elephant see elephant do

I love our zoo. Yesterday, we saw the new elephant exhibit. Take a look at the fun in the 96 deg weather! We are as close as we appear. This is by far my favorite exhibit at the zoo now... sorry hippos.
It looked like so much fun that we had to do it too! splash'in fun

hot

St. Louis has a great park with fountains for kids to play in. Since it was 98 deg, we decided to get wet.
*see the arch in the background
*didn't realize that the poor kid in the background was naked!

We sure had fun.

design hop- before

I am in a club called "Design Hop". We meet once a month at someone's house and work magic to their living space. The organizer is a professional interior designer. They came to my house sometime last year and really did wonders on my guest bedroom downstairs. Now, with my newly painted walls with crown molding, I am ready for them to come again and help with my awkward living/dining areas. Here are the before pictures:

backpacking tryouts

We decided that we were going to take Ryan's mom and sister backpacking the first week of summer. We are going to go down to the highlands of the Ozarks in Arkansas. I guess there are lots of waterfalls. I am super excited about it. But, we had realized that we had never gone 1. backpacking (me) 2. camped with our dogs outside (usually they stay in the car). 3. Carried everything with us that we were going to use. So, we had to try it out. With a limited amount of weekends left until summer, we had to go this past weekend. It was not the best timing for me. I just got done with the senior luncheon Thursday and I had graduation on Saturday. So, Friday night we packed up after work and headed out. We went to St. Francois State Park and hiked in. It was supposed to thunderstorm the whole time but held up for us to get set up. We found this absolutely perfect spot on the top of a huge hill with lots of cool rocks (no danger of flooding this time). Here we are setting up camp:

We found ticks. I had 3, Ryan had 1, Dennis had none (the only one with bug spray on).

This was our campsite as we took it down in the morning. The blue tarp was the dog's tent.

Overall, it was a good experience. We know we can do it. Here is our good little camper.
Here he is eating his favorite breakfast... oatmeal!
... especially prepared by dad.
We found this little friend.... that I am sure that Maree will be thrilled to see. He was on our tent when we woke up. Probably the biggest spider I have ever seen.

We packed up our stuff in the morning and headed out. Notice my pants are actually my long underwear. I might need to invest in some camping pants. Check out that $2.50 Kelty backpack. That was a good purchase!
Yup- that's my man. Lookin good.
and some action shots for the road.

I think we will be doing this more than once.

singing

sisu

It all started when I saw a Finland sticker on one of my student's cars. Come to find out his mother is Finnish! We instantly have a bond and exchange emails about saunas, christmas traditions and other stuff. Finns are really proud of their heritage and love anyone and anything that has to do with it. So a couple of weeks ago she shot me an email asking me if Dennis would enjoy her son's old train set- Brio brand from Scandinavia. Of course, I was excited... after all I am finnish too. She dropped the box off at school. Let me tell you... they are soooo cool. Check it out. There are even more tracks than are seen in these pics and more trains too. There are 3 sell propelled trains that make choo choo noise. There is a draw bridge, mountain, mail depot, stop and go station. Let's just say that Dennis is in heaven. He plays for hours.
*sisu was the print on the note that the box was labeled on.

from wikipedia: Sisu is a Finnish term loosely translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. However, the word is widely considered to lack a proper translation into any language. Sisu has been described as being integral to understanding Finnish culture. The literal meaning is equivalent in English to "having guts", and the word derives from sisus, which means something inner or interior. However sisu is defined by a long-term element in it; it is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain an action against the odds. Deciding on a course of action and then sticking to that decision against repeated failures is sisu.

My two cute guys getting a morning nap in to recover from the sleepless night before. For whatever reason, Dennis would wake up screaming for a good 2 minutes before he would calm down every hour it seemed.
Love this kid:
I am also proud of my garage sale finds- for $30 total I got:

• a basket ball hoop for D
• a kelty baby carrier backpack for hiking
• a new down sleeping bag
• a fold up camping chair
• a small fold up camping chair for D
• a toy organizer with 3 bins
• a wreath
• a small platter
• a pitcher
• a tin pail
• a decorative tin pail
• a room divider
• two play pans that are actually real but just small
• 2 whiffle bats and 6 or 7 balls
• a thermos
• a spatula
• an extension cord
• a book about trains
• a really nice kids life jacket
• some toy tools
• two "cars" cars
• a lamp shade
• a vase
• a big toy truck
• and probably more... I just can't remember!

That was fun.

dialogue

Dennis has definitely become a talkative little guy. It seems that within a couple of months he went from barely saying a word here and there to having full conversations with reasoning. His favorite word is why. He asks why about 4 times in row before we just give up and say that we don't know. It gets very long and tedious... but we love it.

D: I want yogurt.

R: You can eat your yogurt after you eat dinner. It can be your dessert.

D: why?

R: So that you have room for your vegetables.

D: I want yogurt.

R: Eat 10 bites of your dinner first and then you can have yogurt.

(30 minutes later we have eaten a good dinner and forgotten about the yogurt)

D: Can I eat my yogurt now? I ate my 10 bites.

background: On Easter Sunday they watched a non age-appropriate movie about the crucifixion.

While reading the Book of Mormon before bed:

D: Jesus died.

R: Yes, Jesus did die. But, he was resurrected. He lives again. Even though we don't see him, he lives in heaven with Heavenly Father.

D: I saw Jesus.

R: You did?

D: at church. It was scary. I covered my ears like this.

(variations of this conversation happen every night. I sure hope he isn't scarred for life)