Mostly Wordless Wednesday: I'm so Blue-hue-hue

Once, while visiting my brother in law and his family in Chicago....he asked Mot and I to come into the living room to watch something we "just had to see!"

It was our first introduction to Veggie Tales.

Do you all know what I'm talking about? The animated vegetables with arms and legs...dancing and singing...teaching lessons about morals, ethics, and good judgement?

The one we watched happened to center around Ms Blueberry...and her need for material things.

(Were they trying to tell us something I wonder?)

Anyway...one of the songs Mr. Blueberry herself sings....is III'mmmm soooooo blue-hue-hue, blue-hue-hue....

There were also dancing asparagus stalks singing about bungie cords.....and a tomato (Mr. Lunt?) singing about his love of cheeseburgers...or hamburgers...or something like that.

None of this has anything to do with the picture I'm posting today...except the wings of these butterflies were so blue-hue-hue, blue-hue-hue.......



I took this last weekend while visiting a butterfly house in St. Louis.

Weekend Update: Butterflies, Parade and a Birthday (part 3, the finale)

On our way home, we stopped at Mot's parents' house to pick up Sam...dropped her off at home really quick, then immediately turned around and left again.

Why the quick turnaround?

It was John's bday party!!!!!


I won't tell you how old. But...you can probably narrow it down based on the balloons? :-)


The birthday boy!










The boys with their video game.


More people joining the boys and their video game.





The party was great! There was food, drink....and, of course, birthday cakes!

(yep...cakeS....two of 'em)









Happy Birthday John!!!!!

Weekend Update: Butterflies, Parade, and a birthday party!!!!! (part 2)

After our trip to the butterfly house....we ran back to the house to change. We were going from a tropical climate, to rainy St. Louis climate. :-)

Turns out, St. Louis decided to hold their St. Patty's day parade while we were in town.

I think that was pretty nice of them, if you ask me. :-)



I also found out that the St. Louis holiday parade is primarily an excuse for people to drink heavily (duh!) because the public intoxication laws are apparently thrown out the window.

We didn't have a cooler on wheels in tow....and we stuck out like a sore thumb! :-)






The weather ended up being much cooler than we expected. Linda saw a woman walking around with Green gloves from an alcohol vendor...Baileys maybe? She stopped the woman to ask where she'd gotten them. The nice lady told her someone was giving them away at the end of the parade route.

As we were walking away, the lady asked my aunt if she needed gloves...then proceeded to pull her own personal gloves (not the green ones from the parade) out of her purse and hand them to her.

Later I found out the woman's sister had given her own gloves away earlier, and she wanted to show her sister that she could be just as giving.

Sibling rivalry...gotta love it!:-)



There were very few floats. A handful of marching bands.....and only one of those that had a drum corp that actually walked, with their instruments. All of the others were trucked along behind the band....or the walked behind rolling contraptions.

When did drum corps get so lazy?

After the parade (the longest drunken parade ever!), we went to Pi for lunch/dinner. The pizza was excellent!!!!!



And after dinner....I HAD to go get a "fix" of one of my favorite of St. Louis desserts!!!!



Hadn't been to Ted's in years and years!

Sunday morning came way too soon. :-( We headed home after eating breakfast.

And, because it was lunchtime as we were passing through Kansas City...we just HAD to stop at Arthur Bryants for BBQ. :-)

Once we got Sam home, we turned around and headed downtown for John's bday party!!!!

(to be cont)

Taming of the Shoes: Let's Get to the Point

Got these for a steal. Comfy as heck...and can double as a self defense weapon! :-)

Weekend Update: Butterflies, Parade, and a birthday party!!!!! (part 1)

Mot and I were able to drive down to St. Louis to visit my aunt and uncle last weekend. I had one last vacation day for the year burning a hole in my pocket...and he happened to have the full weekend off. The sun, moon, and stars were aligned, so we took advantage of it!

We headed down Thursday night after I got home from work. I hadn't packed yet...so Mot got the animals ready, while I packed up some clothes and camera gear.

