Girls Weekend

After our fun days at the lake, plus some time at dance camp, it was time to hit the road for Kylie's first big road trip. Wednesday morning my friend Crystal and her three kids stopped by to pick up Kylie and me for the drive to St. Louis (during which Kylie did awesome, by the way.) We ventured out to meet up with four more college friends and their eight children. Count it again...that's six temporarily single-moms and twelve (12!) children! Liz's in-laws are the epitome of welcoming as they opened their St. Charles home for all of us to stay and enjoy their lovely pool. It was the perfect setup since we were not adventurous enough to attempt outings with all of our little people. 

Birthday treats

The night we all arrived was spent having a mini celebration for Jacob's 2nd birthday, getting everyone settled in, and trying to catch up. Thursday dawned as a typical hot & humid St. Louis day - perfect for the pool and not much else. Which was exactly what we had planned on doing.

How we kept everyone entertained without ever needing to leave the house

Nora & Kylie - future Concordia roomies? 

Since college the six of us have made a point of getting together usually twice a year, however our last rendezvous was back in March of 2012, which was when I announced I was pregnant. Following that gathering five of us had babies between August 2012 and January 2013. Seeing as how we were preoccupied with said babies this trip, I have no pictures of all of us together, but I can show you this adorable dozen! 

Jacob, Eliya, Matthias, Miriam, Titus, Isaiah, Clara, Grant, Abbie
Kylie, Nora, Henry  

They all did a great job posing for a picture, but you just can't stop the silliness! 

The big kids (minus Isaiah) enjoying popsicles together after our picnic bbq

The aftermath of a 6 1/2 month old and baked beans

On Friday we lounged around the house and enjoyed the pool again before everyone had to head off their separate ways.

Great minds think alike

The forced friendships seem to be off to a very good start

Baby talk with Grant 

I discovered the coffee table made a lovely photo backdrop and snapped a few quick pictures during playtime. 

Kylie and I spent a couple extra days in St. Louis with the Dippold family, as it has been our tradition to get together at one of our houses the past couple of summers. Jessi's mom kindly drove from two hours away to watch Kylie and Henry on Saturday so my college roomie and I could relax with pedicures and lunch at Zia's On The Hill. It was a much-needed mommy break!  

July 2012 versus July 2013 

While this get-together was at times very chaotic and did not allow us a lot of time to chat, I realize we will only have our babies little for a short while. I am so thankful for these lifelong friends and the experiences we get to share. It will be exciting to see our kids together in the years to come, and at some gathering far in the future we will look back and reminisce about the time we did our "girls' weekend" with twelve little kids in tow!