5/31/16

Peytons pants were huge.  He was suppose to get a youth small, he got a youth large...
they ordered the wrong size.


"They just want me to hold up my pants while I run"

Peyton in his huge pants.

This is what sisters do at baseball games.

Peyton's is messing with his hat.

Peyton's first hit.  It landed only two feet away from him, but he ran and made it the first.
The kids on the other team did not know what to do.
They just stared at the ball, pretty hilarious.

Peyton on 1st.  He got one base with an awesome hit after he fouled straight back twice. 

He batted two runners in.

The next hit, he made it to second and they over threw the ball and he ended up scoring.

He knows the game.

I'm super proud of him at his first game, ever.

I ended my evening at the Northland Encampment Dinner at Smokehouse BBQ.  Ally saved me some food since I would be later due to baseball.  She gave nice speeches for everyone.

Guys!  I'm a good story teller!  I actually have a lot of fun telling them.  Some of them have to be told in person though.  Maybe that's why the blog is so hard sometimes, I don't feel like I get my emotion behind the post.

Blog Every Day in June

Every June, there is a challenge put out there, to blog every day.

I mostly fail at this.

Every year.

Actually, this blog was started due to that challenge.

So, maybe, just maybe, this year, I will succeed.

If you want to follow along and blog with me, here's a list of thirty topics to choose from.  I'm not sure if I will follow this exactly, I mean, who knows what will happen day to day or maybe, gasp, there will be more than one post per day.

June – 30 Days of Blog

1.       20 things about me

2.       10 songs of Pandora

3.       5 things of happiness

4.       Fears

5.       It’s June 2021, where do you see yourself?

6.       Reality shows

7.       Do you write for yourself or do you use your blog to connect with people?

8.       Outside your window

9.       12 Favorite Children’s books

10.   Comments: Closed

11.   Tell us about your best friend

12.   10 things to do this summer

13.   Memorable road trip

14.   Summer drink recipe

15.   Summer camp memory

16.   Morning or night person

17.   Bullet point your day

18.   Do you ever secretly take pictures of people without them knowing?

19.   Optimist or Pessimist

20.   Thank you letter to someone

21.   Maybe random day?

22.   Last Five Pinterest Pins

23.   Pick a music artist, pick your top 7 songs from them and post them

24.   Favorite Podcast

25.   Fun June Holidays

26.   You’ve been kidnapped…what television characters are going to rescue you?

27.   Fav YouTubers

28.   What’s in Your Bag?

29.   Photos of my family

30.   Hidden Talent

travels: St. Louis Zoo

Out last St. Louis adventure was to the zoo.  The zoo is free to get in.  The attractions though, do cost.  We got the Adventure passes online for $11.95, which saved us some money.


The girls visited every part of the zoo.  We went to the Sea Lion show, the 4D theater, the carousel, the petting zoo and the Stingray petting area using the adventure passes.  We ate lunch there and had giant ice cream cones.


If you have time for a zoo, stop here.  It's worth a few hours or more.

The girls at breakfast.  They were exhausted but up and ready for adventure.

The bear

Poop eating fish.

Interesting facts about Hippos.  You can't see this but there are fish
all around it's bottom area.  They are there because
when the hippo poops, it fans its poop everyone and those
fish eat the poop and the poop off the hippos body.

Alli watching the hyenas

Miniature Mongoose!

Brave girls petting a cobra.  Kinda cray cray!

Sea Lion Show Popsicles

She told a pretty horrible joke at San Jose...

Petting the stingrays.  It was pretty darn awesome.  They are
very loveable.  They feel rubbery and soft.

What is wrong with the llama?!?

Llama just needed Alli

The girls kept getting in trouble on the Carousel. 

This was built for the St. Louis World Fair in 1904.  It now houses birds.
Birds that poop everywhere.

