St. Louis

Sorry I've been absent the past two days. We've been preparing for Tad's birthday today and the poor thing is sick. Hopefully he'll feel better later today.

Anyway, day 2 of our trip started in St. Louis. On our way to breakfast we got pretty close to the Cardinals stadium. I've never seen it before, but I thought it was beautiful! At a stop light near the stadium, I was reading a chalkboard sign outside of an Oyster Bar restaurant. I mistakenly read "Free Tickles....." I thought, well, interesting, they are giving away free oysters. I was reading the sign out loud to the car before it dawned on me I read it wrong. It said 'Free Tickets', not 'Free Tickles'. Boy, did we get a chuckle out of that!! That's what I get for speed reading everything!

After breakfast we decided to go to the St. Louis City Museum, based off the recommendation of one of Tad's karate buddies. We thought we might melt if we went to the zoo. It was like a giant kids play area. They had several floors, and even stuff on the outside. It was like they used a bunch of old junk yard stuff, welded it together for a HUGE play area that was at least 3 stories outside. They used old escalator stairs for actual stairs. Old school buses, old airplanes, etc. The inside they had mazes everywhere for the kids to climb through and explore. It was super cool. They even had a ferris wheel on the roof. The building was 11 stories tall. Stories 5-11 were condos. In addition to the ferris wheel they had a giant 100 foot slide outdoors, and a little pool they could walk across. We are definitely going back! If you get a chance to go, you should. Here's some pics from our adventure that day!

I have no idea what this slide was made out of, but I can just describe it as a bunch of rollers. I went down it too, it was quite fun.

There were these huge ball pits outside. The girls had fun tumbling through these and got sweaty too!

They also had a little magic show. We were sitting in the front row, and the magician picked Emery to assist him in a magic trick. He poured a pitcher of water in the paper, then opened it and it was dry. She then had to 'spit' on the newspaper to put the water back in! It was cute, and she did what he asked!!

The museum also had a little train ride operated by a 'little person' (is that the politically correct term I hope?), who Ella was taller than. They had fun riding on it!

Here's a view of the ferris wheel on the roof of the City Museum. Ella and I rode it, but Emery chickened out on us. Emery also chickened out on the 100 foot outdoor slide, even though she went on the 100 foot indoor slide 3 times!

They also had a small stepping pond on the roof as well. Ella went through this several times and enjoyed the spraying water to cool her down. It was a hot day. Emery decided she wanted to try it too- even though the stones were a little too far apart for her. She tried anyway and fell in halfway through. It was very shallow, it came up to mid-calf on me as I had to climb in and get her out. Needless to say she was tired and PO'd, and ready to go. Everett was too, she was hot and very tired. So, we ended our fun time at the museum and headed to the car to change into dry clothes for the big girls. Ella and Nana posed quickly for me by the outdoor sign, Emery was too mad to take a picture.

The rest of the day was spent driving to Evansville, Indiana. The girls all crashed east of St. Louis and we had a pretty peaceful trip through the countryside. We stopped in Carlyle, Indiana. that was funny seeing everything with Papa's name! Including the middle and high schools!

We even turned off Gertie to go through some of the Indiana countryside. Unfortunately my other co-pilot (Nana) forgot to mention when we needed to turn. We got VERY lost! But it was fun! We eventually turned on Gertie and she guided us through the Indiana countryside, which was beautiful and got us to Evansville safe and sound!

Stay tuned tomorrow for more of our fun adventures!

Dance Recital

I wanted to get some casual pictures of the girls the night of dress rehearsal. I only succeeded in getting Emery's. The girls had to be there at 2 totally different times, and we had to eat dinner in between Ella's time and Emery's. We were going to get pics of Ella after she had her rehearsal, but we forgot and changed her so she wouldn't get her costume dirty. But here are a few precious ones of little Em!!

The long awaited day finally arrived. We were waiting until dance recital was over before we made our move out east. I was working backstage all 3 recitals, so I did not have the joy of getting my girls dressed with makeup on- that was left to their aunts, Auntie Lee, and Aunt Tammy. They did a fabulous job!! The girls looked beautiful! And they were ready to dance! Ella did an incredible job remembering her dance routine, having straight legs, and pointing her toes. Even Emery did a great job- we had to get her attention to look in the wings at her teachers to remember what to do- but considering she is 3, she did awesome. It was only important that she was cute- and she was!!

We left the following day, after taking Papa for his Father's Day/birthday breakfast. Boy- that was hard. I had to say goodbye to my sister and my dad in the same day. Auntie Lee tried to leave quickly to avoid the teary eyed goodbye, but we did have a small one. She gave me an IPOD of her crazy African music tunes (love ya sis- they totally remind me of you!), and I do listen to them when I miss her!! It was gut-wrenching watching him say goodbye to my girls. I knew he loved them dearly, but to see how much he adored them and was devestated to be apart from them really got to me. It got to Ella too. She was also crying in the car for a bit, like me, as we started our trip.

