A Busy Weekend

We had a pretty busy weekend this past weekend. Tim and I had the hairbrained idea to take the boys to a PBS Arthur's Picnic in the Park at Forest Park Saturday. We were so excited for the boys to meet Clifford the Dog, Arthur, Curious George and the Sesame Street Characters! We piled in the car and headed out. We got there, parked the car and made the trek up to Central Field where all the fun was located. Only to find that every other parent w/ children in St. Louis City AND St. Louis County decided that they'd go to!

Oh My God! It was wall to wall people and the lines to meet the characters had to have been 2 hours long!!! You couldn't do ANYTHING without waiting in line! The bounce houses, the character meet & greets, EVERYTHING had lines! Tim and I shook our heads and said "Nope!" There was just no way the boys would stand for waiting in lines that long. So, we bought our hotdogs for lunch ($13 lunch for 4 dogs and 2 chips), sat at a picnic table, had our picnic lunch and headed back to the car. Oh well....better luck next time.

Once we FINALLY made it out of Forest Park (due to all the traffic) the boys didn't want to go home so we decided that we'd go to Longview Farm Park (aka "Horse Park)to play for a bit. One of our favorite parks, the boys played on the climber, hit the swings for awhile and then became fascinated by the "balls" on the ground that had fallen off of a nearby tree. They spent the next 15 minutes collecting all of the "balls" that they could find and made a giant pile, like two little squirrels preparing for the winter.

Sunday was forecasted to be another beautiful day so Tim and decided that an "adventure" was in order for our morning activity. Once we coaxed the boys into getting dressed we herded ourselves out of the house, piled into the car and headed to the WF&P Railroad for a ride on the train. The whole way there we heard "Mommy, Daddy where are we going?", "Are we there yet?", "When will we be there?", "What are we going to do?". And our response was "We don't know. We'll just have to wait and see! It's a surprise!".

We arrived at the train, Tim paid our fee/donation, and we hopped on to the train for our ride along the tracks. The boys weren't too sure about it at first but then I think the memory of last years ride came back and they enjoyed themselves. So much to the point that Mason didn't want to get off when we were finished. It was a great ride!!! We'll definately be back next year!





So that's it! Our weekend in a nutshell. Tim and I are trying to take advantage of the nice Fall weather that we're beginning to have here in St. Louis while we can. Pretty soon we'll be looking for things that we can do indoors because the weather will be colder. But until then, we've got lots of things to do on the weekends. The Zoo, visit to the pumpking patch, LOTS of playing at the park and just good old fun! What more can we ask for?

Balloon Glow

Every Fall in St. Louis we have The Great Forest Park Balloon Race. The night before the race they hold the "Balloon Glow" where all of the balloons are inflated as dusk approaches. Once it is dark, the pilots will pull their burners on simultaneously to create a "glow" in the balloons. People come with picnic dinners, blankets, chairs and radios and set up their spot to watch as the event unfolds.

Tim and I had never been to a balloon glow, so it was a first for all four of us AND it was a beautiful night so we couldn't help but be outside. Mason and Jack were a bit intimidated by the size of the balloons and especially the one that was directly in front of us but once they understood that it wasn't going to come down on us, they relaxed a bit and enjoyed themselves.

The balloon that was in front of us, the one that says "St. Louis" on it is the same balloon that Tim and I took a ride in in 2003 as a present from his Mom and Stepfather. I knew I recognized it as it was inflating but we weren't 100% sure. I had to come home and look at my pictures from our balloon ride to be sure that it was.

Makes You Appreciate It All....Doesn't It?

Seeing things like THIS makes you appreciate what you have and how quickly it can be taken away from you! Doesn't it??

YIKES! It's Ike!

Being born and raised in the confines of the midwest, I have never had to experience a hurricane other than the "remnants" like we are having this morning. Tropical storm Ike made his arrival late last night and we woke up to severe weather this morning that was amazing! I can't even imagine what it would be like to have been in Galveston or Houston when this thing came ashore! The wind and rain that we've had was incredible! Thankfully, it's a short lived storm as he'll be gone by lunchtime (or so they are saying).

This little guy was taking shelter on the chaise on our front porch. He was the smart one but looked scared to death!

The water RUSHING down the incline in our backyard. Affectionately named "The River Riley"; this is what happens whenever we have a bad rainstorm as the neighbors yard can't handle the anount of water that comes through it and it ends up in our yard.

The cover from our skylight that got blown off the roof and broke. Thankfully the skylight itself is still intact and it it's place - we're replacing it anyway during our remodel project.

The water rushing down our driveway and also out of the drain pipe from our neighbors yard - it looks like a water-main break when it's raining this hard

We Will Always Remember.....

Today we remember all of those who lost their lives in the attacks on 9/11 in New York City, Washington D.C. and Shanksville, PA.. You will forever be in our hearts and your families in our prayers.

A Work In Progress......

I have kept videos of Jack since he was an infant on my camcorder but once I realized that my old camera could take video, I started taking them there so I could send them to out of town family so they could see the boys in action. Watching the videos (or "Pictures" as Mason calls them) have become a favorite thing for the boys to do. To see themselves when they were younger just fascinates them. In order to preserve these memories for all of us, I have transfered them to a DVD format that we will have forever and can watch on our TV instead of being crammed around our computer monitor. So here it is so far....it's a work in progress as I'll still add to the collection a little bit more but it's 90% done. Enjoy!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com