More of St. Louis

 I hadn't gotten to the picture on Seth's phone yet when I wrote my last post, so here are a few more snapshots:

Looking up from the caves to the big slides

The caves area 

Out for supper! We had delicious seafood and the kids enjoyed their mocktails

On top of the arch

Under the arch

In front of the arch (I'm starting to feel like a PBS kids special on prepositional phrases)

Sculpture garden

The Spirit of St. Louis (which I had to explain to the kids - that's one old plane) 

Busch stadium 

St. Louis

We settled on St. Louis, MO for our family trip this year. Our main goal was to see the City Museum and it did not disappoint. It was like a dream come true for kids who like to climb and explore (and what kid doesn't, honestly) - and it was fun for all ages. It's hard to put into words so if you really want to get a feel for it, just watch a video on YouTube. We put in a full day there, and were exhausted by the end of it. We also hit up the zoo, the Arch, a ropes climbing course, the botanical gardens, sculpture garden and lots of good places to eat. 

We stayed in a nice Airbnb in Dogtown, which is the Irish district of St. Louis. At first we thought someone had just forgotten to take down their St. Patrick's Day decorations, but soon we realized every house and business was decorated with shamrocks and Irish flags. On our last evening, Olivia wanted to go for a walk so I strolled her around. After about 45 minutes, Seth send me a text saying "A little Irish goes a long way. You can't go 50 feet without stopping to talk with someone." And he was right! I think we walked 2-3 blocks and had 8 conversations with people who were also out walking with their dogs. Olivia was telling everyone that the next day was her birthday, and amazingly, of not one but TWO of the people we met had the same birthday!

Charlie is the one climbing in the center of this picture. If you look, there's a similar structure even higher up. 

Everyone (including Sam and Seth) had fun in the building room at the Science Center

Friday was Oliva's birthday. We went out to eat at an Italian restaurant, but she fell asleep on my lap after eating so we had to bring her birthday treat (cannoli) with us and sing to her in the car. She did not like the cannoli, by the way.

That evening we had "ice cream cake" with friends of ours from Kansas City who came to meet us.

The boys favorite feature from our Airbnb - an arcade machine!

This was some of our kids' very favorite thing in St. Louis. At the City Museum, there was a tank of little flesh-eating fish. If you put your hands in the water, they would come nibble all the dead skin off of your hands. This is Charlie. Olivia took a few hours before she finally put in just one finger - and that was enough.

The person we asked to take a picture of our whole family at the arch did a terrible job so this is all we have from that site. Oh well.

Freak Shakes! One has an entire brownie, peanut butter cup and chocolate dipped pretzel in it. The other has a cupcake, a snickerdoodle cookie and lollipop. They were delicious! 

Olivia with our friends' son, Ameson.

Charlie and Frank going down a 5 story slide:

And this is Sam going down a slide. He thought it would be fun to pretend it was absolutely terrifying. Unfortunately there was a young girl behind him about to go down and after watching him, she absolutely refused to go. He tried telling her he was joking, but she wasn't having it. Sam apologized to her mom, and fortunately her mom thought it was funny. Her poor dad had to climb all the way back down with her through narrow tunnels and climbing structures. 

Best quote of the week: 

On the ride home, we were working on getting onto the freeway, and the kids were requesting that we put in a movie for them to watch. We needed to focus on driving and had to keep telling the kids to wait. One of them asked again for us to start the movie and Seth, getting frustrated, said "Just wait! We have to get on the damn road first!" And Olivia piped up in a completely sweet and innocent voice, "We are on the damn road, Dad." Of course this triggered all the other kids to start giggling. We were trying really hard not to laugh, but she caught on that she had said something funny and was laughing, too. Fortunately she didn't repeat it!

Buzz Cuts!

It's now officially a tradition for Sam and his friends to get buzz cuts once school is out for the summer. The group lost two members and gained two. Charlie immediately regretted getting his buzz cut last year and said he would never do it again (smart kid!), and RJ wasn't allowed to get one this year. Ian, however, doesn't have a girlfriend to impress this year and took the . After watching the rest get their cuts, Frank decided he wanted to join in. - and he loves it!

Here's a picture from last year:

This year they got started a little early. Brayden and Levi showed up at our house Saturday morning the week before school ended wanting to try out mullets for a week before buzzing it all off. Only Levi's hair was long enough for a proper mullet and it was hilarious.

Then they ended up having scheduling conflicts on the last day of school so they all cut their hair the day before, which meant they all got to show off their new do's at school. But first, they gave each other TERRIBLE haircuts and went out in public to show them off. It was too late to go out to supper at the local restaurant so they had to settle for shopping at Dollar General. Usually you wouldn't run into too many people there, but they lucked out as a bus with the entire Dawson girls' softball team was there. The boys, of course, rolled with it, asking the girls if their barber did them good and if they thought their cuts were "worth the $100 they paid." Half the girls said they looked great, half said they looked horrible, and I think all of them have decided to never date boys from Minneota. 

On their way to Dollar General. 

Brayden

Levi

Ian

Sam

I don't have a picture of the completed buzz cuts, but they look pretty much the same as last year. The kids at school had a good laugh seeing them all the next day. 

Prom 2024!

 

Elena went to prom with her friend, Wyatt. Sounds like they all had a great time. Wyatt's only request was that she not wear anything red, orange or yellow because of his hair. And also not green because he didn't want to look like a leprechaun. Which gave us the idea to have him dress up as a leprechaun for the fun run and throw chocolate gold coins. He resisted the idea at first, but eventually gave it and they were a big hit! 

Here's a few pictures. We offered to take one of them with Seth standing in the background holding a gun, but they passed.

Making Poses

 Olivia: Look Mom, I'm the statue of liberty!

And 2 more quotes!

 As we were heading to our first graduation party of the year, I started trying to remind the kids that they needed to eat some healthy food before they hit up the cupcakes and desserts. It wasn't really working since they were all running out the door or looking for their shoes, so I said, "I'll just give you all a little pep talk on the ride over."

Olivia got a very worried look on her face, and said, "Do I like pep talks? Because I don't think I do because I don't know what they look like."

Last night Olivia had a nightmare that had her awake for about 20 minutes. She didn't say what it was about, but she kept asking if I was sure it wasn't real, and if I was sure there weren't any in the house. In the morning she said, "I'm still a little scared of the zombies in my dream." 

"Oh, I promise you zombies aren't real. It was just a dream," I said.

And she replied, "I'm glad zombies aren't real. And witches aren't real. Only spams are real."

"Spams?"

"Yeah, the people on the phone."

Frank's First Communion

 

Frank made his first reconciliation and first communion this month. He had a beautiful retreat with his class leading up to the big day, and it made a big impact on him. He was so moved to be receiving these gifts.

You may notice one family member is missing from this picture. Charlie ran home to change out of his nice clothes before we could catch him and grab a picture, so we did the best we could.

The weekend before, we all went to Easter Vigil together for the first time since Elena was a newborn. Sam and 3 of his cousins were able to serve for Mass. Charlie is hoping he'll get to serve with them as well next year! We thought Livi and Frank would fall asleep, but no such luck. It was a late night, but a beautiful one.