But we treked on. We decided to name our GPS system something to avoid saying GPS all the time, and well since the GPS's talk, it needed a name, right? So, hence Gertie Petunia Smarts (GPS) was born. She is a bossy little thing, and often has to recalculate (due to me ignoring or missing her turns), but she is quite handy! We made it to St. Louis that night, our goal for the first day. We stayed near the Riverwalk, so we had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory, and took the girls on their first, possibly my first ( I don't recall going on one before), and possibly Nana's (I can't remember) horse drawn carriage ride! We had a lovely host/driver-whatever they are called, named Sasha! She was so animated and had a blast with the girls. She immediately invited them to sit up front with her, and she talked and laughed and giggled with the girls on the whole ride. Turns out Sasha taught pre-school for 17 years, no wonder she was the perfect host/driver for the girls. That ride was one of the highlights of the trip. Emery asked to go on one every day after that, and occasionally still asks!! I guess they liked it!!

Here are the girls with Sasha just after they climbed to the front. Can you tell they are a bit excited?

Ok- before you bust out laughing at how tired and pathetic we look- please remember WE WERE!!! It was at least 10pm, and I didn't sleep much after spending the previous day on my feet working all 3 recitals and the whole morning packing to move!

Below is a pic of all of us after our amazing and incredibly bumpy ride. The streets at the Riverwalk are all made of brick, and from the original state who knows how long ago. We asked Sasha if they ever fix the streets, she said yes, they hide the bricks while fixing it because they are valuable, and then return the street to it's original bumpiness to keep the 'nostaglia'. Remember that and go before you eat, not after to have your dinner bump around like ours did!!

This last pic is with our faithful carriage pulling horse that is fearless of cars, Ben. The girls thought he was beautiful, and of course needed their picture with him. Can you see the tiredness in our pathetic red eyes? We were pooped, well except for striking a model pose Ella. She sees a camera- and it's all about posing these days. The end of a very tiring both emotionally and physically first day of travel.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow!!

Picture Overload

Are you ready? I've spent the past few weeks editing pictures, in addition to painting, cleaning, exploring, and of course visiting the beach! But, I think I'm finally close to being done. And, I've got some doozies for you!! So, let's start back at the beginning of June......

When the cat is gone the mice will play, right? Well, one day when Nana and Papa were gone to Branson with Uncle Castle and Aunt Joann we decided that Nana's bathtub looked like a lot of fun for a bubble bath..... I put in a lot of bubble solution thinking it would need a lot for that big of a tub, and then we turned on the whirlpool jets and WHOOSH we had bubbles everywhere!! They were huge!! Mountains of them, and going up around the girls heads!! I feared we were going to have a bathroom floor full of bubbles, so we quickly turned off the jets. But boy did the girls enjoy all those bubbles! It was quite the bath! This was taken after we had gotten the bubbles down to a reasonable amount!

This is grumpy dancing Emery. We had dance pictures the first week in June and she was not happy. She was beyond MAD that she had pants and didn't have a tutu. She wanted a TUTU!!!! I was trying to cheer her up and this is the pic I got. Thankfully the professional photos turned out much better. She got in a better mood when she realized all the other girls in her class had the same outfit.

Unfortunately I didn't get any of Ella. One of the girls in her class was having a meltdown, and her dad was so frustrated. So, I jumped in and asked Paige if she would like some lipstick before her professional photos, and she perked right up. While dealing with Paige, I missed the opportunity to get pics of Ella. But trust me, she was BEAUTIFUL!!

We left the next day for the anniversary weekend at Lake of the Ozarks. The girls had a great time, and Emery still asks when we can go stay at the 'small motel' with all our family! They were very excited to see everyone that weekend.

As you can tell they enjoyed being super silly with Uncle Kent!!

They got these super cool butterfly wings from Uncle Curt, Aunt Glenda and cousin Laura. Not sure why Emery was pouting in this picture, but she does love them! They wear them and 'fly' through the house, especially after watching Barbie Mariposa!

The family went different ways that day. Some went antiquing, some went shopping, some went boating with the David's, some went kayaking, and some went to the local Testical Festival. That's right, I said Testical Festival. Supposedly it's Missouri's own version of Sturgess (not sure I spelled that right, but you get the idea). And the main item on the food menu is.....you guessed it, testical's. YUCK! I wasn't there, but I was told the people watching was hilarious! We enjoyed a nice dinner at Shrimp Daddy's that night.

Here are the anniversary couples. Uncle Castle and Aunt Joann celebrating their 55th anniversary, and mom and dad celebrating their 50th. Can you believe that Uncle Castle and Aunt Joann spent their honeymoon in the Lake of the Ozarks 55 years ago? We thought that was pretty cool too!

And here is the majority of the gang during the small lunch we had on Sunday. Missing are Tammy, Jeremy, Donna, Mike, and Matt from the pic, they were busy taking it! The David's were such gracious hosts!! It was a fun weekend for everyone. The hardest part was leaving for me. I didn't and still don't know when I'll see many of my family and friends again. At least we all had a fun weekend together and I got to see them before I left.

