Chester House Hunting

Scott and i had the chance to fly to St. Louis and then drive to Chester last weekend. The idea for the trip was to house hunt. Scott went in June on his own and saw quite a few houses. He narrowed it down to around three or four for the trip we would make together. Steve Hayes, the CEO of the Chester Hospital picked us up in our rental car. We then drove about 45 min to the town of Red Bud. Scott will also be working in this town but we are choosing to live in Chester. We met Connie, Steve's wife, for dinner at this amazing little Italian restaurant. The food was so good. The restaurant is in the downtown area and occupies an old opera house. It is the neatest little place and I know we will be frequenting it often. After dinner we drove to Chester and checked into the hotel. Saturday we slept in:). After a leisure filled morning we went to see Dr. Carr's house. As soon as we walked in I knew this was the house for us. It was absolutely beautiful and homey. I can really see us raising the kids there. Four bedrooms plus a guest suite upstairs, four full baths, two kitchens, three car garage, a shed in the basement (I say shed but really mean an enormous extra garage that can fit three cars end to end) and room to add on. I could go on and on but I won't. We really love this house and can't wait to move in. After spending a couple hours at the Carr's we met up with the realtor to see some houses. I made the appointment a while ago so I felt obligated to see the other houses even though I knew that I wanted the Carr's house. We saw two others that didn't even come close. I am already decorating the house in my mind:) The rest of the weekend was fun. We went to a BBQ at a friends house and went golfing on Sunday morning. Before we left town we stopped at the St.Louis Arch and went through the museum and saw the movie on how it was built. We didn't have time to go up in it. Some other day. I was very excited to get home to my kids. I missed them very much while we were gone.

Splash Pad

We have discovered a new park and we love it. It is part water and part playground. To help take the edge off of the heat we went up to the splash park in Powell. We got there just as it opened, 9am. We had the park to ourselves until just before 10. By 11 it was packed so we got some serious play time before it got crazy. The water was so enjoyable I even got in on it. The water fountains are so refreshing. Genevieve and Brenner spent most of the time playing in the water. Grisham didn't like it so he spent most of the time at the playground. He is crazy, it was soo hot out there and he just wanted to run around. I would of brought a lawn chair and set up shop right in the middle of the fountains if it was aloud. We found a perfect spot under the tree. Carolyn slept most of the time so I wanted a cool place for her to nap. After a couple hours we were all spent. Great naps were taken by all!

Catching Up

I am so sorry I have been off the blog lately. Partly due to laziness and frustrations with the computer. So it is now time to catch up on what we have been doing this summer. Father's Day Scott was on call for the first part of the day then after he got home from the hospital we had some friends over to grill. The kids and I got Scott a bike for Father's Day. A few weeks after we moved to Columbus Scott's two mountain bikes were stolen off our patio so it was about time I got a replacement for him. He is looking forward to riding his bike to work. We are going to get a couple trailers so we can go on bike rides as a family. Can't wait!!
To take break from the heat the kids and I made water balloons (Thanks Tamera). The balloons were really tough to break open. Genevieve discovered if she bit it they would pop. Grisham just tried trowing the balloon over and over until it popped:)
Fourth of July came around so fast this summer. This was the first time Scott has had the holiday of in four years so we wanted to do something fun. Scott is a HUGE fan of smoked meat. Last Father's Day I got him a little smoker but that bit the dust a few weeks ago so we got a bigger smoker, hopefully it will last longer. He started the smoker a little before 8am and the meat was on before 9. He was so worried that the meat would not turn out right. It cooked for over 9 hours. It was a labor of love. Not only was the smoker HOT but it was stinkin hot outside. Scot was constantly going out to check the meat and the temperature. Who knew it was that complicated to smoke meat. Apparently it is...Anyway some friends come over to help us consume the monstrous amount of meat. Our neighbors grand kids are in town for the summer so they have been spending some time over here playing. Gavin is a kindred spirit. Dirt+water=fun!! After dinner Scott got out the "fireworks" that we bought at Sam's club. They were all smoke bombs of sort. Except for the little poppers that you throw on the ground. A little after eight we packed up and went to the Hilliard fireworks. We were going to get close to the park but the traffic was a you know what and decided to park along the street. Great view and it didn't take long to get home. All three kids were exhausted. When we got home the neighbors were out shooting their own fireworks, of course Grisham perked right up and wanted to join. Now way, Man!! Mommy was ready for bed. It was a long day of fun:)