city garden Archives - Raising Roberts

Blog, city garden, Family, kids, pregnancy, st. louis, vacation

summer nights in the city

This summer I have been avoiding the heat as much as possible. While it’s nice to stay indoors, it’s not so nice to stay indoors with 5 kids who have suctioned out every bit of my energy. My body is really starting to feel like I’m 5 weeks away from having a baby. Meanwhile, the kids are building up more energy by the day. If I could bottle up even an ounce of their energy, I think that would last me for the rest of my pregnancy and beyond.

My favorite compromise continues to be an evening trip to the Citygarden. We tried to go a couple of weeks ago on Don’s weekend. We had made it all the way up to the city and then we saw the multitudes of people in their Cardinal’s attire, heading to the game. All those fans decided to fill up every single parking space within a few blocks of the Citygarden. Let’s just say I wasn’t too happy with Cardinal’s fans at that moment. We ended up hitting up a park by our house instead.

We learned our lesson the next time around and checked the Cardinal’s schedule before heading up. Instead of parking issues, this time ended up being a cooler evening–in the 70s. So instead of herding 5 kids down multiple blocks in downtown St. Louis at night, we just had shivering kids with blue lips. I’d still say that’s a better outcome. The best part is that we had the place to ourselves pretty soon after we got there!

I’ve mentioned it before but we always go in the evening because 1) you don’t melt from the heat, 2) less crowds, 3) better lighting for pictures, and 4) the colored fountains at sunset. And nothing is better than to take your kids somewhere and be able to sit down and relax while they all play (without any fighting!!) If we can make it up there again before the baby is here, I will so take that chance.

Although, there was this small incident when Kai sprayed Liam and you can see that he wasn’t too thrilled. Does it make me a bad mom if I was cracking up at this moment? Especially at the fact that I caught his reaction on camera?

Desmond wasn’t so sure of the fountains at first. He sat on his daddy’s lap and in the stroller for a good chunk of time before he got down and experienced the joy of running close to the fountains. But if even a drop of water touched him (or he thought it was going to) he would run back to us.

We spent a solid 10-15 minutes watching big swarms of birds flying above us and around the buildings. Evangeline was positive that they were all “looking for their mommy.”

Liam wanted me to go with him to check out the “sunflowers,” as he called them. Liam’s photography skills definitely surpass anything I was able to do at 8 years old (and even still at 28!)

Those lights, though! Pictures don’t do it justice, especially with me behind the camera. Maybe with another trip and some more practice.

P.S. Because it’s worth mentioning again–5(ish) more weeks until we meet our precious baby girl!

August 31, 2016

Blog, city garden, Family, st. louis, summer

St. Louis night life

That blog title drew you in, didn’t it? Well, if you have kids and you’re looking for something fun to do in St. Louis, maybe it will be relevant.

I should be a spokesperson for the Citygarden. The two times we’ve visited this year have been two of my favorite outings with the kids. This time I really wanted to be there after the sun set so we could also see the fountains all lit up.

We got there a couple of hours before sunset so we could swim in the pools. The splash pad was pretty crowded when we got there but was pretty much cleared out by the time the pool closed at 8.
(the only pool open that night was a pool for kids 5 and under. If you are wanting to swim in the other one, you may want to check to see if it’ll be open)

this kind of has an Olympic gold medalist vibe, eh?

If you ignore the fact that my arm kind of looks like a nub, I sort of love this picture of Evangeline saying “hi” to Kingston.

boy watching colorful lights at city garden

Also ignore the giant water spot on my stomach, left by a little girl who shall not be named 😉 I really wanted a shot with the fountains. But I think there was some sign posted somewhere that stated “if you see this family trying to take a picture, do whatever is necessary to photobomb it.”
We had almost the whole place to ourselves at this point. But there always happened to be oblivious kids jumping in all of our shots.

Even though we had been playing there for 2 hours already, the boys went crazy once the lights were more apparent. Liam declared it “so much more fun than playing video games.” How’s that for a review?

The darker it got, the harder it was to photograph. So you’ll just have to trust me when I say how awesome it is at night. The kids said they had even more fun than our last visit–which of course made me decide that we have to visit one more time before this baby is born. And of course, after he makes his appearance.

And that appearance? Hopefully that will promptly follow my best friend’s wedding on July 4th. The weeks leading up to the wedding will be filled with many events, extreme nesting, and a waddling pregnant woman with rapidly dying brain cells.
Thanks for reading along 🙂

June 12, 2015