St. Louis Zoo

The girls petting a goat at the petting zoo.

Look at our little family!

We loved seeing the chimpanzees and gorillas at the zoo.

A sea lion doing a trick.

The youngest sea lion didn't realize there was glass and he kept trying to swim up and catch people's hats.

It was a great day to enjoy the St. Louis Zoo on Saturday before Memorial Day!  The zoo is free but you have to pay for the extras like shows and carousel rides.  The girls enjoyed visiting the petting zoo, seeing lots of different kinds of animals including gorillas and chimpanzees, lions, giraffes, sea lions, and a whole bunch of other animals.  Nana and Paw-paw were able to come with us.  We all went to a sea lion show in the afternoon.   The zoo didn't become crowded until we were almost ready to go.  We came back to our hotel and the girls enjoyed swimming.  Our family enjoyed staying at the Drury Hotel while we were in St. Louis.  They had a full breakfast every morning and a light dinner each night.  

St. Louis City Musuem

On our first day in St. Louis, we visited the City Museum located in an old shoe factory warehouse in the downtown area.

Abbie tries out stepping stones on the roof of the 11 story building.

 Some really creative people have created playgrounds from architectural features and art from old buildings around St. Louis.

You can climb up numerous stairs.  Here we are climbing up as high as we can get on the roof top.

Here is a view from the top of the Ferris Wheel on the roof top.

Sadly, Big Boy burgers are not sold inside the museum.

The have old tram cars on the courtyard playground.

You can climb all over the old airplanes in this playground.

Abbie mastered the rope swing in the Skate-less park by watching some older boys playing.

A view of the Mississippi River and the Gateway Arch from Illinois.

Abbie asked about why there is a giant hair band in St. Louis.

We visited Ted Drewes for yummy treats.

We walked from our hotel to the City Museum.  There were several school groups there, but we still had a blast.  We only lost track of Abbie one time for a few minutes.  All the places to explore made the museum a little bewildering.  After dinner, we visited Illinois for a quick family picture on the riverfront, then we visited Ted Drewes frozen custard shop.  We were definitely worn out after the days activities.

Discovery Park of America in Union City, TN

Discovery Park of America

 We went on a little trip with Paula's parents over Memorial Day Weekend.  We had all heard about a big museum that opened in West Tennessee.  It was financed by the family who own Kirklands' stores who are from Union City, and we heard that is was supposed to be a first-rate attraction that would attract travelers from all over the Mid-South.  So, we decided to go by the Discovery Park of America in Union City for a day to check it out, then on to St. Louis for a weekend vacation.

Abbie and a dinosaur

Fish Faces

 The Discovery Park could be compared to a "mini" Smithsonian.  Inside, they have dinosaurs, a classic car collection, and military vehicles.  The museum has a small aquarium, science exhibits, and a space exhibit. There was a separate building with a large farm tractor exhibit.

1970 Plymouth Roadrunner Superbird: Matt's dream car

Abbie is driving us somewhere

Punishment for whining

 Outside of the museum, there is a recreated Pioneer Village with farm houses, cabins, etc.  There was also a mill and a blacksmith shop.

Abbie at the Pioneer Village dentist's office

1910 Fire Truck

 There was also Victorian-era courthouse, chuch, fire station, and train depot.

Abbie loved the science exhibits

Paw Paw Pat helps Abbie and Sophie with building blocks.

We thought the Discovery Park was an excellent outing.  We spent about four hours there.  Sophie and Abbie loved the kid's science section, and they spent a long time playing with the water exhibit and building blocks.

We crossed the Mississippi River on a tiny ferry boat ride from Hickman, KY to Dorina, MO.

At the end of the day, we drove toward St. Louis by traveling up to the western edge of Kentucky to a little town called Hickman.  We rode a ferry across the Mississippi River.  The ferry operation was so small: passengers drive up to a post near the ferry landing, and press a button to send a signal to let the ferry boat crew know there are passengers waiting.  We had a great day at the Discovery Park and a good trip to St. Louis that evening.

Abbie's Kindergarten Program/End of School Year Fun

Abbie and her friend, Kassy

Paw-paw and Nana with Morgan, Abbie, Sophie and Monroe after the program.

Abbie and Sophie with their Lego Friends creations.  (Abbie's nose is kind of black because she performed her program for the whole school).

Sophie and her best buddy, Allie.

Abbie on the last full day of kindergarten.

