eggs and horses

we stayed in kansas city this easter, which marked the first time i haven't been in st. louis for at least part of a major holiday. there were things i missed about easter in st. louis, but i was glad to be able to celebrate the best holiday with our church family in kc. plus my mom came to town and i still got to hunt for eggs, so i really can't complain.

since our siblings had other family events to attend i figured it was time to host my first holiday meal. it wasn't fancy, but it was fun! don and debbie came over and we had a little easter feast. i was pretty proud of myself.  

this past weekend we headed to st. louie because our presence had been requested for the 140th running of the kentucky derby. last year we just so happened to be at edith and edna's house celebrating my mom's birthday on derby day and it became quite the event. edna requested that we make it a tradition and we were happy to oblige.

i have to say that my favorite part of the day was when granny was watching us finish our game of dominoes and suddenly burst into song. it went a little something like this...

oh the big leg-ged women wear the big leg-ged drawers,

but me and my cousin we wear overalls.

classic.

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stl day

ah spring. the time of year missouri can't decide if it should be sunny or snowing.

since donald had time off from school for spring break we decided to head out of town for a week of relaxation at casa de marilyn. usually when we make a trip to st. louis we end up spending the majority of our time making the rounds to see family and friends [which we love to do!], but this time we took a different approach. we wanted our week to be pretty low key and relaxed, so donald and i each picked just a few things we wanted to be sure to do. 

he picked:

1. a stay at home day
2. a play with mark day
3. playing dominoes with my mom and edna

i picked:

1. puzzles [or 'playing puzzle' as our friend claire says]
2. skee ball date night
3. st. louis day

it's no secret...i love st. louis. and i wanted to get out and enjoy it so we packed a bunch of classic tourist attractions into one day and headed out on the town. first up was malcom martin memorial park, where you can catch a really great view of the arch if you're willing to brave east st. louis.

from there we headed back across the river to the arch itself to watch the 'monument to the dream' documentary about the making of the arch and take a ride to the top. [where we randomly ran into a family from our church in kc...literally at the top of the arch]  then we walked over to monty's sandwiches for lunch and ate outside in the shadows of downtown. it was one of those lovely sunny spring days and it was oh-so-nice to sit outside. next up was a stop at the best zoo in the land, followed by the missouri history museum where we checked out the exhibit celebrating the 250th birthday of st. louis. as part of the celebration there are 250 four foot tall cakes installed at different landmarks all over the st. louis area, and i'd say we spotted at least twenty five of them on our tour through town.  

we topped off the night at the loop with dinner at the legendary blueberry hill and root beer floats from fitz's. and it was a good day.

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the tour de donald

sixty two hours and fifty three people later (which may be a low estimate), the tour de donald is complete. we had a whirlwind weekend in st. louis where i impressed even myself with my scheduling abilities. there was not a moment to spare as i tried to squeeze in a meet and greet with as many friends and family as possible.  

we rolled into town on friday afternoon and after a quick stop at dr. jack's we headed straight to donald's first high school football game experience. it just so happened to be homecoming at francis howell and there also just so happened to be severe thunderstorms in the area. but being the super fans that we are, we sat though the rain with kim and my mom and cheered the vikings on to victory.

we started saturday off with a visit to the st. charles republican headquarters (where i felt really important knowing the girl in charge) before having lunch at a friends house. then we spent the majority of our afternoon at the park since our weekend visit just happened to coincide with the salem camp reunion picnic, which was pretty helpful for making introductions. donald got a crash course on my church family and the legend that is salem family camp. we contributed nothing to team abraham as we failed to bounce even one pencil into our glass (while the other teams each bounced three), but we did have a respectable finish in the egg toss.

after dinner and ice cream with some high school friends we headed back to my mom's house to watch mizzou's slightly disappointing football debut in the sec. sunday morning we made the rounds at church, followed by lunch with our regular crowd. and even though donald was anxious to get to a tv for the opening day of the nfl, we managed squeezed in a visit with edith and edna as well. later that day my aunt, uncle and cousins came over to eat dinner and evaluate donald for potential acceptance into the family. i've been assured that their report will be on its way soon and we're keeping our fingers crossed for a positive review.

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spring break in st. louie

ah spring break. a delightful week of amazing weather and some extra things things that made the week fun:

1. roommate

kim came with me to st. louis for a few days of relaxation. we hit up the casino buffet, stayed in a suite at the queen [thanks to my uncle mick and aunt linda], took the anheuser busch brewery tour, ate at fitz's on delmar and enjoyed the beautiful weather in downtown st. charles.

2. apples

i've mentioned these before. the caramel apples that dreams are made of. this is not a photo of them. i don't have a picture of our actual finished products because they were far from aesthetically pleasing. we're going to have to do some research...how in the world do you keep the caramel from sliding off? thankfully, they taste amazing either way. like little bits of heaven.

3. redbirds

did you know you can tour busch stadium? i'm not sure how i lived without that knowledge for so long. it was pouring down rain most of the time, but cleared up just in time for a visit to the cardinal dugout.

4. madness

march madness that is. and it's been madness all around. i love a good cinderella story [most of the time] but my absolute favorite tradition is the highlighting of the brackets. it just doesn't get any better for my type-a self.

5. airport

my mom was in israel for ten days and i missed her a lot [this is an understatement]. so i decided to make her welcome home extra special and surprise her at the airport. i was in st. louis the whole week and she had no idea. i had the perfect hiding place to jump out of with my sign. i'm so glad she's home!

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a day @ the zoo in the lou

missy, sophie and i took a quick road trip to st. louis last week to go to the zoo and introduce sophie to the joys of my vintage collection of my little ponies, complete with the dream castle. we had a great day with our long-time friends...the big ones and the little ones!

jen . shelly . missy

sophie . shelly . jonah

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happy mothers day

i love my mom SO much, i made her a 'new' laundry room for mother's day! actually, it was one of my goals for the year, and it just so happened that i was able to finish it on mother's day weekend. i completely forgot to take before pictures [can you believe it!] but here's the finished product...

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summer o' fun part one

the first installment of shelly's summer o' fun [aka - two weeks in st. louis] has been a little on the crazy side, but good just the same. i ended up spending the whole first week at church helping with camp edge, the new all-day version of vbs...yes that's right, i said ALL-DAY!! welcome to the world of crazy. my mom basically becomes an unpaid employee of children's ministry when the summer starts and i told her i would tag along on sunday and monday to help with the final preparations and the madness of day one. then on monday morning i was granted ownership of a highly coveted walkie talkie and i just couldn't tear myself away. [did i mention there were 750 kids? hence the need for walkie talkies and "support staff"]

once that week was over i was able to see some friends that i don't often get a chance to see when i'm in town, which is always great. we had some classic summer fun...played in the pool, saw a show at the muny, went to the old time picnic and played some serious games of settlers. and in between visits i managed to squeeze in painting most of my mom's garage. it's not totally finished, but i made some progress. now to get ready for africa...

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take me out to the ball game

i'm a little ashamed to say that until tonight, i had not yet been to the new busch stadium. i know, i know...how can i even call myself a st. louisan? but lucky for me my fabulous aunt and uncle came to the rescue this weekend with free seats in the best buy suite, courtesy of the casino queen. the cards weren't able to pull out a win, but they are still my favorite anyway.

me and uncle mick

me and my mom inside the suite

uncle mick . aunt linda . mom . me

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