Spring Break - The Arch

After the zoo we went to the mall for a little shopping and a late lunch.  We probably got to the the arch around 5:00.  The kids had been troopers.  Carver hadn't had a nap in two days, but he was still goin' strong.  We had really talked up how cool it was going to be to ride to the top

and look out over the city. 

Of course, when we got there the tours to the top were all booked for the day.  Apparently you have to get there in the morning, or at least a few hours early to get tickets. 

Who knew?

Underneath the arch is a museum.  We walked through, but the kids were tired, disappointed, and not very interested.  It was short and sweet. 

It took a lot of begging and pleading to even get them to take some pics. 

Once again, Macie exudes happiness...

Done.

Spring Break - St. Louis Zoo

Day two we went to the St. Louis Zoo -

an excellent zoo that is FREE! Dare I say the best zoo I've been to? Probably.

 I read online that from 9-10 a.m. the carousel and the kid's petting zoo are also free,

so we got there in time to do both. 

Charlotte loves any carousel. Unlimited riding was a dream come true. 

 Remember how Carver climbed 9 stories high in a tunnel made of rebar to go down a steep slide with no problem?  Well, he can do that, but as soon as his animal started going up and down he was horrified!

Charlotte kept saying, "This is my goat. She loves me brushing her."

 Distracted by an airplane -

Riley was SO thrilled to see an elephant, then we rounded the corner and there were more elephants!  Bigger and closer and even a baby!

(I often wonder if Macie will look back on all these photos and wonder why she was always so grumpy. Queen of the ice stare, I tell ya'.)

My Favorite-

Spring Break - City Museum

The weekend of Spring Break we went to St. Louis, which is about 3 1/2 hours away.

On the first day we visited City Museum - quite possibly the coolest museum ever. It is an old ten story shoe factory turned into the most amazing place of tunnels, caves, slides and play areas. It's hard to explain.  You just have to see it to believe it.

Giant ball pit

Arts and crafts area

Toddler toys

A room full of skateboard ramps

A little bit of this...

A little bit of that...

Outside was this climbing/play area with old airplanes and fire trucks suspended in the air and connected with all these tunnels made of rebar.  Crazy fun. 

Inside the cockpit.

I didn't see any reason why Carver couldn't climb up to go down the big slide. 

A little slow, but we made it.

Going down the slide!

The second floor is an aquarium. 

Carv tried his hardest to get in with the turtles.

Petting stingray

This tank is full of little doctor fish.  If you stick your hand in they will swim over and nibble on your skin.  It just tickles, but it is kinda creepy!

The other big attraction is a corkscrew slide that starts on the 9th floor and goes all the way down.  You have to go through a bunch of caves and up all the stairs to get to the top.  Unfortunately they wouldn't let Carv go, so we stayed back and didn't get any pictures. 

In No Particular Order

The girls finished playing Upward basketball.  They got to learn all about accepting Jesus at halftime and got rewarded for memorizing scriptures from the New Age Bible.  It is great.

I am all like, "STEAL THE BALL! DEFENSE! REBOUND!"

And their coaches are all like, "Let's play like Jesus would play."

I am pretty sure Jesus didn't play basketball, so we really don't have much to go off of.

I'm not trying to be sacrilegious, it is just an interesting combination of religion and sport.

In any case, it is a great league.  They even let Todd coach Riley's team after a little investigation into his reported Mormon religion and belief in the Book of Mormon.

Unfortunately I didn't get any game shots this year.  It is too dangerous to let Carver off my lap to use the camera.

Spring came to Owensboro in early March.  It has been wonderful.

Our ducks came back and the pear tree was beautiful.

I let the girl's spend the money they got from Aunt Maggie and Aunt Janet for Valentine's Day however they wanted.  They ended up buying jewelery, sunglasses and hand sanitizer, and they couldn't have been happier.

Thanks to Clark, and old friend from USU Athletics and the current ticket manager at BYU, we got tickets to round one in Louisville.  Riley woke up with pink eye, so she happily got to miss school and come with us.  A couple of minutes into the game she turned to me and said, "Mom, they aren't supposed to guard them until they cross half court!"

AND the girls became official UK supporters.

Macie's Program

All the grades at Highland put on a great musical performance each year.  Riley did a Broadway performance earlier in the year with songs from Grease, Rent, the Lion King and Give My Regards to Broadway.  Their music teacher does an excellent job; they are quite the production.
The Kindergarten classes do a circus program.  Macie was selected as a Ringmaster, so she was one of only 6 kids to have a speaking part.  She did an excellent job. 
Her part: And now my friends, it's time to see
the funniest bunch in town. 
They make us laugh so easily,
here come the circus clowns!
She has been signing "Clowning Around", "I'm a Lion", and "When the Circus Comes To Our Town" nonstop. I think we all have them memorized now.

New calling

Todd got released from being the Young Men's President and called to the High Council.  We had to drive to Evansville, Indiana to meet with the Stake President.  When he made the call, all I thought about was how much this would cost us in gas money.  I am horrible like that.  Our stake covers about a three hour traveling span from one end to the other.  Owensboro is kind of in the middle.  Fortunately his assignment is in the Newburgh ward, which is right by Evansville - so only about a 45 minute drive.  They also let people conference call for some of the weekly meetings, so it hasn't been bad at all.