St. Louis, MO: Day 1

I decided to go to St. Louis to help my sister, Tori, with her new little baby when Tori's maternity leave from work ran out. On May 10th, Lincoln and I hopped on a plane and headed out to babysit little Alexis Tori Cox for five days.

Lincoln had never been on an airplane so I was quite nervous about the whole experience. We didn't get off to a very good start. I somehow chose the only row on the entire plane whose air letter outter thingy was busted out. Instead of a pin size opening jet of ice cold air shooting down on us, we had a coffee mug size opening jet of ice cold air. Immediately Lincoln was not impressed. He was scared during take off and landing so I held him on my lap. (Shh.... don't tell.) Once we were in the air, he warmed up to the idea of being on an airplane. I immediately started pulling things out of my bag of tricks and we started to play. About 10 minutes into the flight, I noticed that Lincoln's shorts were wet on the bum. How could that be? He was nice and dry before boarding the plane! After further investigation, it was confirmed that he had in fact wet through his clean diaper and was sharing the warmth with me. Unfortunately, I disobeyed the cardinal rule of flying by not packing an extra set of clothes in the carry-on. (Sorry Dad. I know I've disappointed you.) There simply was not room in the carry on because it was stuffed with goodies to keep Lincoln happy. Fortunately, I was able to take off Lincoln's shorts and set them under the huge stream of icy air for them to dry. By the time we landed, I was able to put those gross shorts back on Lincoln and I was dry too. (If you don't have kids of your own, don't judge me!)

We met Tori, Dan and cute little Lexie and they whisked us off to Dog Town. It was pretty late by the time we arrived so we visited for a bit and then crashed in our beds.

The next morning, Tori went to work and I was able to spend some bonding time with Lexie. Lincoln even bonded with her! The 6.5 hrs. flew by and Tori came home. It was time to play. We headed over to a beautiful park that is right by Tori and Dan's house. This park is enormous and equipped with playgrounds, water fountains, ponds, bike trails, paddle boats and even a zoo! We tried out the play ground first.



If you know Lincoln, you know he is obsessed with water. We found a pond for him to throw rocks into. He was content to do that for as long as we would let him. I was floored by how pretty and nicely taken care of this park was. Tori and Dan are so lucky to have something like this so close to them to use and enjoy.

Day 2

On Tuesday, we decided to head over to the zoo. It is part of the huge park that is by Tori and Dan's house. This zoo is incredible, AND it's FREE! The animal exhibits are so beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute we got to spend at the zoo. The animals look healthy and the surroundings are breathtaking.



These little penguins were my favorite part. They are so funny!





Lincoln really wanted to ride the train that takes you around the zoo. I hopped in line to buy tickets. Can you believe that it was five bucks per person? Who can complain when entry to the zoo is free though. I was glad to pay my ten dollars. Although the train ride was not necessarily worth the money, the rest of the zoo definitely was.


What a fun day!

Day 3

We went to an awesome children's museum called The Magic House. We all had a great time. They have a story book room where the books come alive. Lincoln is sliding Jack's beanstalk.

In this picture, he is showing off his pretty smile in Rapunzel's castle.


They had a really cool water exhibit for the kids to splash around and see how water works. I can just see Lincoln getting smarter in this picture.



Lincoln really liked this place. Can you tell?




Perhaps Lincoln's favorite part of the Magic House was this giant thing that you can push your hands/face or whatever on and it comes through on the other side. You are probably familiar with the smaller ones. This one was HUGE!



Tori and Dan had a good time helping Lincoln out at the little fishing pond.




They even had a cute little grocery store where you can put all your items in a basket, scan them and pay for them. Then, you put them back. It was so fun!



The Magic House was awesome! St. George need to get one soon!

Day 4

For day four of our St. Louis adventure, we went back to the awesome park by Tori and Dan's house. Lincoln could have spent all day there if he were able.

A lot of rocks were thrown in the water by my little guy.














We got these cute shots of Lincoln and Lexie at the park.




The band-aids on Lexie's legs are from her immunizations that day. Tori is not enjoying the painful parts of motherhood. Who can blame her?


Sweet little girl!

Day 5

On Friday when Tori got home from work, we decided to go back to the zoo. It was really humid that day and I realized that I vastly prefer dry heat to wet heat. Despite the temperature, we had a great time. I was glad that we went back to the zoo because we got to see the elephants. I think elephants are awesome.

This little elephant was adorable. He was splashing and playing in the water the whole time that we were watching. He must have been hot too!

