Yaeger Family Vacation... Volume Four

And now, for the last installment of the Yaeger Family Vacation.

Our last day in St. Louis we headed over to the St. Louis Zoo for a WILD time! The assortment of animals we were able to lay our eyes on was astounding. Of course, we enjoyed the zoo mostly through the eyes and ears of my nephew, George and his cousin Nick who is four. We visited the children's petting zoo where Grant went crazy over the guinea pigs and meerkats. It was an eventful day and Grant took a solid two hour nap in his stroller while we enjoyed the sights. Enjoy the pics from Grant's first zoo visit!

Grant excitedly reaching for the guinea pigs

George wants to share his goldfish with his new friends
Mom, "Can I take one home?"

Grant loved the llamas. I was too afraid to go near them, I thought they might spit on me!

George loved brushing this goats coat. After brushing him, he picked up rocks and threw them at the poor billy goat.

The rhinos were my favorite. I had no idea how massive this animal is!

Our little boy all tuckered out which made for a peaceful zoo visit for Mommy and Daddy

Our group heading towards the elephants

Tigers!

The penguins were adorable!

Family shot in front of the St. Louis Museum of Art's reflecting pool which just happens to be within walking distance of the zoo.

The Yaeger's had a wonderful family vacation and we were ever so thankful to fianlly be home after a LONG car ride the following Saturday. Ron and I both vowed to NEVER drive that far again with Grant. My little boy is the best but having a nine month in the car for 11 hours straight is enough to drive anyone temporarily insane and plus I just felt like a bad Mom. It was worth it though, our trip was a memorable one!

Nine

Grant turned nine months old on Tuesday and I cannot even fathom how quickly his first year is passing me by. It occured to me the other day that I will need to start planning a first birthday party! Grant is changing and becoming more independent every day. Here's the lowdown on our baby boy at nine months:

• Grant can feed himself puffs and cherios. He still does not have any teeth so I have to be careful with what I give him to eat. He gums everything before swallowing. That first tooth is being mighty stubborn!
• Instead of crawling, Grant rolls to where he wants to go. The other day I left him in my bedroom for a quick second, when I returned he had rolled into the bathroom! I think he might surpass crawling all together. He's great at putting one foot in front of the other when we hold his hands while he walks.
• He can stand supported and is beginning to cruise
• Grant can say Mama, Dada, byebye and loves to say nana and nene
• He's become very adament about what he wants. If he is playing with a certain toy or my cellphone (a great example) and I take it away he whines and cries until I give it back. Rotten!
• He reaches for and grabs everything in sight including my morning coffee mug, which I've spilled allover myself several times!

He is still the love of our lives and we are loving being Grant's parents!

He loves Gerber's Mac and Cheese!

This is the day Grant discovered Daddy's magnet collection!

Yaeger Family Vacation... Volume Three

Ron has been pretty pumped for some time about taking Grant to a Cardinals baseball game. We were lucky enough to attend one last Thursday against the Florida Marlins. A member of Ron's extended family is great friends with someone who works at the ballpark and he was able to lead us down on the field to take pictures. It was a pretty awesome experience and everyone around was looking at us like, "Who are these people that get to go on the field??!" The Cardinals pulled out a win that day and we were able to enjoy the game with minimal showers after fearing the worst of thunder storms. Enjoy the pics of Grant's first major league baseball game and my first Cardinal's game!

You can just see the St. Louis Arch peaking out behind the Budweiser sign on the scoreboard. St. Louis' downtown skyline is amazing!

Yaeger Family Vacation... Volume Two

We spent four days in Mozier, IL with Ron's Grandparents, (Jody's parents.) They are collector's of everything and always have the most unique things for us to do and play with. We all acted like big kids for the week and enjoyed sleeping in (when the kids allowed us) and eating a ton of GREAT food and ice cream every night after dinner.

The boys enjoyed playing on Grandpa's 1969 Ford Tractor

They also loved playing in and riding in this dune buggy that Ron's Grandad built in the 70's. It has a volkswagon engine and he built the exterior. The most interesting part is he used kitchen chairs for it's seats! It's a stick-shift and Ron's Mom taught me how to drive it later in the week!

