Meet me in St. Louis

Brody got to get something from the treasure box last week for good behavior.
Talk about excited. 

This is what he picked out.  =)

Thursday night was soccer practice as well as a Harvest Moon.  

The picture does it no justice.  It was beautiful and so bright. 

Last day of school before fall break. 

We decided to plan a quick getaway for the first weekend of fall break since we had no games.  John and I took Monday off work to extend the weekend a little.  

We left for St. Louis early Saturday morning and the boys were very excited. 

First stop was lunch and to see a tidbit of our football game.  Good thing we stink, game was over quickly and we headed out to site see.  

Downtown St. Louis was surprisingly very pretty.  

There are several parks and all kinds of things to see and so.  

I don't think Mason bought the whole "sorry, the Cardinals season is over" thing.  Pretty sure we are gonna have to plan a trip next spring.  But we were able to walk around Ballpark Village and see the stadium. 

Brody requested these pictures. 

Mason read the info on almost all of these statues. 

As you can see by Brody's wardrobe change, we bought a couple of things at the store.  

(Mason wanted a baseball instead of a shirt)  We also got some baseball cards, and they have played with them ever since. 

Next up was the Arch. 

It got pretty windy right after we bought the tickets to go to the top of the arch. 

Brody kept saying he was going to blow away.  

He was not happy about the very strong gusts of wind. 

And as you can see, he literally got blown away.  

We've never laughed so hard. 

While waiting in line to get in, it started raining.  

But we were able to get in our little gondola-like thing and ride all the way up.
Brody was pretty nervous about the ride...

But he finally realized it wasn't scary. 

The top was crazy.  Pretty narrow.  Only tiny windows to look out of.  Since it was so windy, that thing was swaying pretty good.  Had no clue it was made to sway up to 18in on each side, but we are living proof that it does and it will not fall down.

Love this picture. 

We got out of there and it was just downright raining.  

They had construction going on under the arch and go figure, we took the wrong road out of there to walk back to our hotel.  We RAN at least half a mile to get to a road, but we made it.  

We were soaking wet, even our shoes, but we were laughing so hard.
I'm assuming there won't be another time we can talk about running in the rain through downtown St. Louis. 

Here's our $22 picture from the arch.  =)

So I think the favorite part of the entire trip for the boys was just the fact we were staying at a hotel.  We stayed at an Embassy Suites and they LOVED the fact that they had a pool, breakfast, and nightly snacks.  Mason kept asking if I was sure the snacks were free.    

Sunday morning we got up and walked around again. 

We found a park and played for an hour or so. 

We then got our car and headed towards Six Flags.  

Mason was very much looking forward to this. 

We got there when they opened and were able to ride several rides without any wait in lines.  

That is John and Mason in the front row. 

Brody isn't as much of a fan of roller coasters, but we found several rides he could ride.  He was terrified during a few but pretended he liked them an wanted to ride them again after they were over. (but you should have seen the look on his face)   He's pretty funny.

Mason and I rode this crazy ride.  Talk about being dizzy. 

John and Mason on Boomerang. 

Mason was a trooper and rode on the rides Brody really enjoyed. 

Brody may have been spun a little faster than he wanted, but you get what ya get.  Ha. 

They were celebrating Halloween there and had Fright Fest that night.  

It was horrifyingly scary and we made sure to leave before the zombies came out with chainsaws!

Had to get the face paint. 

And he fell asleep for a few seconds. Ha.

John and Mason rode another big ride while Brody drove me around in an old car.  

We had such a great time.
We spent a lot of money of awful food.  We spent way too much on games so they could both win a prize. And our legs were so sore from all the walking, but it was so much fun. 

The last breakfast.  

We also saw one of Mason's classmates at our hotel.  How crazy that we would even see someone while out of town, but to be in the same hotel?!  

Before heading home, we went to the City Museum.  We had heard great things about it, and wanted to check it out.  It was the coolest place I've ever been to.  It was amazing. 

We started on the rooftop in case it rained.  It was foggy but never rained.  

