Park fun

Marchel and I went to the park with the kids today...here are a few of my favorite shots of the day!

Does she look like Cindy Lou Who to you?

Marchel brought along kites for the kids and it was a perfect day for it!

Basketball fun

We spent the afternoon at the park today..It was a gorgeously warm sunny day with a nice breeze...Alex took his basketball and practiced his shots..

It took a lot of work and concentration..

...and when you get the ball stuck in the net..your big sister climbs up....

...and knocks it down for you!!!

The Playstation

The Playstation is a FUN place to spend a day!! Emily is spending a few days with us while her parents are gone and we are trying to plan some fun things for each day...

We took Hector, David and Brianna with us to make it more fun!

Brianna...

I talked all of them into climbing into this tube so that I could take a picture..we had a wonderful day and spent the entire afternoon running and climbing and sliding and jumping and.....we are all going to sleep GOOD tonight!

Jessica

Jessica said this is her favorite picture!

A good day!

Ok, Bryn told me that all my blog friends would be getting bored and tired of reading about Hannibal....but Wilson asked for TONS of pictures so I am trying to accomodate him!! Plus we had so much fun today that I wanted to share the day with you!! Here is proof of a good day!!!

That is a REAL smile..he really can do it!!

At the museum

The last place we went this afternoon was the Mark Twain museum...I think it was my favorite of all the buildings we toured...the downstairs had some activities and the upstairs was more things to see.

Alex and Bryn both got to try steering a boat...pulling a big boat whistle..

A big old tricycle...too bad we couldn't try it out!!

This was the bottom floor with all the fun things to do..

More museum pics...

Alex painting the fence like Tom Sawyer....

Going into the cave in Tom Sawyer's book..

Headed for the raft that made you feel like you were actually on the water while you watched part of the Tom Sawyer movie..

Riding in a stagecoach...

A Riverboat cruise

As soon as I saw this riverboat in the harbor last night, I knew a cruise would be incredible! AND IT WAS! It as an hour long cruise up the Mississippi..I was soo excited..even though the closer it got to time to set sail..the clouds were rolling in and the wind was picking up...not the sunny "tanning" experience I was hoping for! But we had a blast.

The boat had three decks and you could ride inside or out on one of the decks...we picked outside!

The captain kept us entertained with stories as we went along..he told us about the indian maiden and her lover who jumped off Lovers Leap...the indian brave was named Falling Rock..they never found him, but kept looking..hence all the road signs..."Watch for Falling Rock"!!!! He did mention at the start that if we had questions, he could make up incredible answers!!!

We tried a few different spots on the boat..top front deck, back top deck, side middle deck...top front was best...although the back was where we ended up..

Some funny pics

On the riverboat cruise, they had to blow the horn as they were pulling out....they warned us to plug our ears as it was right above us and very loud! It was too funny watching all those people sitting there with ears plugged!!! I can't hear anymore but I did get the picture!!!!

Bryn posing with Mark Twain himself!!

Alex

Jeff saw this in a window and wanted a picture of it...I am sure we will all laugh everytime we see this picture..not sure what is so neat about it....

Hats...

Everywhere we went...there were hats to try...Alex liked trying them on..this one is a Huck Finn hat at a little gift shop in one of the houses we toured..

This on he tried on as we got on the riverboat cruise...the lady working there said he should try it on for a picture!!

Not to leave Bryn out.....

This was in the last museum building we went into..Jeff looked into a hole and it had a mirror inside of his face about this figure!! I peaked in the other hole and got a picture!!!

Hannibal trip day 2

We are having a wonderful time down here! I wish we would have thought to come here when the boys were home....BUT it is definitely a touristy picture taking place and I KNOW how much the boys love to pose for pictures...they may not have enjoyed it like we did!! Although for some reason, Alex seems to be outgrowing his love of having his picture taken....?

We chose to WALK up the 244 steps to visit this lighthouse! I was thinking..or not thinking...how much fun it would be to say we walked up there..and enjoyed the fresh outdoors and exercise...wow...I guess I am out of shape after a long winter..Jeff and I were both a little out of breath when we hit the top..but NOT crawling up the steps about to die like the guy we saw on our way back down!! Seriously...I wonder if he survived...it didn't look good! The steps in the picture are NOT all of the steps..that is just the last set...out of about 4..

After we came back down from the light house we walked over to the start of the museum tour...it is 7 different buildings you can go through...Mark Twains boyhood home, a drug store, his fathers law office...to name a few. It was very interesting. The first building was a time line of his life...had stories of things he said and did growing up and a lot of history about his family.

A Little Getaway!

Jeff surprised me and took the afternoon off today so that we could take a trip to...guess where????

As soon as we checked in to our hotel, we took a little walk around town... I am pretty excited to go out and explore again tomorrow..we saw some pretty incredible things before it got dark..

a little map of some places to visit..

Where we are staying!