an afternoon at mud island...7.25

after our fun trolley ride, we headed to mud island!

we rode the tram across the river to the island...

once we arrived on mud island, we immediately headed into the cafe to grab a snack!

then we headed to the river model to get soaking wet!!!

i didn't have a good grasp on how wet the kids would get...we didn't bring swimsuits!

little man sleeping in his stroller...

yes, drew sat down in the water. why not?!?

when drew, jake, and i caught up with big kids, they were swimming in the "gulf of mexico"...fully dressed. why not?!?

it was by far, one of the coolest things the kids have ever done (according to them!)...

walking back the trolley stop...all the kids were drenched! and so tired from playing so hard all day!!!

carriages and chicken and trolleys, oh my!...7.25

when we walked outside from the peabody, we were about to walk across the street to eat lunch, but fun daddy saw a horse drawn carriage sitting there...and asked the kiddos if they wanted to ride in it! what do you think the kids said?!?

we decided to take the carriage a few blocks to gus's famous fried chicken for our lunch...

we all pigged out on the greasy yumminess...

then we decided to walk down to the riverfront to catch the trolley to get to our next destination...

we got a few cute pics of the kids while we waited...and waited...and waited for a trolley!

sweet baby jake was a champ during all our escapades around down town...

all smiles on the trolley...

we finally made it to our next stop...

a visit to the peabody...7.25

we headed out bright and early on saturday morning to spend the day in downtown memphis...

i hadn't been to the peabody hotel in years and none of my kids had ever been...so we were off to see the ducks!!!

the kids were so excited about seeing ducks inside! they totally thought we were kidding when we told them what we were about to see...

and there were the ducks! quite impressive to our gang of kiddos!

after the ceremony, we hung out for a little while to snap a few more pics...

when the kids were sufficiently wound up, we headed out for our next adventure...

party time!...7.24

every year, my roommate from freshman year of college, rachel and her sweet family gets together with our family for a little vacation...so far, our rule has been that the family who has the youngest baby gets to stay in their city and the other family comes to them...that has resulted in us going to st. louis for the past 2 summers. but, this year, since we had the littlest baby, the yosts came to memphis!!!

their youngest norah, got a kick out of baby jacob...and he didn't mind being fed either :)

since we were still enjoying the company of aunt jodie and julie, we decided to make a party of it at our house. my parents, aunt jodie, julie, and the york families came over to greet and visit with the yosts upon their arrival...

the kids all played together like they see each other every day...

a GREAT picture of aunt jodie, baby jacob, and julie...

an attempt at a family picture...(jake was already asleep and sarah and drew SHOULD have been...they were delirious!)

we were all so excited to begin our visit with our favorite st. louis residents :)

last day of SEGA gym camp...7.24

on the last day of sarah and drew's gymnastics camp, they had quite the crowd to cheer them on! aunt jodie and julie were in town from texas!!!

mimi gave the kids a quarter each so they could get a gumball. they had been begging for a gumball ALL WEEK. of course, mimi saved the day :)

don't they all look absolutely exhausted? naptime at the woodard house was good that week...

thumbs up all around for a fun week of camp!!!