Bruce and Rachael's Odyssey

Groundhog

2009-02-06T17:42:00.000-08:00

Winter is definately finished here as our local Groundhog confirmed for us today. Hugh and I looked out of the window to see a very fat groundhog running in our backgarden.

I was too slow to get a picture of our groundhog but here is one I found on the internet - isn't he cute!

All the animals are very excited here at the nasty long cold spell here is over with and we have temperatures of 14 degrees celcius with lots of sun. The animals all think spring is here but knowing the St Louis weather we will probably be back to negative figures next week!

Firetruck Fun

2009-02-05T08:18:00.000-08:00

Here are Hugh and Taylor having a great time on the firetruck!!

Snowing again.

2009-02-02T12:31:00.000-08:00

Last week we had 7 inches of snow and Hugh had a great time playing with Scout in her backgarden.

Meanwhile the little ones, Piper and Taylor played indoors where it was nice and warm.

Sledging

2009-02-01T08:20:00.000-08:00

Here is Hugh sledging between his 2 best girl friends Scout and Piper.

They had a great time in Andrea's garden sledging. The noise you can hear is Piper cheering them on from in the house.

One of the best games we played in the snow was to hide "Stegga", which is Hugh's Stegasaurus dinosaur.

Christmas Fun

2008-12-25T08:27:00.000-08:00

Here is Hugh opening his Elmo chair from his Nanna and Grandad.

Here is Hugh helping Taylor to open his Alphabet wheel from Nanna and Grandad.

Hugh's 2nd birthday

2008-10-08T14:49:00.000-07:00

Hugh had a wonderful 2nd birthday.

He came downstairs to see a room FULL of happy land toys, that Daddy had bought for him. After a very brief breakfast - due to the lull of toys - we headed off to St Louis Zoo with his godmother Vicky, who was over from the UK.

We celebrated his birthday with all of his little friends at Minor Park - a great local park. Here they all are having lots of fun.

Taylors Baptism

2008-07-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

On the 27th July we had Taylor baptised at St John's in the Vale.

This is a very special church for us as we were married there 5 years ago and Hugh was also christened there. It is also where Bruce, Andy and Lauren were christened, Andy is buried there and Brian and Heather were married there too.

After a lovely service we all headed back to Fieldhead to celebrate in style.

We had wonderful weather for Taylor's big day. The sun came out and lots of family and friends were there to help us celebrate.

The tractor was a big hit with the kids and Dave spent all the afternoon pulling them around the garden. Of course Hugh enjoyed the sun in real style!!!

The Kids had a great time getting their best outfits sandy.

The cake was delicious and had the same teddy from Hugh's Baptism.

Many thanks to everyone who came, you really made it a special day for us all.

Taylor is on the move!!

2008-06-16T11:45:00.000-07:00

Taylor has decided he wants to keep up with his brother and is now rolling over so that he can grab his toys.

Take a look at him in action.

Potty time

2008-06-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

We have decided to start potty training Hugh. We bought him a lovely new potty and got him to decorate it.

This is supposed to help him want to use the potty but so far our greatest success has been having him wee on the floor next to it!! I am trying to get Bruce to demonstrate to him how to use it - don't worry I will keep the camera away.

Boys at the park.

2008-06-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some shots of the boys at the park in their new safari outfits.

St Louis Jazz festival

2008-05-31T12:08:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the St Louis Jazz festival held in Shaw Park, Clayton, St Louis. It was a glorious sunny day and we arrived early enough to get a picnic spot in the shade of some trees.

Hugh spent the entire day running around, clapping at the bands, blowing kisses at the girls and drinking the dregs from our beer bottles!! The last bit was unintentional and thankfully all the beer was gone before he grabbed it from us. Hugh clearly thought everyone was there to entertain him.

Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take in the camera but we have a shot of his airbrushed tattoo and festival ankle band, which every festival goer should have.

A Terrapin

2008-05-17T15:15:00.000-07:00

Hugh was really surprised to find a baby Terrapin in the pond when he was feeding the fish.

