Mickey Mouse or a lion?

I can't decide if Jake should be a lion or Mickey Mouse for Halloween...leave a comment with your opinion to help me decide. If he's a lion then Marc and I will be Dorothy and the Scarecrow. If he's Mickey, then Marc and I will be Mickey and Minnie (which makes Jake Mickey Jr.)

Our trip to Missouri

I know many of you probably think you must be seeing things...yes, this is real, I have done a new blog post! I would like to think I always have a good excuse for all the things I'm not keeping up at...and so this time, I'll blame it on the internet. I really believe the internet gods have it out for me...because Marc seems to never have a problem getting on...but it seems to not work every time I try. I'm counting it as a miracle today that it is actually letting me do this post:)

There are many pictures that I've taken in the last couple months that I haven't put on the blog...but for now I'll skip those, and post about our recent trip to Missouri. We went for a week and a half and got back a couple weeks ago...it was so much fun.

It was Jake's first airplane ride...and while I'd heard many horror stories from friends about their baby's first plane rides...and how they screamed the whole way, or did the biggest blowout diapers ever...Jake was great on both rides there and back...we will count ourselves lucky this time!

This is Marc's sister Michelle and her husband Dean and daughter Kylie. They live in St. Louis and we stayed with them mostly the whole trip. It was so fun to see them, play with Kylie, and hang out. And while I'm not a big dog person, they have great dogs...this one time at the end of our trip I felt so upset when I found out the camera had erased all the pictures on our card, and while I was sitting on the couch feeling bummed, the dogs came up to me and put a ball in my lap to play with them...they had never done anything like that with me the whole week and a half we were there! Can they sense when you are sad? I thought that was very cool. (By the way, as you can see, we managed to get our pictures back). Don't ask me why Marc and I are doing the prom pose for this picture.
We went to Grant's Farm while we were there...it was fun...saw lots of animals, and fed the goats some milk...as if I'm not already doing enough milk feedings in a day:) Kickin it with the camel
the St. Louis arch
Jake doesn't look too impressed with being at the top

It was cool to see the rivers over there...the Mississippi River and the Missouri River...we took ferrys across on some driving ventures we went on

In the middle of the week we headed to Nauvoo...on the way we went through Hannibal, Missouri...where Mark Twain was from...if only Marc's high school english teachers could see him appreciating Mark Twain's stories now:)

We made it to Nauvoo and stayed there two nights. It was so awesome to be there again. I'd been there before but it was Marc's first time. We loved it and had fun learning about the way the Pioneers lived and learning all the church history.

At Carthage Jail

Uhhh...scary. The guys running the ox pulled wagon ride we went on made us hold their horns for a picture...wasn't so sure about that--

On the wagon ride

We drove back to be at Dean and Michelle's house for a few days before our flight to come home. Marc went fishing with Dean and Kylie while Michelle and I (and of course Jake) went shopping...always a favorite pastime:)

Cute cousin picture

My faith in measuring spoon manufacturers is destroyed

I recently figured out that I have a teaspoon that is marked wrong as 1/2 teaspoon after some very frustrating batches of very salty cookie dough. My faith was shaken. Just as we trust that traffic lights won't fail us and cause an accident, we trust that measuring spoon companies correctly label their spoons. Did someone who works at the manufacturing plant think this was a funny joke? A little prank they could pull on some innocent housewife trying to cook for her family? Apparently, they were not aware of the severity of damage this could cause. For the last 4 years of my marriage I've used measuring spoons from either one of my 2 sets in all my cooking and baking. So basically, there was a 50/50 shot of whether or not my dish turned out right, or not so great. Think of all the dishes over the years that didn't turn out as good as I'd hoped. I bet I am an awesome cook, but no one knows it because of this measuring spoon mishap. Think of how Marc has suffered, having to smile and say "it tastes great" when really he was choking down salt. Think of how our marriage has suffered because I'm not the cook he thought he married. Think of how my self esteem has suffered. Think of the humiliation in treats I've given to neighbors and friends...All because of a mismarking on a measuring spoon. This is one thing where mistakes cannot be tolerated.

This wasn't too dramatic, was it?:)