A Day at the Beach 8/11/2008

Ashley Pace’s friend Heather planned this fun outing today and took us to the beach. It was only ten minutes away from our house we are renting. It kind of reminds me of the state park in Kirksville, MO where we used to live. It’s a park to camp, with trails, and has this river running through it. The beach was actually the banks of a river.

The current wasn’t very strong so the kids were able to go out and enjoy playing in the water.

Trey and Ashie built a sand castle, with a mote and all. They were so proud of themselves!

Water, Water Everywhere 8/8/2008

Today we went to a fun park in downtown St. Louis. There was a really beautiful pond for ducks to play in, with lily pads, a water fountain, and more. The kids (Abbey Pace, Ashelyn, Treydon) found this drinking fountain to play in.

On the other side of the park there is a water fountain and it fills up with water every day around 11:00 a.m. Treydon and Ashelyn had so much fun splashing around, running through the water, and soaking up the sun. It was such a fun day!!!

Butterflies, Butterflies Everywhere 8/5/2008

Ashley Pace has been entertaining us while we are here in St. Louis, Missouri with Quin while he does an ENT rotation here at Des Peres Hospital. She took us to this butterfly museum. There were lots of fun insects to look at and then we got to go into this indoor butterfly wonderland. There were butterflies everywhere! They would land on us, fly by us, and even flutter in front of us. It was very humid, but worth the sweat!!! It was so fun to see all the different kinds of butterflies.

Here are Trey and Ashie looking at this butterfly. Now I say looking because they have a sign that says feel with your eyes. Of course I am a horrible mother and say "Come touch this butterfly!" I promise it was on the ground before they touched it!!!

Ashelyn and Abbey Pace sitting standing on a bench. The picture didn't work out so well because it was so humid and the sun was coming in at a weird angle.

Wilderness Safari 8/2/2008

Today Quin’s sister and her family took us to this animal park. We got to feed some kangaroos, pigs, goats, turtles, etc. They would jump up onto us, and one even tried to eat my capris.

Treydon feeding a goat some bread.


"A EE EE! A EE EE!" Ashelyn shrieked when she found a monkey ("ee ee" is what Ashie calls monkeys because that's what they say). She was so excited. Monkey is her nickname so she thought that was quite funny.

As you can tell in some of the pictures, we were sweating. It was a hot day, well over 100 degrees. We came upon a pig who wasn't moving, laying in the dried up mud. Trey tried to check out the situation to see if he was alive.

He finally started to move.

After feeding the animals we drove along acres of land looking at other animals. The kids had so much fun looking for elephants, zebras, camels, llamas (Quin’s favorite), rhinos, and many more. There was one particular camel that liked our car. He literally tried to eat our side view mirror. We could see his teeth prints on the mirror.

We ended up spending over three hours here. It was a fun day!

Ashelyn's Birthday 7/30/08

Ashelyn got to have her birthday out in Arkansas this year. She is very lucky to have birthdays all over the states (Missouri, Utah, and now Arkansas)!!! She turned two. My little baby is two years old now. And she already acts like a two year old.

I love this picture because of the story behind it. This morning we put a candle in her eggs. We lit it and sang to her, but she got scared of the flame coming off of the candle. A while ago we let her blow out some candles and she touched the flame instead of blowing, so she is scared of "the flame". Poor girl. So she is sitting in this picture scared because she thinks we are going to light the candles.

She got to spend her birthday with her cousins, the Brooksby's, which is very rare. Roneen made her cake, with dogs on it. And she loved the candles.

(Every time she sees a candle she sings "Happy Birthday to Ashie". So Cute!

Joplin, MO 7/26/2008

The kids and I have been staying with Quin’s sister and her family in Bentonville, Arkansas, while he has been one hour away doing a rotation in Joplin, Mo. On the 24th the kids and I went up to spend the weekend with Quin. It is a fun town with plenty of stores to keep us busy. I wouldn’t mind it if we ended up here. We got to hang out with Quin on Saturday and we found this fun park right by the Toys R Us (we only visited this store three times this weekend!). There was a playground and this fun little stream running through the park. Of course, the kids had to throw things into it!

Traveling to Missouri July 2008

We left for our month and a half long vacation (if you want to call it that) in Missouri. We left Friday the 18th and made it to our destination Sunday night. I think we figured it took us some where around 24 hours driving time. What a trip! I only got one picture of the kids on their bed one morning in our hotel room. We got to swim every day and had wonderful continental breakfasts. We definitely spoiled ourselves. We wouldn’t have been able to enjoy these amenities if we flew!

My Favorite B-ball Stars 7/16/2008

Quin bought these Spurs jerseys for the kids. He just HAD to. Since Spurs are Quin’s favorite team I let the kids wear them for a picture. I tied Ashie’s to the side of her so it wasn’t to her feet, and Quin was worried about the jersey getting wrinkled. I love the dedication to his team!