Goodbye St. Louis

It was time to head home! After breakfast with GG, Aunt Jean, and Uncle Roy the kids were ready to go. Ethan quickly settled in for a nice long nap.

Taste of St. Louis

This afternoon we headed downtown to the Taste of St. Louis. It was such fun to explore and see downtown. Patrick was in heaven while enjoying a smoked turkey leg.

After sampling all sorts of food, Patrick and Timmy stop and play with the infamous BIGFOOT!

If This Sink Could Talk

After a fun-filled afternoon downtown, the twins needed to clean up for an evening with their Great-Aunts, Uncles, and plethro of cousins on the Barker side of the family. So the twins got to take a bath in their GG's sink just like their Dad, uncles, and cousin George. They each got to take a toy with them and the balls that their GG and Aunt Jean gave them were on the top of the list!

An Evening With The Barker's

We ended a fabulous day at Patrick's Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jim's house for a Barker family dinner. The kids had a blast. Ethan and Uncle Timmy enjoyed some time playing in the yard. Then the kids and I went into the pool house to watch their cousins swim and chat with their other cousin Jennifer and Alicia.

Aunt Kathy and Uncle Don were there along with their other cousins Ana, Sofia, Michael, Elle, Maggie, Peter, and Nick.

We had a great meal, enjoyed everyone's company, and were sad when it was time to leave. On the way back to GG's we all agreed that we need to visit more often, time goes too quickly!

A Day With GG (great-grandma)

We had a fun day with the twin's GG. The twin's Aunt Jean came over in the afternoon and their Uncle Roy joined everyone a little later. The day was full of adventure and they loved playing on GG's floor.

Safety Gates Are A Must!

Today Elaine crawled for the first time! Get those safety gates ready, she's on the loose!

Ethan is sitting up so well but as for crawling, he's happy getting it done the horror movie way! I say this because it reminds me of those horror movies where the ghoul drags themselves across the floor....creepy! :)

Meet Me in St. Louis!

Today we left for St. Louis to visit the Barker/Padberg family. Aunt Melissa and Uncle Timmy joined us so we rented a minivan to fit everyone in one car.

The trip went really well. About half way there we stopped for a rest.



Ethan and Elaine were really excited to get out of their seats and pretend to be big kids for a few minutes while the adults took turns stretching their legs.

Good Food

The twin's cousins had a great time feeding. Jake even wanted to feed Elaine over Ethan.

Swingers

Saturday night Aunt Jamie took the kids to give us a break andlet us go out with friends to Octoberfest. The kids had a great night with everyone. On Sunday they played outside and had their first experience on a swing. As you can see they liked it a lot.

Clean and Happy

Just a few pics from a bath night.

Blackout 2008- Day 4

This morning we woke up and looked at the clock....nothing! I almost lost it. I managed to get ready for work by candlelight.

On my way home from work, I heard on the radio that Duke expected to restore energy to 80% of their customers by the end of the day. I wished and wished the rest of the way.

I got home and saw the clock on the stove and microwave blinking!...sweet Jesus we have electricity. Here is a few photos I took of myself starting the dishwasher, yeah no more washing bottles by hand!

Blackout 2008 Day- 3

We woke up this morning and quickly looked at the clock..no go, still out! Last night at Melissa and Timmy's I saw that my school was still closed. Patrick's office regained electric that night, so he had to go into work. This left me to head down to Children't Hospital alone to get Ethan tested for whopping cough.

Once I checked him in they immediately handed me a mask to put on him. Seriously, how is a 7 month old going to react to a mak on their face? As you can see...NOT well!

I got him out of his car seat and he quickly fell asleep. He slept for a good 15 minutes and woke up shortly after we were brought into the testing room. Once he awoke with the mask he was fine! He wasn't a big fan of the test, but they did it quickly and he only cried for a few seconds.

Here Come The Refugees

Once again good fortune follows us...we were invited to The Heubi's for dinner. It was delicious and way better than any restaurant. The kids had fun playing on the floor. Elaine found more than enough enjoyment in sliding under the chair.

Blackout 2008-Day 2

Well, we woke up this morning and still...no electricity. I turned my phone on (I had to turn it off because I only had 1 bar on my battery) and called in sick. It was then that I found out that school had been called off! Patrick's office was without power too. So we slept a bit longer and got up to survey the damage to the yard/house. Luckily no damage to the house, just a lot of yard clean up. We were definitely the worst in the neighborhood in the yard mess catagory.

We got the kids fed and dressed...first time they ever wore sweeaters! Aren't they cute! I love the munchkin hoods. We got outside and started to clean everything up. Later in the afternoon we went to Aunt Melissa and Uncle Timmy's to grab their chainsaw and bring over our freezer goods. (obviously they have electricity) It was a madhouse! There were lines down the street to get into the grocery store and people were almost ramming each other in line to get gas! Not sure why they were going to the grocery, where were they going to put the food?!

