Embrace the camera

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Early last week, I got the unfortunate news that one of my cousins's sons died.  23 years old.  Too young.  So sad.
I hadn't seen my cousin since our last family reunion in July 2010, and I had seen her son since the 2006 family reunion, but I knew I wanted to go to the funeral, to pay my respects and show my support. So on Thursday morning we packed up the car and trekked over to the Show-Me state for a few days.
We decided that while we were there we should take advantage of the nice weather and the few days off work...so we took our funeral lemons and made some sight-seeing lemonade.
First up: I took my boys to visit my grandma and grandpa's grave. She's been gone 9 years now, and I still cry every time I visit her grave.

Then: We took the boys to the zoo with my Aunt and my cousin's kids.

St. Louis has a fabulous zoo, and y'all should go because it's free admission!  You just have to pay for parking and any extras you want, like the train.  Speaking of the train...  My boys can't see a train and not want to ride it.  

Then we took the boys up in the Arch.  While we were waiting in line, I took a moment to explain to Thing 1 and Thing 2 that their grandpa was one of the electricians that helped build the arch, and that their uncle worked on it's construction too.  They weren't that interested.  But they'll think it's cooler when they are older, I'm sure.

It was all smiles until the tram actually started moving up.  Then there were a lot of seriously concerned faces.  (Oh, and Thing 2 refused to look out of the windows at the top.  Or let anyone pick him up.  Or walk.  That was fun.)  (P.S. As soon as we got back to the bottom, he wanted to go right back up. ?!?!?!)

Then we ventured down to the riverbank and dipped our toes in the mighty Mississippi.  A first for all of us, even me, and I lived in St. Louis for a few years when I was a kid.

Finally, a trip to St. Louis wouldn't be complete without taking in an afternoon Cardinal's game.

Thanks to Stubhub.com for the amazing $7 tickets!  I about died when the box office said all they had left were $50 tickets.  Uh, no way!!  Not with two 5 year olds that may or may not sit through a whole game!

On stubhub I was able to buy 4 tickets plus tax and fees for $38!  And they stand by the authenticity of their tickets.   I will be using them again.  (No, stubhub did not pay me to say that.  But they should! ;)

This was the view from our seats!  Gorgeous, right?

  

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday.

Superman's mom's birthday is on February 28 and my mom's birthday is March 2.  So this actually makes life very easy for me, because I generally come up with one grandma-centric gift idea and make/buy it for both of them at the same time.

And because their birthdays are so close to the beginning of the new year, it is a perfect time to buy calendars, since #1 they probably need new calendars and #2 most calendars have gone on clearance in February.

Five years ago, when Thing 1 and Thing 2 were just 6 months old, I started a tradition of making both grandmas personalized calendars for their birthday. I use Walmart.com to make these calendars, and this is why:

1. Five years ago they let me put multiple pictures into the month header page (most sites still limited you to one or two).

2. They let you upload pictures to put on the specific day/events.

3. They saved those days/events.  So next year, when I went back to make a new calendar, I was able to import all of the dates from the previous year.  And they don't just do a blanket import, they let you pick and choose which ones you want.  (This was really important since I don't need Superman's brother's birthday on my mom's calendar. Or my sisters' sons' birthdays on Superman's mom's calendar.)

4. They let you pick which month your calendar starts.  I usually buy a 12 month calendar that runs from March-February.

Maybe other sites (shuttefly, snapfish, etc) offer all of these options too now.  But I gotta say, now that I already have all of my dates saved in Walmart, it is just too easy to stay where I am.

Both grandmas love these calendars, and look forward to them every year.  But this year, when my mom called to thank us, she seemed especially pleased with her calendar.  When I asked her why, she said "You made me 10 years younger!"

Apparently when updating her birthday from 63rd to 64th, I must have typed 54th, because it says today is her 54th birthday.  Whoops!  I told her "if it's on the calendar, it must be true".  So I hope my mom has a very happy 54th birthday today!