Allee's Review

When we moved here I wanted to keep dancing in Allee's life. It is something she enjoys and I figured it would be a good constant in her life. I signed her up at the local dance studio called By Grace. She did tumbling and dance although tumbling was her favorite.

June 5th was her review and she was adorable. She loves being on stage and all of the

glitz and glam that goes along with it. We are so proud of her and all of her improvement this year.

She is our little STAR and we sure love her.

Tooth Fairy

Allee was so excited to finally loose her first tooth. It has been wiggly for months and the last week of May I knew it was going to fall out at any minute. On Friday the 28th she and I wiggled that thing like crazy and we could even turn it completely around, but it wasn't coming out. We finally gave up and sent Allee to bed.

Saturday morning she came in our room WAY too early to tell us she, "just wiggled it with her tongue and it came right out!" She was so excited.

Her Gra had made her a special pillow to hang on her bedpost to put her tooth in, and the next morning the tooth fairy had left her, "A PAPER MONEY!!!" What a funny girl.

Fireflies

Now that we live in Missouri we are so excited to see fireflies. They are the most interesting and beautiful little bugs. One night when we were out on a walk they started coming out so Derek and the kids ran around the neighbors yard and caught a couple. We were all fascinated. I had no idea what they looked like and they really are ugly bugs in the light, but THIS is what they look like in the woods behind our house . . .

MAGICAL.

St. Louis

This weekend we were fortunate enough to get some great Cardinals vs. Angles tickets from Schreiber, so we decided to make a weekend out of it. On Friday we loaded up the kids and drove 3 1/2 hours east.

When we got there our hotel was only about 5 minutes from the temple so we decided to go check it out. It was absolutely beautiful. The grounds were gorgeous, and they had these amazing little flowers that were orange, yellow, and pink all on one little stem. They are my new favorites and I have to figure out what they are!

It is amazing the spirit you can feel just by being there. It has been a while since we have been able to go to the temple, this is the nearest one and we don't quite know anyone well enough to leave them with our kids all day.

After we checked into our hotel we headed to the game. All Pierce has been talking about for the past week was, "baseball". He was so excited to get there. He is such a BOY! Derek took Allee to try to get a ball from batting practice and she was so close! The kids to her left and right got balls, so when they came back to our seats she was not happy. After the promise of some cotton candy she perked right up. We had some tasty hot dogs and some amazing garlic Parmesan fries and settled in for the game. The Cardinals won, which is always fun when the home team wins. Allee got her promised cotton candy and Pierce picked out a blue hat. It was a great evening.

The next morning we woke up and took a trip to the St. Louis Zoo. It is an amazing zoo and the best part is admission is free! There is so much to do and see. Allee's favorite animals were the elephants, and they were so close! Pierce loved the monkeys. You can see how they settled in next to the glass and he kept telling them about his blue hat. He LOVED them. It was such a hot day, around 91 degrees with 90% humidity so we all enjoyed the train ride. The only down side to the zoo is that in order to park for free you have to walk a bit. We didn't mind since we had brought two strollers and both kids fell asleep on the walk back to the car. I love seeing the kids light up at the animals and something about the zoo makes me feel like a kid too.

The last thing we did before heading home was we stopped at Gateway Arch. I was so excited to go up in the arch, but by the time we made it there the tickets had sold out for the day. Note to self and anyone going there, book online! We did enjoy seeing the mighty Mississippi and the arch is absolutely beautiful. It is SO tall. Next time we are definitely going inside.

Before heading home we stopped and ate at The Cheesecake Factory, the best dessert I have had in ages! When we were leaving we passed Tori Hunter, a player for the Angels. Derek was so excited.

The kids were exhausted and we were as well, so we headed home. The kids watching Curious George and Derek listening to his Celtics on the radio. I took them all in and enjoyed the wonderful family I have.
It was a wonderful trip and just the getaway we needed. It is so fun to take the kids new places and we feel very blessed to be able to do all these fun things.

5K

I never thought it was possible. In fact if you would have told me a few months ago that I would even want to run a 5K I would have told you that you were crazy. But that is exactly what I did.
Some girls in my ward were talking about running it, and I thought it sounded pretty easy and they convinced me to run it. I came home and told Derek my plan and he thought I was crazy. The 5K was in two weeks, and I absolutely HATE to run. I didn't train except for running a couple of miles a few days before the race. I didn't want to be fast by any means, I just thought it would be a huge accomplishment for me to do it. A few prominent men in my life, (Derek and my Uncle Matt) doubted my mad running skills, and that fueled me even more.
It was SO much fun. It was a freezing cold morning, but the miles went by quickly, in fact I was surprised when I hit the one mile mark. I will definitely do it again. The feeling of me actually accomplishing it was exhilarating. I was not fast, in fact it took me 35 minutes, but that wasn't the point. I did it, and it has been a long time since I have been able to accomplish something myself that didn't have anything to do with Derek or the kids.
So the moral of the story, this girl that HATES to run did a 5K, and loved every minute.