Huge hailstones!!!

2008-05-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

Check out the size of these hailstones!

These came down in a thunderstorm here last night, so its true that Americans have to supersize everything!!!

Niki at the botanical gardens

2008-04-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we went to the Missouri botanical gardens to see the Niki pop art exhibition of 40 playful, larger-than-life mosaic sculptures in a rainbow of colors and materials.

They were amazing and you could climb quite a few of the sculptures.

The gardens were beautiful too, here are some blue-eyed marys.

Hugh thought it was fantastic fun to run through all the flowers!!!

Check out this web-site for more info on Niki

http://www.mobot.org/events/niki/niki_bio.asp

Earthquake.

2008-04-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

On Friday morning we had a big earthquake here (5.2). I was up feeding Taylor when the whole house started to shake. I was really scared as the houses here are very poorly built, so when I said everything was shaking I really mean it.

Bruce very calmly walked in to the room and said "we are having and earthquake" and then went back to sleep before the shaking had even finished. I guess it comes from his San Francisco upbringing to not be fazed by a shaking house.

That was the reason why we saw all the snakes yesterday as they don't like to be buried in their hibernation holes. After I saw the western ribbon snake, Bruce found a garter snake next to our back porch. Then a neighbour found a copper head in the back garden - these are highly poisonous so the neighbour killed it. Was a real shame as it was so pretty and would only bite you if you cornered it.

Snake!!

2008-04-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

Hugh, Taylor and I just saw our first snake here. Its called a Western Ribbon snake - its not venomous, we saw it when we were walking around our subdivision this afternoon.

Taylor is smiling!

2008-04-15T07:24:00.000-07:00

Taylor is now smiling and it certainly makes up for all the sleepless nights.

Here he is in action with some lovely noises!!

Hugh's first tricycle.

2008-03-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

Hugh has now got his first tricycle and here he is riding it for the first time.

It's amazing how quickly he learnt how to ride it, he came in the house, saw it and just got on and rode off around the house!!

Here he is the next day riding it around our neigbourhood.

Gymnastic fun time with Daddy

2008-03-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

At Hugh's gymnastics class there is a huge pool full of sponge cubes which Hugh loves to jump into. Here is Bruce trying to rescue Hugh out of the pool only to find that the heavier you are the deeper you sink!!!!

Bath Time

2008-03-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

The boys are getting used to sharing, which includes bath time. Here is Hugh washing his brother.

Here is Taylor showing off his sprinkling skills.

Pere Marquette

2008-03-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

On Friday we took GiGi and Grandpa on a tour up the Mississippi river to Pere Marquette state park. After a brief stop in the National Great Rivers Museum, where we watched a great film on the path of Mississippi, we went and had lunch in the Finn Inn.

The Finn Inn is a cross between a fish restaurant and an aquarium. We all had a great time watching Hugh's reaction to the fish.

There was also a fantastic Aligator Snapping Turtle, here he is coming up for air.

After our lovely lunch we headed off for Pere Marquette state park and took a walk up to a nice view point overlooking Swan Lake.

Hugh loved wearing Grandpa's hat.

We then took a few ferry rides across the Illinois river and then the Missouri river and finally home.

The ferry rides were really impressive as we have had lots of rain recently and all the rivers were in flood.

Maycie's Birthday

2008-03-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

Hugh had a great time at Maycie's 2nd birthday party. Here is Maycie blowing out the candles.

Hugh loved the cupcakes.

Maycie's older sister Katelyn loved introducing Hugh into the wonders of girly films.

Brothers

2008-03-14T16:49:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots of a proud Hugh with his not so happy brother. He is a little anxious in this shot but soon learns how to get him to stop crying - shame his aim is so bad.

Taylor finally stops crying long enough to get a decent shot.

The Whiteboard Story

2008-02-27T18:49:00.000-08:00

Taylor has arrived!!!