We of course took special effort to save the most important staple in our fridge! :)

By 3:30 we had our yard back in order and all the branches, sticks, leaves, and logs piled on the side of the road for the cleanup crews to come.

Strength in Numbers...plus a free HOT meal

We had to go to the doctor because Ethan's cough is back! I really need a night of straight sleep. She seems to think they are just passing the cold back and forth so she prescribed a stronger antibiotic. She also wanted to be cautious and ordered a whopping cough test because there is a small outbreak going on right now.

After the visit, we headed over to Aunt Melissa and Uncle Timmy's to help them. They had a lot of big branches and part of a tree down too. The kids stayed inside COMPLETELY content watching tv and playing.



Once we got the yard halfway decent, everyone headed in and enjoyed showers AND hairdryers! I felt a little more human. Melissa heated up some pizza and fries. We relaxed on the tv room floor with the kids and watched some Monday night football, charged our cell phones, and froze ice packs inorder to keep Elaine's antibiotic cold. We got home with hopes of electricty, but no luck. We were smart enough to leave a flashlight next to the door so we took the kids upstairs to bed and layed down right after them.

Blackout 2008- Day 1

This is what the kids and I came back to after our CRAZY drive home. We were met with winds up to 75mph when we got south of Dayton. By the time I got to Cincy, signs on the highway were flying off and we actually drove through a small dust storm. It was freaky. I am so glad I drove my sleek high performance sports-like car (this is a joke between Patrick and me) rather than Patrick's box-like Jeep.

The pictures aren't the best angle, the top picture shows a branch 15-20 feet long and 8in diameter hanging off the electric lines (still is as of 9/19). The second picture shows a few branches, 6-12in diameter) that ripped off the tree. We had branches EVERYWHERE! Around 3-4pm we lost power. We stayed indoors until the wind stopped around 6pm. We then headed out to find a place was open. Man, was that an adventure. Almost the entire city was wiped out of electricity. We found a section of Hyde Park and waited for AN HOUR for SUB sandwiches! Everyone was laughing and giggling until they heard that over 500,000 people were blacked out and they were estimating it could take days to come back on...later it was extended to a week.

We came home, lit some candles, ate our subs, played with the kids, and then went to bed with dreams of electricity.

Heading Home

Hanging at the Dock of the Lake

After an afternoon nap with the kids, we took advantage of the break in weather and hung out on the dock for a bit.

The twins enjoyed watching the water and dipping their feet.
Elaine was all smiles for the clearing in the weather and Ethan was proud to show us his new ablility to sit up with minimal assistance.

A Morning of Adventures

Lizzy helped me feed the twins at 5am...thanks Liz! This morning the kids enjoyed some playtime on the floor. It rained until noon. Liz and I watched a "chick flick" and relaxed.

Once the rain let up we headed into town for some lunch and "The Frog". Ethan had to show everyone his ablility to sit like a big boy in a high chair.

After lunch we headed to the grocery store for dinner supplies. Liz got a sneak peek into our everday lives when she was mobbed by people wanting to look, touch, and talk about the babies the minute we walked into the door. This is her smile of "Why are people such nosey freaks!?" right after the initial excitement wore down and we were able to move along in the store.

Getting Settled

We made it! It is normally a 4hr20min drive (according to mapquest). It took us just under 5hrs. That was with stopping for dinner and then for gas. There was absolutely NO breakdowns from the twins. It was a great trip....minus the constant rain during the second half.

The kids got in their pj's and played on the floor a bit while I unpacked everything and made their final bottles.

PS. With all the toys I lugged up, they couldn't get enough of the wipes container...go figure!

First Road Trip Alone

Today the kids and I left for our first semi-long (5 hrs) road trip alone. Patrick stayed home and worked on the house. The twins and I headed up for Lizzy's parents' lake house in Syracuse, IN.

We stopped about half way to have dinner. I was really freaked about how this would go. Like a mirage in the desert, a sign for Panera showed up when I was looking to stop! It was great! We set up camp in the back corner near an outlet. I fed the kids while their bottles warmed.

To make it even more memorable, this was the first time they ate in high chairs! Ethan loved it, Elaine grew unhappy after a few minutes and finished the meal on my lap!

Here is a picture of Ethan watching Elaine enjoy the life of leisure.

Happy Birthday Aunt Melissa!

Tonight we went to Aunt Melissa and Uncle Timmy's house to celebrate her birthday. Some other friends from college came with their kids.

Patrick and Uncle Timmy took some time away from the grill to give the kids some TLC.

Aunt Melissa gets some birthday love from Ethan.

Elaine plays through the screen with Leslie and Brandon's daughter, Isabel.