penguins, giraffes and owen....oh my!!!

Hi All!!!! i haven't received a date yet for the kidney swap but i did find out that he has an appointment with the surgeon this wednesday so if i don't get a date by then hopefully we will find out there. we are so anxious to start really planning for this that i can hardly stand it. we tried really hard fighting off our nerves this weekend spending time with family in st louis.

we left early saturday for st louis and heading straight to a park for trey's first b-day party. there was this huge hill there that owen had fun running or should i say rolling down but the poor little guy had a hard time getting back up it. he was so wore out :-( the worse part of the trip was sleeping in the same bed as noah, i'm sure nick would agree. that child can only sleep in his crib. he kicked, huffed, puffed, cried, wiggled, rolled and laughed all night long. never again will we do that.

today we went to the st louis zoo and had so much fun. this was my first trip to st louis since my dads passing and i had a hard time driving up to the zoo because i have tons of memories driving that way with my dad being that he grew up minutes from there. both of my parents are from there so driving to st louis on the weekends was as normal to us growing up as going to wal-mart is. so i got my cry out in the parking lot and walked in with new eyes, thru my kids eyes. the penguins are my absolute favorite. they are so stinkin' cute and you can get so close them. i just wanted to take one home

this is nick with my sister rhonda and a penguin. nick was so happy he was able to listen to the chiefs game on his phone and even more happy about the win.....go chiefs!!!!

here is livi with her cousin megan and some more penguins!!!!

livi and owen's favorite were the giraffes. i can't believe how tall they really are up close. there was a 3week old baby (not pictured) they didn't want to stop looking at it....it was so cute!!!

owen also liked the camels. he is such a goof ball!!! i hope that the surgery doesn't take the away from him and he goes back to being his goofy self asap :-)

noah's favorite was this boar/hog thing.....like pumba on lion king. he kept calling it a pig and even remembered it when we walked back by. it was so sweet. i have to say that going to the zoo was the best $11 we have spent in a long time. that's right.....unlike kc zoo st louis zoo doesn't charge to get in the zoo they only charge $11 for parking. we ate breakfast before we went, brought a few snacks for the kids and only paid $11 to be inches away from penguins and a couple arms lengths away from giraffes. (there are some other attractions there that cost $3-$5 but we didn't do this time) the weather was perfectly cool and a little bit rainy but still completely enjoyable. it was well worth the trip and worth seeing the kids faces when the saw all the different animals. fun fun weekend!!!!

anyone that knows owen knows that he has to have a drink of water at all times....i like to say it keeps him balanced. lately nick and i have discovered that he has been getting up in the middle of the night going downstairs to get a cup out of the cabinets using a chair to get some water. while i'm impressed he is doing this on his own i fear that he will fall and i will go down in the morning to find him knocked out on the floor :-( so tonite i'm putting a cup in his room. we'll see how it goes.