When we got home from the zoo, we decided that it would be a shame to go all the way to St. Louis and not see the arch. We fed the kids, and loaded up in the car. In passing, I told Lincoln that we were going to see the arch. Amazingly, he understood what I was talking about. When we could see the arch from the car, he started saying "itch! itch!" I could not believe it. We got out of the car and walked down to get a good view of the entire thing. To see the whole thing, you have to be pretty far away because when you are right next to it, the arch is too big to be able to see in a picture.Next, we drove to get up close and personal with the arch. This picture does not appropriately capture Lincoln's enthusiasm about the arch. It seriously might have been his favorite part of the trip. You can see he is jumping up and down and on his puckered lips, he is finishing yelling "itch!" for about the hundredth time that night.

When it was time to pack up and head home, Lincoln protested. As we drove away, his "itch" evolved to "march." That's a little closer. :) We had such a great time hanging out with Tori, Dan and Lexie that week.

We had to go home the next day. Early on Saturday morning, we said our good-byes and off we went. The flight home was uneventful. I felt bad for the man who got stuck sitting by us. Aside from a few kicks in the ribs during take-off, I think he was okay. Lincoln was such a great helper and a real trooper the entire week. He allowed me to take care of Lexie and do the things I needed to do to help Tori and Dan.


Thanks guys for making great memories with us. We had a blast!

Brian Regan is Hillarious!

On May 8th, David and I finally got to use our Christmas presents to each other. We purchased tickets to Brian Regan in December. He came to perform at Tuacahn. We had such a great time. I laughed so hard that there was a point where I thought I was going to throw up!

That was a FUN night!

I'm SORRY! (tag)

I love this tag from my friend, Lydny. I think it might be therapeutic for me to get some of these things out in the open. However, I have SO many people to apologize to that this post could get lengthy. I am going to have to limit my apologies to one person per category. Sorry if I owe you an apology and I don't post it. No hard feelings?

If you could apologize to anyone in 1. Elementary, 2. Middle school, and 3. High school who would it be to and why?

1. Elementary School - Chelsey Rowley: In 6th grade I was such a jerk to her! I am not making excuses, but I was new at the school and the group of friends who befriended me happened to un-friend Chelsey. SO rude! We went out of our way to make her feel bad. I am getting misty just thinking about it. I should have stood up for her and been her friend, but I was too chicken. We became friends in 7th grade. She was good enough to forgive me (even though I did not deserve it). What a great person Chelsey is. Sorry Chelsey! I LOVE YOU!

2. Middle School - Jason Judd: Oh dear! I never dreamed that I would have an enemy, but then Jason Judd came along. I don't know why, but we did NOT enjoy each other's company. He was constantly making rude comments about me so I returned the favor, but I believe I went above and beyond the point of jerkiness. Sorry Jason....wherever you are.

3. High School - Coach Darrington: Can I just say, what goes around comes around? My senior year, I decided to pick on this first year teacher named Coach Darrington. He was my teacher for human anatomy. It seems like it started on the first day of school with me being a loud smarty pants. It was all down hill from there. I gave him SUCH a hard time. I never apologized and I left HS with bad feelings about him. The poor man never did anything to me! Why did I choose to treat him like garbage? Later, in my 2nd year of teaching, whose nephew was in MY class? Yep! Coach Darrington's nephew was in my 5th grade class. How embarrassing! When Coach D found out who his nephew's teacher was, he freaked out! The nephew told me that he knew all about me and my shenanigans in HS. What do you say to that? Fortunately, I got the chance to see Coach D again and tell him (several times) how sorry I am for the dumb way I acted in HS.

Wow! I know that I left out some apologies. If you are dying for me to apologize to you, leave a comment and I will be sure to give you a call. :)

Thanks Jana and Kate!

On Thursday Lincoln and I went over to play with Jana and Kate. Lincoln was so excited to see his friend. The kids played really well together. I could tell Lincoln missed Kate badly. We stayed for a few hours and when it was time to go home, Kate and Jana gave Lincoln a little gift.





Yep! They gave Lincoln the awesome Barbie wheelchair.


Sure, it's missing a handle, but that just means it's been loved. The gift was so thoughtful. It might sound silly, but this little wheelchair really means something to Lincoln. It was really touching that Jana recognized what it means and gave it to him. Thanks so much! Since we have brought it home it has been hard to get it out of Lincoln's hands.

One more thing. On the way home from St. George tonight we were doing things to try to keep Lincoln awake. I asked him if he would count with me. I said "one," he said "two".....pause.... "ree"...."ore"...."ie"...."gix"...."gagen"...."eet"...."nie"...."tee!" I was such a proud mommy! In my humble opinion, he's a genius!