I cannot even describe the place except to say it is worth a trip to see it yourself. 

Everything was made out of metal scraps and things donated.
Everywhere you turned, there was another slide.  

Mason climbing up a four story metal contraption and then slid down after. 

That school bus was is hanging off the rooftop. 

Johnny Boy isn't into heights as much as he once was...

Me and Brody hanging out. 

Then we went inside, which was four stories of stuff.  This was in a massive cave that went up the entire building.  It was insane. 

There was another part of it back outside.  Tons of slides and climbing. 

Theres John down there again not into climbing. 

We are inside a plane suspended in the air by who knows what. 

We were so sad when we had to leave to drive home. 

We aren't very "go with the flow" people, but we decided to stop at Lambert's on the drive home last minute.  We told the boys about throwing the rolls and I think the anticipation was killing them!  

We weren't paying attention, and Brody put his hands up to catch one.
Caught it on the first try.  He was so proud of himself. 

Mason felt the pressure and caught one also.  

We ended up being 4 for 4.   

We had the BEST time in St. Louis.  We all had a blast.  They boys are at a perfect age, and I hope they can remember the trip as a ton of fun.  Here's to hoping we can take more in the future!

Tiger Walk and Life

I guess my last post left of in the middle of spirit week at Mason's school.  To go along with this year's pirates theme, they also had a "pirate beard" day.  That thing had beads on it and could rattle....

Mom with her friends from TOES.  They hang on the playground everyday after school.  They all wore blue and one of the daughter's had them dab for a picture....Ha. 

Bandana and earring. 

Thursday night was soccer practice.  

The weather took a turn for the better and it felt amazing out.  Brody and I found some friends and hung out most of the practice. 

Friday was the actual Tiger Walk.
Brody being Brody.  =)

Since his class is Funes' Foxes, they wore fox headgear. 

The kids always have so much fun. 

Here are some of the boys in his class dancing.  Mason actually participated this year (because he has so many friends in the class).  He is the one flying through the air doing the "superman". 

After school Friday, we got haircuts....even the sugar from his sucker couldn't keep this kid awake. 

We went to Friday Night skills.  It was fun.  Brody did so well because he was practicing with Mason.  Mason had fun in the scrimmage because he was one of the older ones in that game.  

Brody just thought it was cool to be on his brother's team.  And you better believe he made SURE to get an orange jersey like Mason...he wasn't about to put on a green one. He also continued to tell people his brother was the only one who had scored any goals.....

Saturday morning was Brody's soccer game.  He got to play against two of his friends so he thought that was fun.  

He didn't put too much effort into it at the beginning...

But then took off at the end.  Im telling you, when he wants to be out there, he does so well.  If he isn't into it, he could care less. 

He almost scored two goals.  He said it was so much fun. 

The boys were happy to see Grandma Reba cheering them on!

Mason's game was in the afternoon.

I didn't take too many pictures but he did well.  He played defender which isn't his favorite.
Still gave it all he had!

We left the game and went straight to Jake and Blakes to watch football.  Not one of our friends' teams did well Saturday, but it was still fun to get all the kids together. 

All the Brower boys picked up a game of football in the backyard.  

We had one tired cheerleader in the middle.  Ha

This is a horrible picture but these three were showing off their dance skills. 

Two cute boys Sunday morning before church. 

Sunday afternoon, we play baseball. 

Mason got to play his favorite again, shortstop.

Brody enjoys going to the games because all the little brothers play together the entire time.  For some reason they LOVE sitting on those trash cans.  Ha. 

 This kid is doing so well.  He was 4 for 4.
We even lost his bat that he has been hitting with since the spring.  We had a bat from last year that was too big, but John had him try it.  I was nervous that it would be too heavy, but he was able to swing it well.

He also wouldn't look at me after scoring.  =)

Here he is after his fourth hit.  

I tried to get it on video and didn't pull my phone out fast enough!

It is fun playing a sport on a winning team.  I know it shouldn't matter, and we keep telling him that....but lets face it....it is much more fun to win than lose no matter how you look at it!  The kids are having a blast.