St Louis Zoo

We live by such a cool zoo. The best part of this zoo is the fact that it's FREE! The girls and I went with Greg's Mom a few weeks ago and I was so impressed that we went back again on Saturday with Greg.

We first went to pet the Stingrays. Greg and I had the most fun with this. Brinley was a little scared to touch and Julianne just wanted to look at them.

The next exhibit we went to was the Hippo's! It's by far my favorite feature at this zoo. I've never seen Hippo's so close in my life! They are HUGE!

And what would a zoo be without an Elephant?
The Chimp exhibit is pretty fun too. They come right up to the glass!

Julianne wasn't so sure she liked that!
This little guy just wanted to take a nap.
They even had bunny's! A little more up Julianne's alley.
We went over to see the Lion's and were so sad because we couldn't see them anywhere. Then all the sudden we looked in the tree and saw the mama! It was so neat!
She just had a baby cub a few weeks ago. The Daddy and the baby were inside so we didn't get to see them, but hopefully next time!

Brinley goes to preschool!

Last week Brinley started preschool! She is so proud! She's always been fascinated with school because that's where her daddy has gone everyday of her life.

The first day she was a little hesitant, considering she didn't know a single person there, but got through the day with "only a little bit" of crying as she told me. The next time she went she wasn't scared at all. She has always been so brave with new things.

Here she is with Greg. Both already for school. She is making a weird face.

This was Julianne on Brinley's first day.

She didn't quite know what to do with herself, but I think she enjoyed her alone time. At one point I walked into the living room and she was sprawled out on the rug just laying there looking at the ceiling. It was pretty funny.

My not so little Julianne!

Our sweet baby girl is becoming less and less of a baby. She is now sixteen months old and as sweet as ever.

This is often how I find her, if she has been left alone for a little while. She loves to climb!

She loves to color with her sister, although she usually colors herself more than the paper.






And she is finally walking! She sure took her time, but now she is all over the place.

She loves to talk (big surprise with Brinley as her sister). Her favorite words right now are baby and doggy.

She LOVES being outside and playing in the sand at the park.

Brinley and her are becoming great little friends and I often find them in their room playing. They are so cute together!

We love you Julianne!!

Our apartment

I'm finally getting around to putting up pictures of our new place.

It probably would've happened sooner, but I started reading the Hunger Game books and that's all I've been doing in my spare time for the last two weeks.

Anyway, here it is. We've really liked our place so far. It's small, but at least we fit. We pay about $300.00 less for it that our old place, and live only 10 minutes away from downtown.


Our living room

Computer room/dinning room

The Kitchen


Our room/Julianne's


Brinley's room

There are SO many fun things to do around here, so even though our place is small, we still would LOVE to have visitors!!!

For all our Utah friends we are only a "short" 19 hour drive away, so think about it!

Life in St. Louis

We are here and finally settling in. Well, almost. We still have a few things to get done in our apartment so as soon as they're finished, I'll post pics of our new place. The apartment we are in right now is a lot smaller than our old place, so we are having to be very creative on how to make it all fit, but more to come on that later.

As far as living here goes we are LOVING it! I feel like I live in a condo resort area that people stay at on vacation. We have so many fun things to do within walking distance.


There is a way fun playground that is shaded 24 hours a day. We go about twice a day.

We have a swimming pool that the girls and I are having a blast in each day while Greg is at School. Then when he comes home we usually go again.


There are walking paths, that a bunch of us Mom's walk together in the mornings with the kidos. Speaking of walking, our church is only a 5 min walk also. Woot! Woot!

The office staff is awesome and if anything is wrong with the apartment, they send maintenance over to fix it in a flash. They also have a place where we can rent movies for free too.

Basically if this place had a grocery store, I would never have to leave my house!

The best part, as always, are the wonderful friends that we've met so far. There are so many fun couples to hang out with and they all have kids around my girls ages. Brinley is loving having friends to play with everyday.


Our fourth of July weekend was really nice. It happened to be Greg's birthday also, so we had double celebrations.


He got up of the morning of his birthday and went golfing with a bunch of the guys here. Then when he got back all of us went to the pool for the afternoon.

Play a little pool volleyball

Brinley had fun playing with her new friends.

That night we put Brinley to bed about 8:00 and when I went in to check on her at 10:00 this is how I found her. I guess she had a lot to be thankful for.

On the 4Th we woke up and went to this darling little town for a parade. The girls loved it because

The girls loved it because they tossed out candy.

Three new posts

Sorry for my lack of blogging. I just got done catching up on the last month.

We are now in St. Louis and adjusting well. More to come on that soon, but I just wanted to post entry's of our summer so far.


Enjoy.

A tribute to my Grandpa's

The day we were suppose to leave Utah, we got a call saying my Grandpa Egginton had passed away.
Luckily I was able to change my flight and the girls and I stayed six extra days. Greg, unfortunately, still had to go back to St. Louis to unload our truck. Luckily his parents we able to go back with him and help.



My Grandpa Egginton, also known as my singing Grandpa, died on June 9Th.
He had been in a nursing home for the past two years, but other than that he had a healthy and full of life. He was always so fun to be with and like I said, always had a song in his heart. I think that's where my Brinley gets it from.
This picture was taken the last time I saw him, just two weeks before he died. I had a strong feeling that it would probably be the last time I saw him, so it was very tender. Brinley was surprisingly very interactive with him and he was with her, even though he couldn't speak.
We asked Brinley if she would sing Grandpa a song and she sang Beauty and the Beast. As I watch my Grandpa watch Brinley, he had a smile on his face and his eyes filled with tears as he listened to her sing. It was a perfect final memory of him.
His funeral went very well and it was good to see all of my cousins, and aunts and uncles that I hadn't seen in a long time.

Three days after my Grandpa Egginton passed away, my Grandpa Gibson also passed away.

He had been sick for some time and finally after a long struggle passed away on June 12Th.

I was able to be at his bedside, surrounded by my family, on the day before he died. We sat and visited with each other and told him our goodbyes before he slipped into the next life. It was a very spiritual and wonderful experience to witness.

My Grandpa Lamar was also a wonderful Grandpa. He was involved in everything we did and always made it a point to tell us he was proud of us. Since moving away, five years ago, most of our conversations have been over the phone, but they are conversations that I'll always cherish.

The day he died all the grandkids got together and we wrote his obituary. It was wonderful to put into words all the amazing things he did in his life.

On the day of his funeral, me along with my brother and four cousins got to speak. It was a great opportunity for us to be able to share special memories we had of him and honor his life and how he lived it.

Although going to two funerals in two days is something I hope to never do again, I walked away feeling very uplifted and motivated to live a better life. My Grandpa's both lived wonderful lives but above all were just good people, with their priority's straight. They put their family's and the gospel above everything else and were both very loving.

I will miss them both very much, but know that one day, I'll get to see them again.

I love you Grandpa Egginton and Grandpa Gibson.