Half a Week in St. Louie

Ben and I stayed an extra 4 days in St. Louis with Grandma and Papa! Here is a picture I took of the arch. I didn't edit it yet...

We toured the brewery! That was really neat.

Grandma and Papa eat out for lunch and don't eat dinner. So we got to go out to eat every day! And we also got deserts each time. :) Even the time we went to Arbys. I got a Jamocha shake! YUM!

On Monday we ate at the Four Seasons Hotel restraunt. It was so fancy. They had fresh ham and sushi at the buffet bar! I ate so much I could hardly move, and I wasn't hungry for dinner or even much breakfast the next morning. We looked around the hotel, at least the places you are allowed if you aren't staying there. Everything was so neat and fancy. The workers there opened doors for you (even car doors). Everytime they did that it made me feel like giggling, or pretending I was a princess. :) I think regular people need to hold doors more often. Then everyone can feel like a princess (or prince or king or whatever). Just like Rose said in The Shadow of the Bear: "Have you ever felt that there's a story going on that everyone is a part of, but not everyone knows about? As if the people you meet aren't just their plain, prosaic selves but are actually princes and princesses, or fantasical creatures who have hidden their real shape, who don't remember who they are?" (I'm paraphasing here, I couldn't find the quote in the book so I just went from memory)

There I go, rambling agin. *supercilious sigh* lol, look at me, being supercilious to myself! Okay, back on topic. Trip to St. Louis.

We also took a tour of the Fox theater. We took a ton of pictures, but it was dark so they didn't turn out great. :P They had this whole hallway where the cast would sign their names on the wall. I took pictures of a bunch- they had nearly every musical imaginable there. :)

This was the chandelier at the Fox. It looked tiny, even from the very top balcony, but it is actually 12 feet in diameter! It reminds me of the chandelier in The Phantom of the Opera. *shivers delightedly*

We didn't get to go onstage :( because they are working on the stage. Did you know that every show brings in its own stage floor? So that you can do all those disappearing things with trapdoors and whatnot.

We also went to the art museum (yay!) but half the stuff looked like it belonged in a history museum, and a ton of it was abstract (aka, utterly pointless blobs of paint in my humble opinion. One was these four celieng-high sheets of plain gray, shiny metal. And that is art...?) They had a couple Monet paintings, and several awesome realistic ones. I got a few ideas for artwork.

We did tons of other stuff, and had a Blast.

Grants Farm

We went up to St Louis the day after Mark's birthday. While we were there we went to Grants Farm! I think Marcus loved it.

We saw the "Elephant show"

During the "Animal Show", they needed volenteers for a "Rat Race". William got picked! The rat was supposed to race across his arm to the arm of the boy next to him. First, the man doing the show put the rat on Will's head. Then... he put the rat in Will's hat and put his hat on his head!

This was my favorite part- the rat crawled into Will's shirt!

Marcus loved the sprinklers over the sidewalk. I played with him in there, and I got SOAKING!

*drumroll* A TURTLE!!!

Papa and Addie

The Muny

On Sunday I went to the Muny!!! The Nisbetts and some other people from Fine Linen Drama rode up to watch "Annie" in the Muny's free seats. I hitched a ride at the last minute. :) 

Three "beautiful maidens" in the backseat. 

Best buds

Elise, trying on the beautiful paper hat that they were handing out. 

 Benjamin and the mutilated fan

The Muny is gigantic!

We were stuck in traffic for an hour on the way up. The guys in the Nisbett van decided to taunt us with Oreos. LOL

Then they discovered a dry erase board. The first one says Turn Around and the other one says Do a Dance.

"Annie" started after eight, and it was two in the morning before we got back. Weeeeell, I had to get up for volleyball open gym at nine. I was going to take a nap after volleyball, but then we discovered we were showing the house. To top all that, we were watching Michelle and Andrew because Bob is in the hospital with. After we showed the house and the Woodleys left, I babysat Nick, Addie, and Mark while Mom took the other boys to Boy Scouts. We were watching TV, Nick found a Star Trek Next Generation episode. So of course I got hooked on that and stayed up even later. The next morning I slep until TEN!!! !!! !!!

Oh, yes, one other thing. Adelynn comendeered by bed last night. I set up the canapy for her. WARNING: If you have a younger sister and a canapy, DO NOT set it up and let her sleep in your bed. SHE WILL WANT TO SLEEP IN IT FOR FOREVER!!!

Pictionary

Today we were playing Pictionary. Mom and I did pretty well (she even got yodel!). Ben and Will, on the other hand... :) Ben thought that sissors were monkeys (???) and William thought that Ben's mountain was a triangle with water in it.

Smile!

Did you know that it is impossible to be a pessimist? No? Allow me to demonstrate.


Optimists can be described as "cup half full" people- those who look on the bright side of things. Pessimists, however, are described as "cup half empty" people.

Now, take a moment to thing about this. Optimists are "cup half full", in other words, they can be described as Cup = 1/2 x Full. Allow Full to equal one, and you see that the optimists' cup has half as much as it can hold.

Pessimists are "cup half empty": Cup = 1/2 x Empty. Now, empty is obviously equivalent to zero, correct? And any number times 0 is 0. Therefore, a pessimists outlook on life is Cup=0.
That's like saying that the "cup" (outlook on life) doesn't even exist! But all humans exist, or else they would not be alive. And in order to be the living, rational creatures that humans are, you must have some sort of outlook on life.

Therefore, it is mathematically impossible to be a pessimist!

