2013/06/30

St. Louis take 2

Yeah so the daily thing proved to be too much for me after 8 1/2 hour of test review so here's what happened on day 2. As a side note I am blogging from my phone & do not know how to add in pictures in with text (or if that's even possible with the Blogger app) so they are all included at the end which makes the posting not as attractive or interesting but at least gets the memory down.

The big part of my day is summed up in the first picture. Major plus was they did serve good coffee (I had to have decaf but it was still yummy) & the class was uber helpful so even though I missed out on some fun with my loves I got a lot out of it.

Philip & Annie spent the time I was in class at the Magic House. This is was from their report and the pictures they took a fantastic place. It was a children's museum that had fairytale areas, imagination places, and all other sorts of great things for kids to do. Annie love love loved it. She got to work in the Oval Office, perform on stage, have a tea party with Raggedy Anne, ride in Cinderella'a carriage, spy on a mouse, & cook vegetables from a garden in a playhouse, along with many other fun activities. Philip got to enjoy watching her have so much fun.

That evening we went down to an older part of St. Louis on the river front that had cobblestone streets. We ate dinner here and wandered around the area. They had a neat wax museum that we didn't tour but lucky for us in the front window they had some Avengers and Annie to see her favorite the Hulk which in Annie-speak is "the Hunk." (L-K is a difficult letter combination for a 3 year-old tongue apparently.)

After this we took a carriage ride. Now before we had Annie, Philip nor I would've been caught dead on a cheesey carriage ride but Annie had pointed them out the day before & all through dinner kept seeing them & asking to ride on one so we swallowed our pride & went. It was great & money well spent. Saying she loved it is an understatement. She kept pointing things out the whole ride (including one moment where she pointed at a large man without a shirt on & said "that's funny" & he was only about 2 feet from our open carriage) & waving & smiling at everyone we passed. "We're just like Sophia the First." Which clearly indicated she felt like a princess & how much she liked it since that show is one of her favorites.

After that we went swimming in the hotel pool which did not, contrary to the Mayo Clinic's website, help with ankle swelling that occurs with pregnancy that I have become a victim of. Annie had fun though & slept well so day 2 was successful & good for us all.

Enjoy a recap in pics by Philip who is quite the iPhone photographer!













2013/06/28

Meet me in St. Louis

The Norwood 3 are in St. Louis for the next few days. What brought us to the gateway to the west? I have a class I'm taking to prepare me for my certification test & since all of us are always up for any trip somewhere (even if it's just to Walmart) Philip & Annie joined me.

(As is common I'm behind on blogging our trip to CO that was about 4 weeks ago so hopefully I will catch that up next week. This time I'm going to try & do it as we go...)

What fun we've had in the short time we been here! Yesterday we road tripped most of the morning & after checking into our hotel we headed to the Jefferson Expansion Monument (aka The Gateway Arch). Here we rode on a riverboat down a short stretch of the Mississippi River because Annie has been asking to go on a boat, Philip is a former sailor, & well, why not? We then rode one of the tiny tram cars that resemble the pods the Jettsons use to send their kids to school in up to the top of the arch. Annie got past her initial fear of the teeny tiny space & enjoyed the ride up "This is such a fun ride!" but seemed to love looking out the tiny finger-printed windows at the top of the arch the most "Look! We are in the tallest building!" Now, Annie has a tendency to exaggerate at times (she once said we were in the tallest building in the world & it was actually a seven story hotel in Amarillo) & I don't know WHERE IN THE WORLD she gets it from but this time she was correct as the Gateway Arch is the tallest structure in St. Louis. We could've pointed out that she has been in the Willis Tower in Chicago twice but really does she need her two very literal parents to steal all her joy? I had experienced this once before 16 years ago on a family vacation & thoroughly enjoyed myself but like most things in life as a parent it's so much better to see your child excited & experiencing something.

Afterwards we retreated to our hotel. The hotel is worth mentioning because of the pure happiness Annie enjoys just staying in a hotel. In her short life she has stayed at many & she absolutely LOVES staying in one. We were fortunate to get a suite so she has a bedroom & a living area which means more doors & drawers to open & close and put her belongings in. She packed her rolling suitcase, courtesy of Nana & Pa, with dolls & their accessories so she was busy finding places for everything & moving it around way past her bedtime. In addition to this one of the buildings we can see from our window is lit up like a rainbow on top at night. This is really a delight & sleep deterrent to a 3 year-old girl.

I'm happy to report she did finally fall asleep & even though we had her up early to begin a day of fun the lack of sleep will be well compensated for by the activities she'll do today.

Now enjoy some pics courtesy of Philip & his mad iPhone/Instagram skills.







2013/06/10

Philip Norwood, CPA

So very proud of this guy's hard work - Philip found out this morning he's passed his final CPA exam. Yes, he still has the ethics stuff & hours to get done but the largest hurdle by far is passed.

Way to go Philip - Annie & I are tickled pink for you!

Followers