the jumping thing ..

the last time we went to saint louis ellie was 2 and a half .. she spotted the "jumping thing" then to .. we ate dinner at union station one night .. and sure enough .. the "jumping thing" was still there .. oh .. the twinkle in her eye .. so jeff forked over the 5 bucks and she got suited up ..

see ... really big rubber bands and a trampoline ..

see .. kinda high ..

ok .. time's up ellie .. you have to stop jumping now .. jeff is asking cash .. do you want to go next cash .. no way dad .. look how high ellie is .. i tell cash that we are going to go and buy him a new truck .. a really big one ..

ok .. really .. please stop jumping .. chicken little can't take this ..

the zoo ..

we love to go to the zoos in the different cities that we visit .. and saint louis is no exception ..

i love the penguins .. they are such a funny little bird .. a bird that cannot fly .. i told this to cash and he asked then why do they have wings mom .. because they are a bird ellie says .. all birds have wings .. i began to explain the whole concept of how at one time they could fly but how over time they evolved into a flightless bird .. he accepted ellie's answer and jumped into a big water puddle .. leaving me trailing in the middle of a sentence explaining evolution .. maybe later i say to myself ..

hello pretty girl ..

and these guys .. i think that cash could relate to these guys .. ellie told him that they were "cleaning themselves" .. he asked if they picked their noses to .. i said no .. it is rude to pick your nose .. well then .. do they use tissues .. not really i say .. well what do they do then mama .. jeff chimes in with they blow it onto the ground .. i then quickly follow up with they can do that because they are chimpanzees .. almost 4 year old boys use tissues .. i don't think he processed the last part of that conversation ..

this guy wore or carried this burlap sack everywhere he went .. he was the "trouble instigator" for sure ..

the burlap sack chimp walked on over to these 2 other fellas .. who were simply eating their carrots .. minding their own dang business .. enjoying the sunshine .. burlap sack chimp soon ruined their little quiet time they were having .. he swiped their carrots .. grabbed his sack and ran .. they then chased him down .. stole back their carrots and took his burlap sack .. he then ran up a big branch .. flew thru the air .. landed on one the other chimps .. stole back his sack and the carrot .. it was so fun to watch and happened in about a split second .. i told ellie that she might rethink taking food off of cash's plate .. there is no telling what he might do ..

so pretty ..

so .. not pretty

so interesting .. ellie was telling cash that grandpa had a camel once .. but that we had to get rid of her because "she about stomped mama into the ground" .. cool cash says .. i am sure cash was saying cool to the fact that grandpa once owned a camel .. not that i was almost stomped into the ground ..

and with all the great zoos that we have been to .. they are always smack dab in the middle of a really cool park .. this one had a fun fountain .. or water feature as ellie called it .. i am wondering what she has been reading lately ..

saint louis .. at night ..

this is the hotel at night .. ellie thought that it looked like a file folder with different colored tabs on top .. silly girl ..

the arch .. at night .. very pretty ..

i love this bridge ..

and this .. i want this building .. like i want to buy it .. remodel it and live in it .. ellie kept telling jeff to go down to the casino and win the jackpot so that he could buy me this building .. it is the most beautiful building i have seen ... amazing stone work .. arches everywhere .. and all those windows .. image the light that comes thru those windows and the pictures that i could take in a building like that ..

needless to say .. jeff did not win the jackpot .. and he did not buy my that building .. cash said that he would though .. thanks cash i said .. i will buy you that building mama because i love you .. oh cash .. if i buy you that building can i ride my skate board in it mama ?  i knew he had other plans ..

a little side note .. jeff took these pictures .. i was sitting beside the outdoor fireplace inhaling the chocolate dessert that jeff ordered .. after all credit should be given where it is due ..

the budweiser clydesdales .. oh my !!

after our breakfast by the window we headed down the street a bit to the budweiser factory .. ellie wanted to see the clydesdale's .. jeff wanted to see the beer .. cash wanted to see the big trucks and i wanted to see the barn ..

these horses are amazingly huge and beautiful .. the grooms spend about 2 hours grooming them a day .. and then they are turned out for 2 hours a day .. they have about 6 horses at the factory .. the others are at grant farm ..