The end of the school year is such a busy time!  The kindergarteners had a special program at school called EIEI Oops and Abbie's class dressed up as sheep.  They looked so cute because one of the moms had coordinated it so that almost all of the kids in two classes were dressed totally alike (they made the costumes).  One class dressed up as chicks and some of the kids dressed up as pigs and other animals.  Nana and Paw-paw, Uncle Phil and Aunt Martha, Uncle Matt and their boys came to watch besides our immediate family.  It's hard to believe that Abbie's kindergarten year is over and Sophie's finished with 3rd grade!  

The girls had field day at the end of the year and other fun events.  I was able to help with field day.  Sophie had her first sleepover at our house and her friend, Allie spent the night.  Abbie was able to spend the night at Nana and Paw-paw's house that night.  Her little cousins were over there with their parents, Aunt Martha and Uncle Matt, so she had fun being with all of them.  

Abbie won an award for Perfect Attendance and Sophie made the Principal's List which means that she made all A's on her report card.  We were proud of both of them!!  

2nd Annual Family Camping Trip (No Grumps Allowed)

Soph and Abbie riding bikes

Soph fishing

                                                 {Paula}My mom and {Matt} my dad.

Our  new tent

  We went on a camping trip on Mother's Day weekend (yes, our mom gets brownie points this year). we only went for one night because bad storms had been predicted for Friday night.  It turned out to be a great weekend for camping.  We had a great time bonding with our friends from church! The kids enjoyed going noodle fishing, regular fishing, playing foursquare, riding bikes, and playing kick-the-can. According to Sophie, the adults didn't have fun { No offense =) } but, they did enjoy chatting by the campfire. The kids partied by putting together glow bracelets,necklaces, lights for bikes [etc.]. We made s'mores on Sat. night and had a worship service on Sun. morning. We had so much fun with the White's, Staggs', Hicks', Moss family, Lassiter's and the Kelley's.  Even though we were only there for Saturday and half a day Sunday, the girls were worn out when we got home.
 P.S= Soph wrote this. She'd like to add a joke: What did the buffalo say to his son as he dropped him off at school? Bison =) LOL! Phil Waggoner is the official comedian in the family.

Sophie's 9th Birthday

Here's Sophie with her birthday balloons!

Sophie, Uncle Phil and Abbie

Nana, Phil and Sophie

Nagisa, Sophie and Allie

Daddy and Nana helped Abbie paint her pottery.

Sophie with her friends from church at her party.

Our family

the birthday girl

Sophie, Abbie, and Ashton

Frances, Nagisa and Allie

The girls showing off their pottery.

front: Abbie, Kate Grogan and Jenna Sansom.  Back: Allie Wells, Nagisa Amada, Frances Tanner, Ashton Lomicka, Abby Clark, Sophie and Carley Gray.

silly picture

It's hard to believe that Sophie turned 9 on May 1.  The next day, she had to start taking the TCAP test, their standardized test in Tennessee.  For her birthday, she requested that I make poppyseed bread.  She also wanted strawberry cake so I made it for the first time ever and we enjoyed eating it with family.  Nana's birthday is the day before Sophie's.  When I asked Sophie where she wanted to go eat for her birthday, she requested Red Lobster so Nana and Uncle Phil met us there on Thursday night for her birthday and it was so good!!  On Saturday evening, we celebrated Sophie and Nana's birthdays with a cookout at Nana and Paw-paw's house where Uncle Phil, Aunt Martha, Uncle Matt and their boys, were able to come and all have dinner with us.  Saturday, the girls had soccer games during the day and Matt needed to attend Lipscomb's graduation.

On Sunday afternoon, we had a friends' party for Sophie at Third Coast Clay where Sophie, Abbie and eight of Sophie's friends painted pottery and enjoyed cupcakes and ice cream.  The girls had a great time!!  Half of Sophie's friends were from church and half were from school.  Matt and Nana had a lot of patience with Abbie who used lots of paint on her pottery and then, wanted to totally redo it after it was almost competed.  =)  I tried to make it look like the cupcakes were on an artist's palette with lots of different colors.

Sophie received some new arts and crafts sets for her birthday, a couple of Amazon Kindle gift cards, matching dresses for her and her American Girl doll, and a Spa Science Kit among other things.  She also received a couple of other gift cards.  Sophie had asked her friends to donate to Latin American Missions (her Uncle Phil works for them) in lieu of giving gifts this year to help other kids but she still received several gifts.  She had a wonderful birthday!