More Nomad Life... in St. Louis!

Around Halloween, we spent some time in St. Louis. We attended my a Harvest Party at my parent's church and it brought back a lot of memories growing up and going there for Harvest Party myself! Boone actually wore a dinosaur costume I wore when I was two years old and my mom made it, so it has held up really well! Boone had a blast playing all the games and he didn't really get the whole candy thing yet, so the games were really the fun part for him.

Sharing candy with Dora.

He loved the bounce house they had set up for the younger kiddos.

And he loved the big bounce house with the slide. He must have gone on it 10 times.

Look at that face!

Boone with his Uncle John and John's girlfriend, Katie. It was such a warm weekend in St. Louis and Boone was sweating in his costume.

Playing golf

Checking out the petting zoo

All tired and ready to head home to Nana and Papa's house.

A week later, we trick-or-treated on actual Halloween. It was quite a bit colder than the weekend before, so the dinosaur costume worked out a bit better.

At Creve Coeur city hall for their trunk or treat.

Hanging out with the police.

We stopped at the Younkins for trick-or-treating. Boone was their only visitor!

Later that weekend, our former neighbor Johan came to visit. Him and his family used to live next door until they moved back to South Africa (where they were originally from.) It was so great to see him, we missed seeing his wife and girls though.

I jumped in a picture too!

Johan in front of his old house. Lots of good memories with his family!

Boone and Uncle John. I thought this was a good picture!

Happy Halloween!... only 4 months late :)

Colorado Kiewit Family Day 2014

I'm so behind in blogging, so these next couple of posts are going to be from several months ago! 

Back in July, Jeff's work held a Cherokee Combined Cycle Power Plant Family Day/ Open House. Jeff's company usually does open houses towards the end of projects so that families can come check out the project and see what has been going on at their family member's work. I've really enjoyed the family days in the past and I was really excited to take Boone to the construction site since he loves ALL things construction.

Part of the construction site

Checking out the big machines

Safety banners are all over the site

The black piping is the pipe Jeff worked on.

Aww... I liked this banner!

Getting some lunch. It was pretty warm that day and the building they had tables set up in had no circulation, so we were all pretty warm.

Wearing his Kiewit sunglasses and enjoying some cotton candy. They had several snacks and games for kids to enjoy.

Boone trying out the excavator.

He loved it!

Boone and his buddy, Renner, checking out the crane.

It is always fun to see the projects where Jeff works so many hours. We are so proud of the work he does and Boone thinks Dad is pretty amazing with all the cool machines he works around every day. We had a great day at the Family Day! I always say that the Kiewit life isn't just a job for Jeff, but it is a lifestyle for our whole family, so these kind of days mean a lot to us!

Vacation Part 1: Traveling, Chattanooga, and getting to Hilton Head

For the first time since our honeymoon, we planned a vacation, flew to a location far away from where we live and spent a whole week there. Jeff and I joke that we don't take vacations, we just move, but that really has been how our lives have looked the last five years. We have been blessed to move often enough that we always have something new to check out within driving distance to our home. But, when a wedding invitation of a friend from Tennessee came in the mail back in February, we decided to spend a little extra time after the wedding and head to the beach. Ever since we moved to Canada, I have been begging Jeff to take me to the beach, so when we finally booked a trip to spend a week in Hilton Head Island, SC, I was beyond excited.

We flew into Atlanta for our trip. Our friend, Ashley, lives there and was actually flying to St. Louis the same day. It was great to see her and eat lunch with her for a bit.

The wedding we were attending was in Chattanooga, so we arranged with our friends Matt and Jaclyn, who live outside of Nashville, to meet up Friday night, before the wedding on Saturday. It was so great to see them! Before our trip, Jaclyn and I were joking about staying at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, which is a hotel in the city that has actual train cars you can sleep in. We went through Priceline to get a hidden deal and funny enough, we ended up getting rooms at the Chattanooga Choo Choo! No train car rooms for us, but we walked around and checked them out.

All the car rooms outside. They didn't look too big, but we never got to see one inside.

Boone is big on the word "choo choo!" so he was saying it all the time!

Burning some energy after a 3 hour plane ride and 2 hour car ride! 

Boone was such a trooper the whole trip. He slept in 4 different places in a 

week and it didn't even phase him.

It was so fun to take Boone to Tennessee! So many good memories from that state.

This kid is obsessed with trucks, trains and cars. Obsessed.

A little Choo Choo history.

My guys.

There were nice gardens in the courtyard. I wouldn't say it is the nicest hotel, 

but with the deal we got, it was worth the experience.

The crew, which I now affectionately call The RoBeatys.

Downtown near the waterfront in Chattanooga.

Riding the free trolley through Chattanooga on Saturday morning. Matt and Jeff went to a local power plant to tour the area and we checked out a local market.

Before we headed to the wedding, we ate a delicious lunch at Mellow Mushroom! 

It's one of the many restaurants we miss from the south. It is so delicious.

Our wonderful small group from Tennessee. Miss these people so much. What a wonderful group! Congrats Bryan!

Boone fit right in with the boys from the group. Jonathan (on the far right) and 

Boone have both been born since we left Tennessee. 

Sunday morning we headed out towards Hilton Head. Boone enjoyed a little snack from the wedding. They gave out Moonpies as favors and he was a big fan.

Once we reached Hilton Head Island, it was about dinner time, so we all hopped on our bikes and rode to a local restaurant called Hot Mama's Bar-B-Que. It was delicious! And I absolutely loved our first bike ride. We were staying in the Sea Pines area of Hilton Head and it was gorgeous. Huge trees with Spanish moss hanging off of them and gorgeous golf courses line the area. 

We bought Boone a bike helmet a few weeks ago, but he has screamed every time we put it on him. I knew he was going to need to wear it while he rode on the bike with Jeff, so I was really worried he would just scream the entire time. Fortunately, he was so excited to ride with Jeff he was actually excited to put it on everyday.

After dinner, headed back home.

So, there's a bit about the beginning of our vacation. We have so many pictures, but it has been so fun to look through and remember how much fun we had. 

Thorntonfest!

One thing I love about the area we live in is all the free community activities that it offers and they are usually geared toward families. We decided to check out the Thortonfest with some friends after I ran in the Cottonwood Classic, the 5k for the festival, earlier that morning, . (Sidenote- I won 3rd place for my age group... That says more about the lack of talent of others in my age group than in my talent, but oh well!) We had a lot of fun and everything (besides the food) was free!

Checking out the petting zoo. There was actually a cow roaming around the petting zoo..

There were some kiddos pulling the grass up and trying to feed it to the bunny, so of course, Boone decided he needed to get in on the action! He followed around a bunny at the park the next day trying to feed him grass too! 

Our friend Yliana and her daughter Lainey.

Lainey riding the ponies.

Boone took a turn too.

Ryan carrying Sawyer.

Riding with Boone in the train. We weren't sure he was big enough to ride in a car by himself, but...

he got his turn with his friend, Renner.

Boone and Renner checking out the trash truck.

We had beautiful day to check out Thorntonfest, and I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't completely packed. We had a lot of fun! Looking forward to more fun, summer events!