Silver Dollar City

We went to Silver Dollar City on Friday and Saturday! I had so much fun! Adelynn was tall enough to go on most of the rides- she is so cute! On Thunderation, I rode backwards with her, and she held up her arms the entire time, screaming bloody murder, and then laughing when she got off and begging to go on it again. Mom and Dad took pictures on their phones. I'll figure out how their phones work and post the pictures.

I am finally able to walk properly again. :) All but two of my blisters are gone, and my little toes have returned to their normal size. I discovered that what I thought were bruises were actually blood blisters. :P So, while we were in Branson we went shoe shopping.

GUESS WHAT I DISCOVERED?

Shoes that do not pinch my feet, cause blisters, or cause cramps really do exist! Men's size 8 Wide 4E. So, yeah, I am wearing men's tennis shoes. :P And some men's shoes look just like womens'. The extra-wideness is only the tiniest bit less wide than my feet. I wore the shoes all day at Silver Dollar City, on all those hills, and did not get a single cramp or blister. I think we solved my shoe problem!

Now, if only I could get dress shoes in men's extra wide...

First of all- my apologies for not posting.

So- the same questiong again: What have we been up to?



Or, at least, that seems to be the way I start most of my posts. :)



Well, on Friday I went on a 20 mile hike with all the amazingly awesome people from Fine Linen Drama! I had TONS of fun.

I did get some pretty nasty blisters, though. :( My shoes were worn in- I'd been taking long walks in them for months and months. Yet just a few extra hours gave me nine blisters... none of which have gone away yet. :( But I had a huge amount of fun and would totally do it again!

The nice thing about really big blisters is that it makes it hard to walk. So you can make your little siblings carry stuff for you. :) Aren't I the nicest sister?



The cast party was on Saturday- TONS of fun, especially Murder in the dark. :)



I'd post more but its dinner time. So...



No, I didn't get any pictures.



Oh, and one more thing. Don't know if I posted this and Dad hasn't downloaded his pictures yet, but Nick had his First Communion! (I posted that, didn't I? It was quite awhile ago, two weeks maybe) He's been serving at daily Masses- he looks so cute up there at the altar! (I'm glad he doesn't read my blog- he would kill me for saying that!)



Anyway, now I really need to go to dinner.

The Long-Awaited Pictures

It was so nice out on Thursday! Then it had to go and get all cold again. Brr. Yesterday I only grabbed a sweatshirt on my way to play practice, and BRR! And I normally don't get cold at all...

The "Mudball King". No kidding.

Playing in the mud

Marcus reminds my of James Hamacher in this picture. Not sure why...

Our broken tree. :-(

Our not-broken tree. :-)

The often-fought-over hammocks. I can't believe that no one was sitting in them...

Aww. Markie is just too sweet.

On our rock wall.
I love my camera. :-)

Catapillar

Today was a really nice day out! It's hard to believe that about a week ago we were out playing in the snow.
Today we all went and played outside for hours (I took pictures, but I don't have my camera right now, so...)
Nick and Adelynn were playing in the mud by the playhouse. Nick found a worm and they named it Catapillar. And then Nicholas put the worm on the swingset. Adelynn started screaming, and I thought it was because Nick dared to put a bug on the playset.
What she was actually screaming was: "OH NO! Our new friend is stuck!"
And that is the story of how they got a pet worm for about half and hour.

Afraid of Heights?

I have some cute pictures of Marcus to post, but for now I just have this video I got in an email- Wingsuit Diving or something. It's... ACK! Amazing.

Snow Video!!!

I took my video camera out in the snow- and, wonder of wonders- I made a video of it! Sorry its so choppy, I did it really quickly on Windows Movie Maker. Its ok for a first try I guess. I'm excited though, because Dad showed my how to set it up, and I can actually get my videos onto the computer by myself!

It takes ages to get the video onto Blogger! Oh, well... I can't hear any sound, but then again, that is most likely just this computer.

SNOW DAY!!!

SNOW DAY! (Actually, it was mostly just little ice balls, not hail, not snow, and we should have done school but its just been a lazy day. Here are some pictures:)

The skateboard ramp is great in snow!!!

Sorry this is sideways- I forgot and turned the camera to the side while filming it...

Will's Week Long Visit

William went to Grandma and Papa Archibald's house for a full week. The rest of us are all a bit jealous- he got to go out to eat every single day, visited so many places, got peace and quiet, and got to be just totally spoiled. (That same week I had drama camp- which was awesome, but I don't have any pictures of it). He missed Marcus' birthday, though. Grandma and Papa took these pictures. Will said that they did tons more things than what is shown in these pictures. He probably was not exaggerating.

Playing Ticket to Ride- Switzerland Edition

Playing pool with Papa in the pool room. It's no wonder he kept beating me when we went to go pick him up- he got a week's worth of practice!

I think that this is at Incredible Pizza

Drinking something somewhere

He ate at least half of a watermelon that week!

Clydesdales at AB

???He is shooting a car???

I am not sure what this is- William said that this is the hotel where all the rock stars go and this is a pool that is only a couple of inches deep and is red.

Eating at the Spaghetti House. William got a special drink with a special cup. For the past couple of days, he has refused to drink out of anything but his Spaghetti House cup.

They went to the Arch

They visited the AB brewery.

At the Science Center

Inside the Arch

He got to do a trampoline with bungee cords--- I am so jealous.

Go-Karts

By the way, the thing with that hat- at Trish's wedding, she gave all of the guys St. Louis Cardinals hats to wear for the funny pictures. Will's had little fires on the brim, and he loved it. He wears that thing every day (though not every day at our house because he risks getting it grabbed off his head and then he would have to chase whoever took it).