Grant and Daddy on the tractor

Check out this fun car! Ron used to drive this in parades when he was a little boy!

George and Grant had the best time pretending to drive it!

Here we are returning from one of our excursions in the dune buggy

We found this turtle on our adventure, whom we named, "Calhoun." I made Ron turn around and go back and get it for George to play with during our stay. Don't worry, we returned "Calhoun" to his natural habitat the same day.

Daredevil Ron decided to take the plunge into the frigid temperatures of the creek. He said he felt like Bear Grylls on an adventure! I told him Bear Grylls would not have screamed like a girl upon entering the icy water!

Georged loved throwing rocks into the creek and I learned how to skip rocks!

I love my nephew, he is the sweetest and he loves his baby cousin whom he calls, "Gant"

I've never done this before but it was sooo much fun

We finished off the day with a baseball game of sorts.
Ron's Dad, Jim calls our gatherings, "Forced Family Fun" but I think every minute spent with my in-law family is a blast!

Yaeger Family Vacation... Volume One

Last Friday, Ron and I loaded up our car and headed towards Illinois. Home of the Yaeger clan and where Ron's family hails from. Ron's parents left their family behind when Ron was in first grade and moved to NC. An annual trip to visit family is a must for us and that was the plan as we set out on the 700 mile road trip. We ended up driving 5 hours friday night, (Grant did great and also enjoyed his new big boy carseat with all the extra room) and we finished up the trip driving an additional six hours Saturday morning. Boy, were we excited to arrive at his Grandmother's house and reach our destination! Ron's parents, sister and brother-in-law and our nephew, George also made the trip from NC and met us here on Saturday. We have had an eventful week and their is so much to report on I couldn't wait to get a post up about our trip. I was shocked upon arriving in IL when I realized that the weather here is much different than what I'm accustomed to in AL, temps in the 90's and has been so since March? Ummmmm... the temperature was in the 50's and it was raining. One, I did not bring any rain gear and two, I did not bring any warm clothes for Grant or myself! I brought a ton of bubbles and shorts and he hasn't worn any of them all week! Thank goodness Ron's sweet Grandmother, Betty made a trip to JCPenney and purchased Grant and George sweatshirts and overalls and they have worn the same outfits all week long!

We reunited with Ron's Aunts and Uncles, Cousins and their kids on Sunday for an unofficial family reunion at Ron's Grandparents barn in Belleview, IL. The barn is right beside a creek and all of the kids had the best time playing in the water all day. It was wonderful seeing all of Ron's family, they are the best and so much fun to be around. I'm truly lucky to have married into such a warm and welcoming family.

Grant was a trooper as we embarked on our trip. Yes, he is once again, traveling in his jammies!

What a sight and an annoyance... it's unbelieveable how much stuff you travel with once you have a baby. UGH! I DREAD the ride home this Saturday. We cooked out and enjoyed eachother's company, after all, we're lucky to see all these wonderful folks maybe twice a year!

Ron's sister, Mom and I with Grant and his cousin, Matylda

Grant met his cousins, Ella and Abby for the first time, I think he had a crush!

This was an impossible task. Getting all 11 Great-Grandchildren to line up in order from oldest to youngest. The oldest is 10 and Grant is the youngest at eight months. There are 6 girls and 5 boys and my sister-in-law, Lesley is expecting again! Ron's Grandmother, Vi, is one lucky lady to have such a big family. Grant was around for last year's pic, he was just in my belly. :)

Grant fit perfectly in the bucket to be on the end of the line for the group shot! Ron's other Grandmother, Betty bought all of the buckets for the kiddos to play with in the creek and they were a hit as you can tell in the above photo, one of the little boys, Nick was fighting for his cousin Kyle's bucket.

Informal group shot, the older cousins were such a big help with the babies.

They enjoyed throwing rocks, digging for treasures and of course, splashing eachother with water. By the way, the water was freezing! I have no idea how these kids could stand to play in it! I enjoyed soaking my very swollen feet in this same creek last year when I was seven months pregnant.

Grant and his cousin, Elise (Matylda's Mom)

My family of three

Ron's cousins and I, love you girls!!

Ron and his cousin, David

Much, much more to come! Stay tuned!