The stereo in my car was on it's last leg.....and we decided we couldn't have our road trip car without tunes, for the 6+ hour drive. Mot had a new one put in that afternoon...and we spent the drive to Kansas City messing around with the settings (yep, we left the owners manual at home...who know a car stereo required a masters degree in engineering and computer programming?)

The next morning we woke up, hit Waffle House for breakfast (can't turn up the opportunity, we don't have them in our neck of the woods), then headed out for the second half of the drive.

We arrived in St. Louis around lunch time....and spent the remaining day hanging out with Kent and Linda (Linda is my dad's sister).

We hadn't seen them since the trips to New Mexico last summer to see my grandpa...so it was awesome to get to hang out with them!!!!

Saturday morning the four of us got up, made breakfast, grabbed the camera gear, and headed to the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House, for March Morphos Madness. :-)





As we walked into the actual butterfly exit room.....any stresses, pressures, and worries disappeared completely. The MINUTE you walk in, you are surrounded by the creatures. This month's butterfly of the month is the Morphos butterfly....and everywhere you looked there were large blue butterflies.

Everywhere!!!

After you walked around a while, you also started noticing the other species as well.


Defying gravity.


A little in-flight action.

Nej "Man, those butterflies are beating the crap out of each other."

Mot "Honey, I don't think that's what's going on."

Nej "oooohhhhh (giggle)"


Love the camouflage!!!


Unfortunately, this poor thing was dead. Their life span, after hatching (?), is only 3 weeks or so.

I was sitting on a rock wall...watching the little bugs flying around my head. (Yes, yes...butterflies are bugs to me. Pretty bugs, but still bugs. The scientific community who might be reading this are cringing...I know, I'm sorry!)

Anyway....this guy from the camera club walks up to me.....and says "Shhhhh....donnnnn't moooovvvvvve."

I couldn't help but picture Elmer Fudd (be vewy, vewy quiet..I'm huntin' wabbits), and worked hard to suppress a giggle or two.

Anyway, he leans over me...camera strap flapping me in the face (whilst I'm gaining intimate knowledge of his armpit) trying to sneak up on this poor, dead, butterfly who's final descent happened to land him on the same rock wall I was sitting.

I didn't have the heart to tell the guy it was dead. He was working so hard to not disturb it. :-)




The color inside the building was amazing! Between the butterflies, and the plant life...it was beautiful!!!

There's no way you can walk into that building mad, upset, or depressed...and stay down. It was enchanting and magical!!!









(to be cont.)

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Tools of the Trade

We had Southpaw Bluegrass Band come play at the birthday last Sunday night.

I have ALWAYS wanted to learn to play the banjo.

I blame it on watching Hee Haw as a child. :-)

Weekend Update: More Awesome Music...and the birthday party (part 2)

After returning to town from our trip to Des Moines, we met up with Mot for bowling league...then rushed down to the Worm for Steve's bday party!!!!!!








Mot absolutely couldn't wait until the food started being put out. He was first in line.

Eat the Worm (Natalie, you really need a website for me to link to!) and O Dining supplied the most excellent vittles.


Danny had me get ahold of our mostest favoritest local bluegrass band, Southpaw!!!!!, and have them come play at the party!! Here's a picture of the birthday boy and the band!!!




They were totally awesome, as usual!!!!

(By the way guys, if you're reading this, I had Soper's Mill in my head for three days straight after that night! And thanks again for coming to play! We can't tell you how much we enjoyed it!!!!!!)

:-)


Of all the pictures on my camera, this is the one of me. (hehehehehehe)


This couple came to the bar to see the band. I know that Steve sat at their table for quite some time. And I had a couple of long talks with him. Nice people!!!! I love how common interests bring strangers together!!!


It didn't take long before more people headed back to kick up their feet a little.




The video crack, I mean video game machine on the bar kept the kids occupied for most of the night. :-)














Some of the marvelous desserts being served.


The crowd behind the video game grew and grew as the night went on. :-)






Happy birthday again dude!