Change it up...

Brandon and I did a couple errands this afternoon and I just wanted to share a silly story. Brandon was talking about how old he is and soon will be.
"Am I 3 and a half?"
"Yes, Brandon, you are."
"When will I be 3 nickels?"
this one I even asked him to repeat, just to make sure that I did indeed hear "nickels"
"You won't be nickels Brandon"
"Then will I be pennies?"
How silly is he? At least we know that he is paying attention when we are doing money with Jess...

St. Louis Zoo

We went to the Zoo Saturday morning after a morning swim. Steve and I had been here 4 1/2 years ago. We enjoyed it as much on our own (then) as we did with the kiddos this time. Not only did we think that it is a great place to visit, it is also FREE (!!) to get into.

This super cute fountain is at the North entrance. This is the real deal, and also super cute.
Jess and Brandon learning about the elephants from a zoo volunteer.
Brandon looking for the train.

The zoo train travels the whole zoo with 4 different stations for boarding.

Not only was he playing cute, he is also smiling! A keeper was offering treats such as apples, oranges and fish.
Not asleep yet, but worn out for sure.
It was late in the day when we finished up. Next up was the trek to the van. Free Zoo= Not so great parking. Jess trudged on her own, but B had to be carried. Needless to say, he was passed out pretty quickly. It was late when we finally arrived home. As an afterthought, said maybe we should have stayed another night and left early in the morning. Oh well, kids were sleeping just fine in their seats and stayed asleep when they were carried to bed. But, most importantly, we had a great mini-getaway.

We have lots of pictures of the animals, but difficult to get kiddos included. Being that it was a Saturday and a beautiful day, I think everyone had the same great idea to go to the zoo!

Swimming

What can be better than Daddy having a couple extra days off? And taking a trip? AND staying in a hotel? WELL, it would be staying in a hotel that has a POOL!! The kiddos could not wait to go swimming. What better way to make sure that they behaved themselves and ate their dinner, than to offer up swimming.
He would go all over the pool without his life jacket. Hanging onto the sides in the 4ft and walking in the 3ft, but would only jump with his life jacket.
She is swimming under water!! I was just amazed. We don't get too many swimming opportunities, so I just could not believe how well she did! Jumping in, touching the bottom, a regular ol' fish in water! SO PROUD!
LOVE this pic!
More swimming the next morning, then off to the STL Zoo!

ok, a few more pics...

Alright, just a few more. Just because... Aren't they cute? All on his own, giving hugs!

The SUN!! It did peek out a tiny bit!

St. Louis, here we come!

Jess had Spring Break last week. Daddy had to go out of town for a few days. While he was gone, we took a quick trip to see Grandma Anne. We managed to forget the camera at home. They also had an overnighter at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Luckily, Daddy was able to finish up his work out of town quickly and was able to take off Thursday and Friday. So, we decided that we needed to have a family getaway. St. Louis is not too far of a drive for us.
Click on the picture, you can see the kiddos running wild.
In the tiny elevator car to go to the top of the Arch.
Not exactly sure what this was about, but I really like the picture.
B decided that he did not want to participate in the family picture.
We had lots of other great shots of the kids. But in the interest of time and space... They so loved looking out the windows and seeing how tiny everything was. Jess got a kick out of Edward Jones Dome because "it has our name on it!" B not only loved being really, really high up, but also was fascinated with the view from the tiny windows in the elevator doors.

Creating Spring Pictures

It must be all of the talk of Spring Break, or that Spring is coming, or maybe even Spring Cleaning (insert shiver here)... But Jess has just REALLY wanted to make a "Spring Picture." On a trip to the shop-everything store I bought some of those foamy stickers. Flowers with J in mind and bugs for B. Not knowing exactly what her grand plan was, I dug out some of my (hardly used) scrapbook stuff. They had a good time!

Artists signing their work
Showing their work

Brandon's pic

Jess' picAren't they great!!

Catching Up

I really don't do a very good job of posting in a timely manner... So, it looks like I will have to do a bit of catch up! The Thursday before Easter we were able to "squeeze" a visit to the Bunny. It is good to know that each year becomes less painful. J and B actually seem to enjoy these visits now! We also colored eggs.
As a change of pace, Easter was at our house this year. It was nice having everyone over! AND... I am happy to report that everything was done on time and no "opps" (at least not that i am aware of!)

The kiddos getting started on their egg hunting. Jess trying to get the egg that rolled into the downspout.

What are uncles good for??

Ridin' and 'Restling around the living room!
And we close out Easter Sunday with SNOW!!