4th of July Weekend

WARNING: THIS POST IS INCREDIBLY LONG...AND FULL OF PICTURES...ENJOY!

OK, so it's almost a month late. But we had such fun I couldn't NOT blog about it. Delmar was asked by someone at church to be on a pyrotechnics crew this year. The guys all went down to the St. Louis area Wed. morning and worked their butts off. Emily and I were asked to go down too. We rarely saw Delmar except when he slinked in bed at night (actually early morning) and for a few minutes before he left at the crack of dawn to start his day. The crews were responsible for setting up the firework displays, running wires and setting off the fireworks themselves. Delmar's first night was in Metropolis on a barge on the river. Those fireworks were set off by a flick of a switch. Here are a couple of pictures that he took that night.

On July 4th the crews were setting up fireworks in and around the Belleville area. That night at the St. Claire Country Club, he set off fireworks himself with a flare. He came in that night and said he had sooo much fun. He was like a kid in a candy store! I'm sure if I could have seen him, he would have been beaming.

So, what did Emily & I do for fun while daddy was working? Thought you'd never ask!

We spent the 3rd at the St. Louis Zoo with the wife and sons of the friend from church that asked Delmar to help. Trena and I went to Jr. High together and our moms when to school together too. Small world. Anyway, here are some pics from the zoo...

This is Timmy, Emily & Connor at the zoo entrance. We had the hardest time all day trying to get all three of them too look at the camera at the same time!

Did I mention my daughter is a ham! She has really gotten into doing the posing thing for pictures lately.

I ran across these flowers and they were just too pretty to pass up. Not sure who has the bigger mouth here...

All of the kids enjoyed brushing the goats. Not sure how the goats felt about it. This one seems to be trying to get away but Emily was very persistent!

So, for the 4th, Trena, I and the kids spent the day just hangin' until it was fireworks time. We started out at a little park area at Horseshoe Lake. The kids played and we had a great view of the St. Louis skyline that I'm sure most people around here haven't seen before.

During the play time at the park, I took time to play with some of the settings on my new camera.
The St. Louis skyline.

This is one CRAZY mushroom! Looks like a burnt carrot coming out of the grass.

After playing, we went back to the hotel to swim a bit and get rested up for the big night. Emily loved the pool and the hot tub was just close enough for mommy!
This fish tank was in the hotel lobby. All three kids like watching the fish.

We got to go up close and see the fireworks set up. I was kinda cool.

These are called "cake boxes"

We thought it was funny that all 3 of our kids had on Walmart 4th of July shirt then we ran across these kids...

Finally, we got settled in to watch the fireworks themselves. I wish I could insert the video here because it was AWESOME!!!!

HAPPY BELATED INDEPENDENCE DAY EVERYONE!!!

Survey From Roni

I have several blogs I read everyday. And Roni's Weigh (see link on the right) is one of them. Here is a survey that she posted and I thought it sounded fun. For some reason tho, when I copied and pasted, the numbers didn't come along and I'm too lazy today to fix it.


What time did you get up this morning? 8:30
Diamonds or pearl ? diamonds
What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Alvin and the Chipmonks-don't get to the movies very often.
What is your favorite TV show? Army Wives
What do you usually have for breakfast? a flakey cereal (raisin bran, Curves), Fiber One and milk
What is your middle name? Renee
What food do you dislike? nothing really
What is your favorite CD at the moment? I rarely listen to just one group, have a lot of different ones on my MP3
What kind of car do you drive? Dodge Grand Caravan
Favorite sandwich? PB&J
What characteristic do you despise? a smart mouth (expecially on a 6 year old!)
Favorite item of clothing? PJs
If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Australia
Where would you retire to? Don't really care to leave Illinois-sad ain't I
What was your most recent memorable birthday? BIG 40
Furthest place you are sending this? it's on my blog, hopefully it will be seen around the world...hahah
Person you expect to send it back first? I have know ideaWhen is your birthday? Jul 24
Morning person or a night person? morning
What is your shoe size? 9.5-10
Pets? fish and a cat
Any exciting news you’d like to share with us? No
What did you want to be when you were little? a truck driver
How are you today? wonderful
What is your favorite flower? lilac
What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to seeing? Aug. 27th-first day of school baby!
What are you listening to right now? the hum of my pc and birds chirping
What was the last thing you ate? Lean Pocket with some raw veggies and dip
Do you wish on stars? No so much anymore
If you were a crayon, what color would you be? yellow
How is the weather right now? Sunny and warm
Last person you spoke to on the phone? Tori
Favorite soft drink? Diet Dr. Pepper, but I don't drink it very much anymore
Favorite restaurant? Red Lobster
Favorite color? Yellow
What was your favorite toy as a child? my bike
Summer or winter? neither
Chocolate or Vanilla? Chocolate
Coffee or tea? Coffie
Do you want your friends to email you back? yes
When was the last time you cried? Last Tues or Wed, had a "Lori" moment (Lori who was my sister who pasted away 3 years ago-I miss her)
What is under your bed? Storage boxes with sweaters and one with wrapping paper
What did you do last night? Spent the night with my hubby in a fantasy suite for our anniversary
What are you afraid of? never being a healthy weight
Salty or sweet? Salty
How many keys on your key ring? 6
How many years at your current job?3
Favorite day of the week? Wednesday right now, it's my Friday for the summer!
Do you make friends easily? No, not really
How many people will you send this to? Anyone who reads my blog
How many will respond? not sure

You may be asking yourself...

how did she do that? Yes, that is her head and those are her feet. I decided one day that it was time to get her toybox out of her room. Afterall, the only things that were supposed to be in it were her dressup clothes. But, all of this other "stuff" kept finding it's way to the bottom of the box. So, out it went. I drug it to the living room and left it there for possible Freecycling. She came in from playing and draped herself over the top of the open box. Her belly fell into it and up popped her feet. I about died laughing and ran to get the camera.

Happy 10th Anniversary!

Today is Delmar and I's (is that proper grammar? oh well) 10th wedding anniversary. Here are the beautiful roses he had delivered this afternoon. Ironically, I had an almost identical arrangement sent to him this morning. But I won, I remembered a card and he didn't. Love you anyway baby!

We aren't doing anything special tonight but if you read my post a couple of months ago, I booked a fantasy suite at the Sunset Inn here in Clinton for Thursday night. Here is a link to pictures of the room.

http://www.sunsetinnandsuites.com/south.html

Yummy Lunch!

Figures I would break the non posting cycle with something food related but I couldn't wait to share! Many of you know that I started Weight Watcher in June. I've been trying alot of new recipes and making up some of my own. Here is what I had for lunch today. It is a pizza-mushroom, onion, spinach and feta cheese. It is so good and only 2 points for the entire 8 inch pizza! I could have ate 2 of them if I would have had more mushrooms!

Our Beautiful Girl

I know, I know....behind again. But I couldn't wait to share these gorgeous pictures of Emily. Our church had their annual 4th of July celebration on June 29th and a company from Tennessee came and took pictures of the kids. (It was actually a fundraiser for our Guatemalan missionaries). Without further adue...