Missouri 2012

I took the last week off from blogging because we spent an extra long weekend in Missouri. We had a fun-filled five days, and it was really nice to get away as a family and spend some quality time. I left my nice camera at home, so please excuse the phone camera shots, but here are a few cute ones.

We spent one night in St. Louis visiting with friends. We took Penny to the Magic House, which is St. Louis' Children's Museum. It is HUGE, and she had a blast. We covered maybe 5-10% of it in 2 hours. It was similar to the one in Philadelphia that I blogged about earlier this year. If ours was like one of those, I would definitely get a membership.

We met up with friends in STL. Here is Penny high-fiving little Arlo, the son of a blogger friend. Don't you love the matching Kleen Kanteen sippy cups? Gotta love a fellow eco-friendly mom!

We took Penny to her first regular season baseball game (she attended a spring training game in 2011). How fitting that it was Cardinals-Phillies. I managed to get her in a Phillies shirt, but she tends to clap with the crowd, so she sort of sent mixed signals. The Cards won the game, but the Phils took the series. She was way more entertained by a cup of ice than the game.

In our hotel room, Penny had a blast trying on our clothes and playing with the phone. I think she was trying to order room service.

Josh's parents live out in rural Missouri, so Penny had a blast playing with the dogs, swimming, and exploring nature.

She had her first fishing excursion and caught 5 fish in the span of 10 minutes. We named them Giggle, Mike, Creamsicle, Andre, and Pat. (We only name fish that we don't eat.) She must be a natural. When we tell the story back, she yells "Pat! Pat!". I'm not sure if she's referring to the fish she named Pat or the fact that she got to pat the fish.

Of course all of this fishing took place in a checkered ladybug dress. Work it, Penny.

In case you were wondering (and because this is a cloth diaper blog), I packed our flats and some covers, and we washed diapers at my in-laws'. We looked into using a diaper service, but there isn't one to service rural Missouri. Each time I use flats, I like them more and more. They dry super, super fast and are really low-maintenance in laundering. They also pack well, as they don't take up tons of room like pockets, and they're really absorbent. They are my favorite travel diapers for sure, and I even think they'd be great for everyday use. They are a very affordable way to start a stash, round out your stash in conjunction with fancier dipes, or even just to be your laundry-day backup.

I have these flats from Swaddlebees and just use a pad fold with covers (basically fold them in sixths one way and half the other way, resulting in a long skinny rectangle). I prefer them to prefolds, as I'm able to get a skinnier rectangle in my padfold, which fits better in the cover. I have no affiliation with Swaddlebees, but they did provide my flats for free last year when I participated in the Flats & Handwashing Challenge. I think that was pretty cool of them, but my continuing to rave about them now is purely out of my personal fondness for their company and products!

Hope you all had a nice Memorial Day weekend!