August Happenings

Another cross country weekend means.... time to catch up on the blog. Can't believe its been almost two months since I wrote. This summer has flown by. We've had swimming lessons, Vacation Bible School, two trips to my sister's in Austin and a trip to Missouri to visit Nana and Papa.
The Missouri trip was the first two weeks of August. It's about a 14-15 hour drive to Dave's parent's house, which we split up into two days. Reallly, I could not have taken another minute of "When are we going to be there? I want to see Holden (cousin)." It was actually a nice, relaxing vacation for me, as the boys spent most of their time playing and with grandparents. I actually read three and a half books on that trip! So we drove to MO, spent a few days at Nana and Papa's, then we went up to St. Louis for two nights, then back down to Nana and Papa's for a few more days before the long haul back. The first day in St. Louis we went to a great Children's Museum called The Magic House. Here we are at the museum - looks like Holden could be one of our sons, huh?

The construction zone.

Being newscasters.

Fishing. You could catch little "minnows" then go release them in a pond on the other side of the room. They would then float down a little river and back into the big pond.

Our little mechanics learned how to work on a car.

The next day we went to Grant's Farm, which was land where Ulysses Grant once lived, now owned by the Anheuser Busch corporation. There we took a tram ride through some of the land and saw deer, longhorns, and other various animals. They have a bunch of different animals on the farm and we got to feed goats and camels, ride a carousel, see Clydesdales, watch an awesome elephant show, and other fun things like that.

Waiting for the elephant show to start. Missouri was warm, but NOTHING like south Texas!

My other new niece - Kelsi.

The amazing elephant. He picked up that piece of wood from off the ground with his tusks and carried it over to stand on the stump. I never realized how smart elephants were.

This was kind of interesting - they were feeding him peanuts before the start of the show.

Feeding the goats.

And the camels. I was actually surprised Calvin did this. He's usually a chicken and won't go near animals like this.

That afternoon we went to a place called the Incredible Pizza Company, which was sort of like a glorified Chuck E. Cheese. They had a huge pizza buffet with four different themed dining rooms. In the arcade area, aside from the usual games, they had a mini-golf course, a mini bowling alley, bumper cars, and race cars. It was alot of fun.

The start of mini-golf (which only lasted about four holes for Calvin and 1/2 of one for Luke, who preferred to climb all over the obstacles).

Go-kart racing. I think Calvin was a little nervous because he clutched his seatbelt like that the entire time.

The mini bowling alley. Notice the size of the balls. It was perfect for my boys.

Enjoying some ice cream afterwards (maybe a little too much).

The last day we went to the science center, where all of the boys were very frightened by a life-sized t-rex. The neat thing about St. Louis is that alot of their attractions (Grant's Farm, Science Center, zoo) are free - you just pay for parking which is $7-10 a car and that's it. Pretty nice. Dave and I were also lucky to get two nights out up there - to a casino and a comedy club - so we had a nice time.

The terrifying dinosaur! (That's Dave, trying to get Calvin closer). Luke refused, and even my nephew, who's 7, wouldn't go near it.

We went to two wineries while in MO. They had quite a few and I'm sure we would have enjoyed stopping at a few more, but of course, that's no easy feat with small children. We also spent a night at Dave's sister's house. They have a lot of land and raise cows, so of course the boys had a blast there.

Our last afternoon in MO. Nana and Papa have the perfect yard for playing outside in, and the boys sure took advantage of it.

It was a great trip but it's always nice to get back home again. When we got back, my sister was down visiting for my mom's birthday. My other nephew spent a night with us and had fun helping Luke play dress up.

My grandmother also came down and we had a nice birthday breakfast for my mom. I even got to use my china (for maybe the third time)!

Mimi tried on her new apron and Luke had to put his on too.

Calvin is starting preschool next week! I can't believe it. He will be going two days a week from 9-2. He's very excited. I'm a little worried about how he's going to deal with naptime, but we've talked about it so hopefully he'll be okay. He will also be starting soccer on base. It's crazy to think that they are big enough for all this.

Our other news is that Dave is getting orders to Everett next summer. Hard to believe that we are already thinking of where we're heading next, but it will certainly be nice to feel some cooler weather again!