Forest Park

I think that most people that live in St Louis don't take maximum advantage of Forest Park. We do go there quite often, but still don't take advantage of everything that the park has to offer. Luckily, when my parents are here, I tend to do a lot more around St Louis than I usually do & this week we went for a walk in Forest Park. It was a beautiful day & I got some great pictures of the park.

The Grand Basin

World's Fair Pavillion

The Art Museum

Zoo

Wildlife

Reliving a past life.....

Sam should really be writing this post as I don't have much of a clue what I am writing about here!!!! He served on the USS Plunger while he was in the Navy and has never lost his love of the sea or submarines. The USS Razorback is currently a museum in North Little Rock. Sam and Ben have been to see it before when it had just arrived in Little Rock, but this was the first time I had been to see it. I was interested to see what the inside of a submarine looked like and to get an idea of what living under the water for long lengths of time was like. Sam has told me lots of stories about submerged life, now I have more of an idea of things (but not much). The Razorback was built right at the end of WWII, so it's about 15 years older than the plunger, it was also built for a slightly smaller crew. There were approximately 80 people that sailed in the Razorback, there were only the 4 of us on there on Friday. My first impression was how big it looked from the outside, I'm not sure what I had been expecting, but not this. Of course, not an inch of space has been wasted inside. There were beds everywhere, with not much head room, Sam said that they slept in the bunks in shifts, so you shared with two other people. There was absolutely nowhere to store anything. The kitchen was tiny, I can't imagine cooking for 80 people in such a small space. The eating area was a decent size, but not when you consider how many you had to feed!!!! It was a great experience to see how resourceful man can be, but I'm glad I didn't have to be in there for months at a time with 80 other people, especially if there were depth charges going off outside.....

First swim of the year

We were in Little Rock for the first swim of the year. Even though we are further south than St Louis, it is still not all that warm here and the water had to be freezing. However, cold water has never seemed to stop kids swimming (even if they have to do it in their underwear)

No wonder I'm coughing

According to the American Lung Association, St. Louis & surrounding area are #17 on the worst cities for ozone pollution in 2009
St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, Mo./Ill.
(Metro Area)
Total Population: 2,890,593
Pediatric Asthma: 63,982
Adult Asthma: 184,766
Chronic Bronchitis: 75,542
Emphysema: 37,992
Source: American Lung Association State of the Air 2009

Letter writing

Ben's class have been practicing writing letters to each other. They have all been pretty good and creative until the one he got last night. This one read "Hello Ben, you are a great friend" (they all seem to start out this way). Then it went on, "you small (maybe should be smell) like a pig. A goat peed on your head. You eat dog poop". I wrote to Ben's teacher to ask if he ever read any of them. I suspect not!!!!

The first email I have ever received from my son!!!!

April 29, 2009
Mom,

I missed my recess today because I have been looking for someone to play with in class.
I was throwing pencils back and forth with Zach. I have been trying to listen in class, but I am
still being silly.

Your son,
Ben

Ben's attempt at Alex the lion