2008-02-27T17:04:00.000-08:00

Taylor Jack Nicholson Davis arrived on Monday the 25th February at 5:59p.m. weighing 7lb 13oz, length 20" at Anderson Hospital, Maryville, Illinois.

Rachael went into Anderson hospital on Sunday night to be induced. They started Rachael off at 7p.m. and within 2 hours the contractions were 1-2 mins apart, so they took her off the drugs and let nature take its own course. She managed to cope with the pain until 5a.m. on Monday morning when she decided to have the epidural as the progress was very slow, only 4cm dilated for 10 hours of work.

At 4p.m. Rachael had some extra pain relief and slept for the last hour and half of the labour. She woke at 5:30 with the urge to push and was told to hold on until the doctor arrived. Within 6 good pushes Taylor came into the world, another boy.

The hospital has a tradition of putting a footprint of every baby born on the wall in the maternity ward. With over a thousand babies born every year you can imagine that there are a lot of little feet all over the place.

After a 2 day stay at the hospital they both came home to a very excited older brother and grandparents. Hugh likes to help out with the baby, giving him books to read and putting his blankets on him. Hopefully they will grow up to be best buddies.

Still Pregnant

2008-02-24T10:01:00.001-08:00

The baby was due on the 20th but as usual its still hanging in there - too cold here for it to want to come out (-4).

The end is in sight though, I am going in tonight to be induced - so watch this space!!!!

The tennis ball is for size comparison - what a whale!!!

Lewis and Clark museum

2008-02-24T09:25:00.000-08:00

It is quite snowy here at the moment so we went to the Lewis and Clark museum for some indoor entertainment.

The museum is situated near the spot where Lewis and Clark set out on their expidition to discover the west of America. They have a replica of the original fort and Hugh had a great time exploring it. He was most facinated by the melting snow.

Here is a replica of the Keelboat they used to go up the Mississippi river.

Here is grandad playing with Hugh in the snow.

Arrival of the Warringtons

2008-02-18T10:15:00.000-08:00

Mum and Dad arrived on Sunday to St Louis to help out with the imminant arrival of their second grandchild. Unfortunately they arrived but their luggage had some time delay issues and didn't get here until the following day.

The first day here was spent with a trip to the airport to retrieve the luggage before going to 'St Louis Mills' one of the big shopping malls for Dad to buy some long johns - its a little chilly here for him.

Here they are with Hugh in one of the department stores that had an outdoors theme.

Valentines Day

2008-02-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

Hugh had a great time on valentines day with all of his friends at the 'Bounce House'. The mums club had booked this place for a couple of hours, just long enough for the children to go mad on all of the inflatables whilst the mums gossiped away. We then had a huge buffet where everyone brought a dish with them, we provided butterfly cakes with a velentines theme of love hearts instead of the wings.

St Louis City Museum

2008-02-10T15:10:00.000-08:00

Today we went to the St Louis City Museum. We had been recommended it as a great place to take kids and it was amazing. It had lots of tunnels, caves, ladders etc.. for you to go between and on the different floors. It also had a circus, aquarium, hugh slides, massive swings, big art area where it was free to do paint, pottery etc.. and even a little interactive toddler section with a train they could ride on.

This is a shot of the entrance to the museum with a hugh slide on the left going from the top floor to the bottom one. You can make out one of the tubes you can crawl in at the top on the right.

Here is another tube that you can climb up to the next floor and in the distance is a massive sperm whale you can climb through.

Bruce had a great time bringing Hugh down the massive slide that was in the first photo. Here they are in an action film!!!

Zoo

2008-02-09T14:39:00.000-08:00

St Louis has a fantastic Zoo in a hugh park area and the best thing about it is its free. We took Hugh there on Saturday afternoon and went to an area specifically for young children. They have lots of smaller animals there and a few that you can pet.

Here is Hugh with 2 very nervous guinee pigs. Hugh had already pulled some of the hair out of one of them.

We also got to watch the polar bear being fed and the pengiun and puffin section is really fun.

