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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sealed with a kiss

i love getting the mail. it's one of life's little pleasures. and we've just had a very exciting week in mail getting. the first to arrive was a big blue box with our wedding album in it and i must say...it was worth the wait. i love it. it was exactly want i wanted.

then a brown box came. and this one has a back story.  

we've already had two garage sales since i've moved to 78th street, resulting in a number of unneeded items leaving the premises. this makes me exceedingly happy, but tends to bring donald a twinge of sadness. he loves all of the treasures. which brings us to the fateful saturday last summer where donald, being the loving husband that he is, was gathering a few last minute things he thought he could part with to add to our sale. one such item was a cookie jar. but not just any cookie jar...a cowboy cookie monster cookie jar.  

long story short...he sold it for $1. 

and then he was sad. so very sad.

i've heard a lot of lamenting about the loss of this beloved family heirloom so i decided i would plan a little surprise. enter...the brown box. it took a couple days for him to open it [i was trying to play it casual so i stuck it in a corner of our room until he noticed] but it definitely made his day. and now all is right with the world because this guy is back on 78th street.

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