These things were kinda gross,.

writer's workshop: Seeing Ghosts

Ghosts are scary, you all!  Super scary.  Who knows if they are real or not?  Is it our minds trying to make images out of the background?  Are we wanting to see those things? 

The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, England

I have a few stories that might be ghost related….

Back in late 2003 and early 2004, when I had a landline, I would receive phone calls.  The caller id showed up 000-000-0000 each and every time.  Sure, this had happened before, but mostly it just said Anonymous and didn’t show a number before.  It started after my grandmother had died.  That was August 16, 2003.  I started receiving the phone calls soon after that.  It started with just static.  Annoying static.  I didn’t stay on the line for long with those because I was just annoyed.  The static then turned to whispers that you couldn’t make out.  It was just the noise of talking in a soft voice.  I’m thinking “Who the heck is doing this to me?”   These calls came at all times during the day and night.  They didn’t have any rhyme or reason to them.  The night before Alli was born (September 15, 2003 is her birthday), I received yet another call.  This time I actually made out what was said.  I was so stunned; I dropped the phone and hung it up.  That’s when I made my guess on who was calling me.  The phone calls continued for around six months.  And they just stopped.

The second story relates to my grandmother too.  Fast forward to August of 2009…..we had Tanner’s birthday party that day!  His 10^th.  He had a skating party.  Friends and family came.  We had cake and pizza and all those things.  My mom had brought my niece, Scarlett and my sister, Lauren with her.  By brought, I mean rode in the same car together.  I sent Scarlett home with a balloon.  My mom stopped by the cemetery on the way home.  They got out, checked on my grandma’s headstone.  Made sure the flowers were okay.  When they got back in the car, Scarlett’s balloon was missing.  They figured it had just flown out of the car when they opened the doors and hadn’t noticed. 

I stopped by the cemetery the next day.  I found the balloon.  It was tied to the vase of a new grave behind my grandma’s.  Weird.  How did that even happen?  There is no logic to it.  The balloon would have went up and away.  Not down and across numerous headstones, then get tied to the one behind my grandmothers.

I do have one more story.  This happened when I first moved in somewhere.  Biggest mistake ever, but that’s not the point of this story.  I was sleeping one night.  I slept with the door open to the bedroom.  It was a small bedroom and I didn’t feel the need to feel like I was trapped.  I woke up.  Still groggy, I looked up and I thought I saw an elderly lady staring at me.   She turned around and walked away from the door.  Honestly, I thought I was still dreaming.  Maybe, I was. 

The next morning, Peyton asked me who the lady in the hallway last night was.

travels: Gateway Arch

One of the things the girls really wanted to do on our trip was visit the St. Louis Arch.  The Arch was under construction (not the Arch itself but other things) for a long time.  It's still under construction, but the Journey to the Top started again.  The sell out on the weekends.  I called and reserved our passes over the phone.  Girl Scout Troops get a special rate for the adults and you can only get it by calling in or buying at the ticket desk (I will warn you against the latter for the previously stated reasons)


The ticket office is currently located in the Old Courthouse (which is amazing inside, I wish we had more time to explore)  Customer service is most excellent both on the phone and in the visitors center.  Parking is easy to find.


The girls did the Junior Ranger pamphlet and got a little something something for it.


The Journey to the Top was very worth it, the views are amazing. 
If you go to St. Louis, visit the Arch and go to the top.  It's not overrated like a few say on review sites.  It's definitely worth it to do it once.


St. Louis Arch

approaching the Arch.

Nikki getting awesome pictures.

Hanging out at the bottom.

It really couldn't have been a more perfect day.

Everyone needs this Arch Fun Pic!

All of us.

The door is super short.  Duck!

The girls got their own.

In the capsule thing, hoping no one vomits on me.

Alli at the top.

That's St. Louis

That is straight down from the top of the Arch.  Lots of construction going on.

Busch Stadium while the game was going on.

Shadow of the Arch.  What time was it?

The Mississippi River and Illinois.  Every time I say Illinois, I want to say Illini with it.