Here is one of the tree kangaroos being fed.

Hugh at the park

2008-02-09T10:27:00.000-08:00

Hugh is really becoming more adventurous by the day and surprised us on Saturday by going down the slide on his own and going back for more.

Swimming Lessons

2008-02-09T09:32:00.000-08:00

After a few weeks of what seems like torture for Hugh he has finally started to like his swimming lessons a bit more. Here he is with his dad singing 'the wheels on the bus'.

Hugh does his chores

2008-02-07T16:22:00.000-08:00

Here is Hugh helping to do the washing up!!!

The wierd weather continues.....

2008-02-04T12:18:00.000-08:00

After our 8 inches of snow and freezing temperatures the sun came out and yesterday it was 20 degrees celcius. We took the opportunity to sun ourselves and went to the park to have a play and feed the birds.

Here is Hugh feeding the ducks - one seems to have escaped and Hugh tries to catch it.

Hugh enjoying the rare warm weather.

The barbers

2008-02-02T12:15:00.000-08:00

Hugh went with his dad to the barbers on Saturday to get his hair 'tidied up'. He was very still for the hairdresser - probobly because he was petrified of falling off the chair - it was a little high.

Valentines Cards

2008-02-01T12:07:00.000-08:00

Here is Hugh making some valentines cards for his Nanna and Gi Gi back in England.

Snowed In!!

2008-02-01T11:53:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning to find 8" of snow on the ground and no way of getting the car down our drive - so we were officially snowed in.

Hugh made his first snow angel - see if you can spot it.

Here he is making the angel - not sure about Bruces technique here.

We went over to one of our neighbours, Keith, to borrow a shovel only to discover that they have a snow blower. So he and his 2 sons set to on our driveway and very quickly had it cleared for us. Here they are hard at work;

Wierd weather

2008-01-31T10:36:00.000-08:00

We cannot get used to the weather here. On Sunday it was 19 celcius and really sunny, today it is -8 celcius and starting to snow. They say we will have 8 inches by tomorrow. Time to build some snowmen!!

Stay home moms club

2008-01-29T10:29:00.000-08:00

Since we moved here I have joined the Edwardsville moms club which organises loads of things, including mums night out, babysitting, lots of playgroups and outtings. It has been the perfect way for Hugh and I to make some new friends here and get valuable support.

On Tuesday some of the mums came over with their children to our house for a playgroup. Here are some pictures of the children playing together.

Dog Mardi Gras

2008-01-27T00:03:00.000-08:00

Sunday was a very sunny and warm day in St Louis and we headed over to the city to watch the dog mardi gras.

This is part of the mardi gras celebrations due to St Louis's French origins. Thousands of people bring their dogs all dressed up to a huge parade, where at the end there will be a king and queen awarded and then there are wiener races (dog races) which some of them take part in.

Hugh thought this was brilliant as he loves dogs. Here is a selection of some of the best dressed dogs.

Gymnastics

2008-01-18T11:00:00.001-08:00

Hugh really enjoys his gymnastics classes. He started them last week, they play a few games with them at the start and then just let them loose with all of the equipment - lots of fun!!

Here are his bad attempts at weight lifting.

Its christmas again!!

2008-01-18T06:23:00.000-08:00

Hugh finally gets to open his christmas present from Nanna and Grandad Warrington.

Alton Eagles

2008-01-09T10:59:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we drove up the Great River Road that runs along the Mississippi to Grafton from Alton. The purpose of the trip was to spy some of the wintering Bald Eagles that visit the area this time of year. We weren't dissapointed. There were dozens of them. Below are some pictures from the day.

Hugh can finally walk!!

2008-01-06T15:00:00.000-08:00

Hugh has managed to find his 2 feet and not his knees and is actually walking. Here he is on our weekend walk at Pere Marquette.

Christmas Crafts

2007-12-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

Hugh has a great time finding his crafty side and glitters christmas cards for the grandparents