Meet me in Saint Louis...Again

So this may become a theme... but we recently made another trip back to Saint Louis. This time two of our good friends from grad school were getting married, so we made the trek north. With the help of my mom, Maya and I drove up. For Maya, the best part of every driving day was the end. Every day ended looking something like this, with Maya celebrating no longer being constrained in her car seat:


The drive gave us some good opportunities to stop and see some friends and family along the way. We spent a couple of days in Springfield visiting my grandmother ("GG" to Maya), and my Aunt Becky also happened to be in town so we got a bonus visit. We also reconnected with one of my cousins we hadn't seen in a while. Grandma just recently suffered a fall (the way she tells it, the carpet got the worst of it), but she had some bruises on her face. It did not at all stop her from thoroughly enjoying her newest great-grand-daughter, but I'll leave out the pictures... Here's Aunt Becky looking mighty comfortable with Maya:


My mom also got some Maya time:


And, because I can't resist, here's Maya in her sun hat the same day:


From Springfield, we moved on to Dixon, which happens to be where my parents grew up (in addition to being where Tim grew up). We still have a lot of family and friends there. We stopped by mom's aunt's house, and family converged there. Here's a photo of Maya with Sue Ann (officially, Maya's first cousin, twice removed, by marriage, but also my mom's best friend from high school).


Then we were off to Saint Louis. My dad decided to fly in for the weekend and spend some of his extra vacation time. I'm sure my mom appreciated the company while she babysat during the wedding on Saturday. And Maya, of course, loves all the time she can get with her grandparents. We arrived on Thursday in time to have dinner with some friends from college. We met Jaydee, Brian, Tyler, and Trish for some pizza. Jaydee and Tyler were both excited to hold Maya:



Trish and Brian both had their reservations with respect to holding Maya, but they both ooed and awed over her enough to satisfy me. But not to leave them out of the photo opportunity:


Tim had to work during the week, so he flew up to the 'Lou to meet us on Friday. We had dinner with friends again, and Dante and Amanda joined us Friday. And we all got Ted Drewes' frozen custard, a Saint Louis favorite. Dante and Amanda have just moved back to Saint Louis, so they've added to the list of friends we get to visit when we go back in the future:


Saturday morning, Tim, mom, dad, Maya, and I took a walk from the hotel down to the arch and around the park. Here's mom and dad with Maya:


and an interesting picture of the arch:


Tim and I headed to the wedding, which was on Wash U's campus. My parents kept Maya during the ceremony, and we picked her up to take her with us to the reception. Here's Maya at the reception:


She slept through absolutely everything...except the toasts. Oh well. :)

Sunday, we carried on the old Saint Louis tradition, and met a bunch of people for coffee at Kaldi's. Tim's former classmate Mike, and his wife Gina, and their new baby Emma were there, but I was delinquent and failed to get a photo.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip. We love to visit Saint Louis, and it's always great to get to see old friends. But without my mother's help, there is no way I would have sanely survived the trip. Here's to moms!