Every summer, I like to take some time to do a staycation with the kids so we can do some new (and old) things around St. Louis. Last year we had our staycation in May, right after school was out… but, since we went camping at Trout Lodge over Memorial Day weekend and we also went to Disney… I decided to do a staycation a couple of weeks prior to school starting. We kicked it off with our yearly summer trip to Tower Grove Park for their Saturday market and they also have a splash and wade pool and two playgrounds. We bought THREE little crates of different varities cherry tomatoes, here is Autumn with our yellow cherries.
Nathan remembered the honey sticks we had gotten the year before, so of course we let the kids pick out 5 honey sticks each.
It was REALLY crowded in the market, so it was hard for me to get photos of the kids with all of the people milling around. Here is Nathan with our second crate of blackberries. Don’t ask how much we spent on produce, we only do it once a summer so we went ALL out. I always love to buy my tomatoes from the Amish folks! They always have the best maters in my opinion! YUM!
After the market, we all got these delicious ice pops… the watermelon ones were just fresh watermelon, frozen… there was even a couple of seeds in Autumn’s that I had to help her get rid of… then Brian, Nathan and I had a blueberries and cream one. So good! There were some huge blueberries in mine. 
While we ate the ice pops, the kids played in a nearby tree and then Brian and I also got dessert crepes at a nearby food truck (this is the same crepe food truck that comes to my work sometimes- Holy Crepe). I got a nutella and banana crepe and Brian got a blueberry and orange crepe (he doesn’t like bananas), we shared them with the kids, too.
We then proceded to the splash and wade pool, which was still really nice and warm even though we are having really low temps in St. Louis for the end of July, upper 70’s and lower 80’s. What a funky summer this has been in terms of weather.
Nathan running to get into the pool… this boy has GROWN at least a half inch and has gained 5 lbs in the last 6 months! Unreal! The only thing we have changed is we have started giving him vitamins and it seems sense then he has really started to eat a lot more. So excited that my picky boy is finally eating a lot more! 🙂
Both kids under the main fountain. Not too bad, figuring it is next to impossible to get them to pose together.
I just love these two photos I took of Nathan in the water. It seems I get a lot more photos of Autumn these days and I am trying to get more of Nathan.
Oh, and here is a silly one of him floating.
Here is one of me and the kids… ehhh, at least I am smiling at the camera. Still love any photo of me and the kids, though. 🙂
And my toes
Autumn just had a blast in the splash area, last year she was a little nervous of it. She brought her floaties, even though she didn’t need them. But, the girl INSISTED we bring them Sigh. 🙂
I love how excited she looks in this first photo and in the second photo I love how the water looks falling around her.
A detail shot of her little curls floating in the water. So cute.
Her hair is getting SO long, I had her hair in piggy tails today and her hair up in piggies is just as long as my hair is down! I do want to get a trim in before school starts.
I usually buy Autumn’s swimsuits (and sometimes Nathan’s) a year ahead and I was just thinking it is probably time to buy her a couple of swimsuits from Gymboree since they usually mark them down right about now. I also want to start thinking about their special outfits for school photos. hmm.
A couple of playground pics… I LOVE this shot of Autumn on the swing, it looks like she is hanging upside down! Silly girl!
And, here I am having a slide race with Auttie.
Annnnd. Here are some photos of our produce that we took home. We enjoyed some of it on a wonderful picnic the next day at Elephant Rocks AND I hope to make a fresh batch of my favorite cold summer soup, gazpacho.
Blackberries and juicy peaches
We also got a HUGE watermelon that Brian cut up for the kids (and, well us!)
Then we went home and rested a bit… in the evening I got an itch to go for a walk with the kids. There is this trail RIGHT by our house along the Meramec river that Brian’s friend Kevin told me about over a year ago. Its a perfect running trail as its 2 miles one way and back, mostly shaded and a beautiful view of the river. I had yet to check it out as a running trail, BUT I thought it’d be fun to check it out with the kids first. So, out we went to find this hidden trail.
If you follow me on Instagram, you saw this photo of the kids once we spotted the river on our walk. They LOVED it and we will definitely be walking this trail a lot more with them in the future!
They loved seeing boats and jetski’s go by… the sounds and seeing the stir in the water/waves.
Not sure WHICH kid took this photo (we had to let them both take turns), but its not bad. 🙂
The kids loved playing by the river… such a good time. Can’t wait to run this trail with Brian sometime soon!
