Heat, Humidity, and Hoosiers

I don't know what possessed us, but we thought it would be a good idea to go to the zoo today.  On a Saturday.  What?  We got a late start because we had a few errands to run first, which only added to the problem.  Kathy and Jon had already gone first thing in the morning and texted us that the traffic and crowds were insane.  Why didn't we just turn around then?   It literally took us an hour to get to the zoo due to construction traffic and a few unecessary detours because Allan does not know his way around downtown as he should.  We slowly drove through Forest Park and couldn't find a single parking spot.  I mean within miles!  Luckily, it was almost lunchtime, so we decided to distract the girls by going to Fitz's Root Beer for lunch in the Loop.  We were able to get seated quickly and enjoyed people watching and good food.  

I thought our adventure was over and we would be heading home, but instead of getting on the interstate, Allan turned back in to Forest Park.  Say what?!?  As if going to the zoo at 1:00 would be that much better than going at 11:00?  I haven't mentioned that it was already in the 90's with incredibly high humidity.  Not my favorite time to be outside.  However, we were able to find an unbelievable parking spot just a short walk from the entrance, so I thought everything would be ok after all.  We weren't walking for two minutes when some absolute hoosier lady started yelling and cussing in front of her kids at a car that didn't completely stop at a stop sign.  Classy.  She didn't stop yelling and cussing the whole rest of the walk in, so I made sure to watch which way they went and we went the other direction.

We headed straight for the new sea lion exhibit since the clouds were building and we could hear thunder in the distance.  Our timing was perfect because it was feeding time!  We loved watching the sea lions swim above us as we walked through the new underwater tunnel.  The thunder was getting closer and the crowds were getting thicker, so we hightailed it to our car.  I would say we were in the zoo for no more than 30 minutes.  Hooray, we made it to our car just as the heavens opened, only to find a parking ticket under the windshield wiper.  That awesome parking spot?  It was half yellow and half white.  Oops!!  It was a $25 ticket, so basically we paid a dollar per minute of our zoo visit.

I would say it was not our best day, but at least we were all together, right?

 Delaney showing off the hat she got at a yard sale.

 And Harper showing off hers from Old Navy.

 Mmm...Root beer!  Actually, the girls didn't really like it because they think soda is too "spicy" (carbonated) so they ended up just having water.

 Underwater viewing tunnel.

 Waiting for feeding time.

Yummy!

Random Photo Dump

Here are random pictures and videos that I downloaded from my phone today.  They are all from the past couple of weeks in no particular order.

Delaney is learning to hula hoop.  She can do longer than this, but this is what I caught on video.  She does not get this talent from me.

Mom met Deb, me, and the girls and Trevor at the new airplane park.  He couldn't get enough of his BaBa noises and kept licking Honey's hand for more.

Allan took the girls to Lowe's for one of their project days (they usually go to Home Depot) and they got their own hammers to take home.

Laney lost tooth number 6!  Mom and Ed kept the girls that night so Allan and I could go to dinner and a movie and the Tooth Fairy was able to make a stop at their house.

At Jon's Graduation party, the girls, Claire, and Luke helped Trevor walk, walk, walk!

 They also played "roll the ball!"

Harper went fishing in the rain forest, complete with rain boots, and asked me to "take a picture of me and show it to everyone we know".  I don't know who she gets that from :)

Father's Day 2013:

More pictures from the park:

SIUE Splash Pad!

The weather has been mild temperature-wise for the past couple of weeks.  It is nice to have the windows open with no A/C, but has stunk as far as going to the pool is concerned!  We finally decided to brave it today.  SIUE converted the old baby pool to a splash pad this year and the girls were excited to check it out.  The pool temp was 71degrees - frigid!  Thank goodness the sun came out.  

I am absolutely thrilled to say that today was a day I have been waiting for for 6 1/2 years.  I got to sit on my lounge chair and actually READ MY BOOK while the girls played happily and safely in both the splash pad and the shallow end of the big pool.  Delaney can touch and Harper wore her floatie when in the pool.  I didn't not have to get in, sit on the side, open the gate, or take them potty.   They even took their snack to the picnic table and ate it with some friends.  The girls were happy with their independence and I was in heaven with my freedom!  

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Early this afternoon, I got a text from our neighbor Scott asking if we could use his four free company tickets for tonight's Cardinals game.  Since the weather was absolutely perfect and we had no other plans, we jumped at the chance.  Harper has actually never been to a Cardinals game and Delaney hasn't been since she was a baby, like less than a year old.  The girls and I have no Cardinals clothes, so I dressed up in red and navy.  They looked adorable as always and got comments from the woman usher in our section.  

We found relatively cheap, super close parking and walked the 1/4 of a mile to the stadium.

Daddy and his girls.

Scott's company seats are straight down the 3rd base line and only 5 rows up from the field.  This picture was taken before the game started, but there were still very few people in our section which was nice because the girls could get up and move around without getting in anyone's way.

Best friends!

Mommy and the girls

We were lucky to be in the shade and have a great view of the arch.

Selfie!

We were a little far from the actual action on the field, so I just people watched because I had no idea what was happening in the game.  Matt Holliday stood pretty close to us, though.

Our stadium is so pretty.

We indulged the girls and got every kind of ballpark food - cotton candy, pretzel with cheese, nachos, and a hot dog!  

Doing the wave!

Between innings the girls and the two young boys who were near us ran down to the field to check things out.

There were two home runs hit at tonight's game (Beltran and Molina), so we got to see the fireworks as well!

The girls started to get chilly and bored (Harper actually spent about 30 minutes watching videos on my phone), so we left after the 7th inning stretch.  It was a perfect night and the Cards won 7-1 against the Diamondbacks.