the tack room .. oh my .. this tack room is cleaner and tidier than my kitchen .. that pretty much goes for the whole entire barn .. there is a tiffany chandelier hanging in the center .. right .. because all barns have tiffany chandeliers hanging in them ..

look .. a family picture .. with me !!

this is the beechwood aging cellar .. it holds 3600 barrels of beer .. it stays here for about 30 days .. after this it goes thru a filtering system and then onto the bottling plant .. you would have to drink a case of beer a day every day for 100 years to drink all the beer in one of these containers ... and they are very very cold .. just ask cash ..

this is jerome our tour guide .. i asked him what happened when they had a bad batch of beer .. he said ..no problem .. they just send it up to milwaukee and call it milwaukee's best .. such a comedian ..

the grounds were beautiful .. every building was beautiful .. they have 5 historic landmarks on site .. jeff asked if the employees got free beer .. why yes they do .. 2 cases a month .. !!! i wonder if they have any part time openings in the barn ..

this is the bottling part .. on one side they filter the beer and on the other side they bottle it .. lots of clinking of bottles .. it was a neat sound in a loud kind of way ..

this line was packaging bud light in cans ..

see boxes of beer ..

for the big kids .. samples .. for the little kids .. root beer and pretzels .. i will have to say that was the coldest .. freshest .. and i can't believe i am saying this .. me .. the non-beer drinker .. but delicious bud light lime i have ever had .. i could have pulled up a chair and stayed awhile .. as long as someone would have driven me back to the hotel .. i made this comment to jeff and he reminded me that we were in missouri and that they have 6 point beer .. not 3.2 like oklahoma .. oh .. yea .. i say .. i like missouri ..

we are on fall break ..

when cash and i got home from the fire station on wednesday we picked up ellie from school .. picked up jeff from the shop and hit the road .. we spent 6 hours in the car to end up in st. louis .. when we checked in these items were waiting for us ..

it is the st louis arch in rice crispy treat .. the chocolate river boat has chocolate chip cookies in it ..

and then her most favorite bath products .. and then for when she gets out of the 8 feet deep bath tub ..

her very own robe ..

what was there for cash .. he got a car that about sent jeff over the edge to assemble .. oh .. and not to worry .. mrs. spielmann was taken care of as well ..

so after a quick bath and a dry off in her new robe .. we all hit the hay .. it was late ..

the kids and i slept in .. jeff found the grocery store and a starbucks .. ummmm .. we ate breakfast and got dressed .. we spent thursday touring the budweiser factory .. it was pretty neat .. the kids really liked it .. jeff really like it .. for 2 totally different reasons .. that's for tomorrow ..

the water main break ..

tuesday night we were finishing up dinner at mom and dads .. the kids had gone home with jeff .. i was helping mom clear the table and start dishes ... she went to turn on the water .. and .. no water .. a few minutes later you could hear the back hoe coming down the road .. so i called the water dept and sure enough the lady said .. do you live at grand point .. yes mam i said .. well then you have no water ... they are working on it .. not sure if they will have it fixed by tomorrow she says .. good night .. i relay this information to mom .. and go home ..

by the time i walked home jeff and the kids had gotten in the ranger and gone down the street to investigate what was going on .. and yes .. cash is wearing his new fire man costume and ellie is wearing her new fairy outfit .. at least she has on shoes ..

evidently there was a huge geyser of water squirting up into the air .. the sheriff showed us on his phone .. a pipe underground broke .. someone going down to grand point called it in on their onstar .. onstar called the delaware county sheriff .. he came and checked it out and called the water department .. we tried to do dishes .. no water .. heard the backhoe come down the road .. kids and jeff jump into ranger to follow the back hoe to the muddy mess ..

in case you wondering how it all came about and why we are outside in our halloween costumes looking at the water department dig a hole in the ground instead of packing to leave for saint louis and finishing homework ..

before he could start to dig with the backhoe 2 things had to happen ..

1.. rec had to show up to say that yes indeed the power lines are above the ground and on the other side of the street .. so the very nice rec guy had to get up from dinner at the table with his family .. jump in his very big bucket truck .. drive over to our neck of the woods and indeed confirm what the water dept had told him .. he stayed for a total of 5 minutes .. got back into his big bucket and drove home ..