After returning to Nana's house and seeing Uncle Castle and Aunt Joann off, we got some fishing poles for the girls to fish in the pond with Papa. We didn't have any bait the first night but used bits of corn and cheese. I almost caught a decent sized cat fish, but he slipped the hook right before I pulled him out of the water. That didn't deter the girls and Papa though!! They tried several different nights. And the evening after their dance recital they went fishing with Papa and Auntie Lee. Apparently the fish were avoiding me, because with Papa and Auntie Lee, they caught about 15 fish, 4 of which Papa said were keepers. They said they didn't have the line in the water 30 seconds and would have a bite. The girls had a BLAST!! They were so excited when I got home (I was working at the 3rd recital), they had to tell me all about it! Little Emery said, 'do you know what we named them? Flip, Flop, Flip!' I got a good laugh out of that!

Stay tuned for more photos. I'll post more tomorrow, their dance recital and the first few days of our trip to SC!!

Love ya!

New info

Hi! I'm still working on internet access, so I won't post anymore until I can include pictures.

Quick note though. We have changed our cell phone numbers, (we don't have a home phone), and also have new e-mail addresses. I will try and send them out to you soon. If you haven't received it in a couple of days, or want it sooner my old e-mail address still works!

Thanks!

Wow......just wow

I don't even know where to begin. We had an amazing trip and arrived safely. I'm still trying to find things in the house, and figure out where we are in this town. I'm going through pics of the recital, the trip and the first few days here. As soon as I get my internet set up on my laptop, I'll post them and walk you through our trip. Then you'll be overloaded with pics for the last month! But WOW is mostly what I'm thinking.

Wow, it's beautiful by the beach. I can't believe how much I love it. It's a little difficult with a baby, but she has done awesome considering. And it appears she likes the sand, from playing in it to eating it (Yucko- I try to stop that when I see her licking her fingers). The water is amazingly warm, and the sand is soft and fine. It's something I've never really experienced before, but I tell you- I'm hooked!

And wow- this town is so totally different from anything I've ever experienced. There is no fast food nearby, unless you consider 8 miles nearby. There are no chains, except for grocery and gas stations, but again those are ones I've never heard of. I went to the grocery store and felt like I took a step back in time. Let's just say the selection was 'limited'. Although it is a step above Mound City (sorry Aunt Ann!). I will definitely be trying out a few of the others that are a bit farther away. It's quaint and very much a small coastal town.

And then wow again. You drive into North Myrtle Beach, and on to Myrtle Beach and there are chain restaurants and stores (if you look for them), and tons of fun shopping, tons of local restaurants and attractions. I'm completely gawking when I drive. Although I will say there is only 1, that's right, 1 Target in Myrtle Beach. The next closest is Wilmington. There is no Joanns, Michaels or Hobby Lobby- so finding fabric will be interesting. We drove through Barefoot Landing, Broadway on the Beach, and the Tanger Outlet stores. I CAN'T wait to explore those! And all the other little ones I haven't even found yet!!

I have no clue where I am when driving or what direction I'm going! That hasn't happened to me in a long time. The kids wanted lunch today while we were out. I told them I had no idea where anything was, or what was good (since finding a chain is a bit difficult). They yelled for me to turn on Gertie and ask her. Before you ask, Gertie is our GPS system. Gertie is short for Gertie Petunia Smarts (GPS). We had to give her a name before the trip started, she was and now is an integral part of our driving experience! She had to guide us on our trip out today to find the 1 and only Target.

I'll quit rambling now, there is so much to tell and it's so amazing, that I'm still in awe. I'm hoping it doesn't wear off for a LONG time! We're here, safe and sound. Tad had most of the house set up, we are just organizing and adjusting to everything. I'll work on getting internet on my laptop so I can share pictures, and maybe you'll get the WOW factor too!

Packing up....

Thank goodness it's almost time to go! The girls are tired, I'm tired, and Nana and Papa are tired! We are more than ready for this trip and to go to our new home!

We've spent most of the day packing and organizing, and getting prepared. Still not sure what route we'll take, but that's the least of my concerns. Just have to finish packing and get through dress rehearsal tonight and dance recitals tomorrow!!

If you have a webcam, let me know! We hooked one up at Nana and Papa's and Tad has one working there. The girls have had a great time seeing him on the computer and talking to him. We'd love to see and talk to you too if you have one!

Have a great and wonderful weekend! Not sure if I'll be able to post again until we are in SC! Maybe then I'll have some pics to add!! Love you all!

The countdown begins...

until we leave for South Carolina!! Man it has been a busy and tough 3 weeks since Tad left. We did have some fun at the Lake of the Ozarks celebrating my parents 50th wedding anniversary! Although saying goodbye on Sunday to many of my relatives was WAY tougher than I expected. I know it's not goodbye forever, I just don't know how long it will be until I see any of them again. That is the tough part. Or maybe it's that I've always known that I can see most of them within a days drive. It's been that way all my life, even in college, after I got married, up till now. It's been a comfort zone knowing that if something happened, they could be there. Leaving my comfort zone is harder than I expected.

And now the countdown begins, 6 days until we leave.....