taking Luke to see his first fireworks, but he LOVED them! He stared and stared and smiled his head off once they were done.

The one time in his life when there's something more
interesting to ogle than the camera. 

This face KILLS me! He looks scared, but he wasn't
fussing at all.

"Ooh! So pretty!"

The show was pretty impressive--certainly the longest one I've ever seen. Even though it finished really late, we decided to wait around for a while afterward in the hopes that the crowd would die down. I guess it did, but there were approximately 1.1 zillion people all trying to ride the metro, so it was crazy crowded anyway. We did get to cut to the front of the line, though, because strollers have to use the handicapped entrance. :-) Luke had quite the hissy fit on the ride home, but it had been a long, hot day and it was super late so I can't say I blame him. We were glad to be home that night, but also glad we got to see such a spectacle!

Just chillin' with dad after the show

Hooray for St. Louis!

Flashback: Moving to St. Louis

The very first adventure we had concerning St. Louis was just getting there. My parents are incredibly awesome and offered to drive our car out, so we lucky ducks got to fly instead of driving 1400 miles with a 3-month-old. Luke was pretty excited about his first flight:

The seat is so big and he is so tiny! (We held him,
of course.)

Besides watching all the people around him, Luke was pretty entertained for a while
with his squeaky puppy bib (it really squeaks if you squeeze it).

He was a little angel on both flights (we connected through Dallas, I think). We didn't pay for a seat for him, but we magically got a row to ourselves both times anyway: On one flight there were only 5 seats in a row, so we just picked seats on the 2-person side of the aisle; on the other flight, we booked the aisle and the window in the hopes that the middle seat would be the last one chosen by someone flying alone. Totally worked!

Daddy showing Luke the runway as we land 

Luke was a trooper about us unpacking, too. He was just barely getting old enough that he could entertain himself for a few minutes (he had just discovered his feet the week before), which made our work so much easier. I caught him talking to himself and the rabbit for a few minutes one day:

It's hard work laying around while everyone else unpacks, though.

Moving so far away from our friends and family (and the only state I've ever lived, in my case) has certainly been hard at times, but we are so spoiled to be in an awesome branch with lots of other BYU expatriates. More than a dozen people showed up to help us move all of our stuff in (which represents probably a third of the branch's active male membership!). Two days after we moved in, we were invited to an informal get-together hosted by a bunch of the ex-Utah folk. Everyone was (and has been since!) so kind & welcoming.

It took a good 3 weeks, but we finally got everything unpacked & all settled in. Just in case you're super curious, here's a choppy video tour of our new place.

Luke's First Foods

I had every intention of waiting until Luke's 6-month mark (3 days away! Holy cow!) to start solid foods, just like his pediatrician recommended, but Luke wanted to jump the gun. By the time he was about 5 months & a week old, he'd started screaming any time we ate in front of him, grabbing food off our plates, and he kept acting hungry after I'd fed him 8 or 9 times a day. Technically his first "solid" food has been a drop of ice cream off my finger once in a while just to see him giggle, but we really got into the thick of things once we got a real high chair a couple of weeks ago.



A lady in our branch gave us about a dozen jars of baby food that Luke has been plowing through like they're going out of style. He's a little garbage disposal. He'll eat 4 or 5 ounces of food at a sitting and then nurse for a full feeding right after. Since he's trying to eat me out of house and home already, I've been making baby food at home instead of forking over 50 cents or a buck at a time for a jar (which he'll devour in one sitting and ask for more). It's been super easy now that I've gotten the hang of it: I just dig up whatever vegetables Scott and I don't want to finish, boil the bejeebers out of 'em in a little bit of water, dump the whole pot into the blender, and then pour the blender goop into ice cube trays to freeze into little serving-sized cubes. I've stained all our white ice trays orange and green this way, but it's fun to see all the bags of colorful cubes lined up in the freezer. :-)

So far carrots, sweet potatoes, bananas, green beans, peaches, squash, mixed veggies (corn & broccoli), hummus, yogurt (I know, bad mommy), and applesauce have all been huge hits. Asparagus was a bust (go figure), and we haven't talked him into peas yet. Oh, and we went to California Pizza Kitchen last week and I let him suck on my pizza crusts...mom of the year award, I tell you. Next thing you know he'll be begging for french fries and fried chicken.