2 .. the phone company had to come and mark their lines .. they are underground .. the backhoe driver said that he would wait until 8:15 and then he was going to dig .. the water went off at about 7 .. i guess he figured that waiting for over an hour was enough .. it was getting cool and he did not want to sit in his backhoe all night waiting for some guy to mark phone lines ..

the good thing is the water came back on about 9:45 .. i had already done all the laundry for saint louis and we didn't have to much homework .. the bad thing is the kids had to take a bath in the pool .. that was the only water supply we had .. and luckily the water was not to cold .. we didn't wash our hair but we washed our feet for sure ..

i was quite an exciting night .. hanging out with the water department ..

sunday afternoon ..

greg and jeff took advantage of the nice weather and free labor running around to wash cars on sunday ..

ellie got all the bugs off the front of my car for me ..

jeff got the bq all cleaned up ..

hunter got all the bugs off of greg's car ..

jeff was observing all the "workers" .. to make sure that they didn't miss a spot .. they did pretty good .. all the cars got cleaned .. jeff was telling everyone that when they finished up here they could move into the backyard and start to pick up all those rocks .. and then over to mimi and papa's to pull weeds out of the flower beds .. greg said i don't think so .. and the kids ran off ..

a field trip .. for cash ..

wednesday cash's class from new haven took a field trip ... hampton .. cash's most favorite person in the whole world next to granny & granpda, mary & ross and noah .. his daddy is a fireman for the Tulsa Fire Department .. he arranged for the 3 year olds to visit the airport fire station ..

the kids got to go all around the station .. in the kitchen .. where they sleep .. into the office .. and of course into the "garage" where they keep the big trucks .. i can't remember what they called it .. i was busy taking pictures ..

the fire suit that the airport fire fighters wear is different than the bunker gear the other fire fighters use .. they don't fight structural fires at the airport .. they fight fuel fires .. the silver reflects the intense heat of burning jet fuel .. it was soft .. i thought that it would have been crunchy like aluminum foil .. he was kinda scary looking ..

look at that group .. the kids had a great time .. thank you ronnie miller and all the fire fighters .. you were the highlight of their day !!

Guess where we are going today ?

i think ..

1. i think the first 8 oreos that i eat should be free of calories .. any oreos that are eaten after that can count ..
2. i think that if you do 5 loads of laundry in one day .. any remaining loads should fold themselves ..
3. i think that people shouldn't notice the differences among other people until they are mature enough to handle the fact that we are all different .. and it is those differences that make the world so great..
4. i think that if people can't say anything nice then they shouldn't open their mouth ..
5. i think that if your leg didn't hurt while you ran the first 3 miles that it should not hurt the last 3 miles ..
6. i think that every parent should read to their kid every night ..
7. i think that your favorite pen should never run out of ink ..
8. i think that it should not be warm enough to wear shorts in october ..
9. i think that my car should fill itself up with gas ..
10. i think that all the grass should fall off my dog, sophie, before she walks into the house

you are asking yourself .. i bet jenny was on the motorcycle today .. that is alot of thinking .. no .. i ran without bon jovi today .. i needed to clear my head of some crazy thoughts .. so instead of bon jovi .. i made this list .. i shifted my focus .. i worked thru my weird and my "i shouldn't feel this way" thoughts ..

then i came home and ate 8 more oreos ..

now all is good ..

bring on the next crisis .. i am ready ..

dog chasing kids or .. kids chasing dog ..

greg and hunter came up this weekend .. greg wanted to relax and enjoy the lake .. instead his weekend turned into soccer games .. crazy kids and crazier dogs ..

after dinner the kids were on a mission to "catch" lucky ..

cash had the brilliant idea to put the swimming pool leaf catcher on his head .. maybe it makes him run faster .. i am thinking that he was going to scoop up lucky like jeff scoops up leaves ..

they almost had him .. so many times ..

they gave up in the end .. lucky won .. the kids moved onto something else .. they ran out of energy after 30 minutes or so .. lucky .. however .. did not  ..