Ode to Bay

My Daddy rocks. Don't be jealous. He is just the best. He just is. Period.

Living here, near him, near a family member is something that we have never had the chance to do before. Most military families never get the opportunity to be close to "kin." We are so spoiled now, though. He is a part of our daily lives, and it. is. so. awesome.

He has always been a particularly patient man. I never remember him getting really mad at me or Lucas, unless we really messed up. And that was never until we were unruly teenagers. He is very laid back and easy going. And I am a Daddy's girl from the word GO. Momma and I are the best of friends, but there is something about a little girl and her Daddy, right?

Now, if Lucas were here and able to type his 2 cents worth, he was start saying that I was so spoiled and I whined to get my way. But he is not here. And this is my blog, so I can say what I want to, so I was not spoiled! (Who am I kidding, anyway?)

My Daddy is the man who once flew to Germany for 36 hours because I did not want to fly to Atlanta alone. He even fed me my supper on the plane because I was hiding a sweet little Westie under my blanket. One time, we were leaving a restaurant, and I wanted a pink gumball. The man spent tons of money trying to get me a pink one. We finally left in defeat. But the next day when he came home from work, he had a small blue jewelry box in his hand. I opened it, and there it was - a pink gumball. When I was 4, he was going to have to miss my ballet recital. So he came to the dress rehearsal instead. And even though it was not the real thing, he still brought me roses. And I may have mentioned this before, but he was also out of town on my 16th birthday. But I will never forget sitting in my English class and having a telegram delivered to me wishing me a happy birthday. That is the one and only time I ever got a telegram. I am sure that Lucas has many memories, too. His would be a little different and focus on fishing trips or Daddy's being the Boy Scout Leader until Lucas got Eagle or trips to the gun range, but I am certain he has lots of memories of his patient and very involved father, too.

Now his patience and sweetness is being showered on another generation. When I am ready to scream and call the gypsies to take my children away, he is still smiling and still trying to appease them.

One time we were at an ice cream place.

Jessa wanted a cone.

He got her a cone.

She then wanted a cup.

He went and got her a cup.

She changed her mind and wanted a cone.

He scooped it back into the cone.

He got more spoons.
He got more napkins.
He never stopped grinning.

He is Jessa's best customer at her diner:

He sits on the porch and blows bubbles with little Spencer:

He sat at the kids table at the mall for lunch:

He rode the train to St. Louis with me, my children, my friends, and my friends' children to deliver us to the Cardinals Game, only to turn around and ride the train right back home for work:

If David is out of town, he picks Jessa up from ballet and drives her to church for Awana every week. Seriously, we could not do it all without his help! He even painted a cool sign for me to use at Awana:

And last week, when we were short-handed at Awana, he stuck around after dropping Jessa off. And he was out puppeteer. Yep, my Daddy, a general in the army, crouched down on the floor and made cute little voices for the Cubbies Puppet Show.

I was all choked up because he does not even question. He just does what we want or need him to do. The man has booster seats in his van. And several ladies at the church were in awe of him, too. They all told me, "You are so blessed." And believe me, I know it. We are all blessed to have such a patient Daddy/Bay in the family!

See, I told you. He is the best.

The salute

One time we were at David and Bay's office to meet them for lunch. We were out of the car sort of milling around out front, waiting. Shortly, Bay came out and headed towards us. We were now standing with him when David's boss came out, followed closely by David. David walked over to the boss's car, opened the door. The boss got in. David closed the door. And David came to attention and saluted the driver's side of the car where the boss was sitting. The boss, of course, saluted back. We all thought very little about it, as it is just a military custom that we all take for granted, I guess.


The next time Bay was leaving our house, Spencer followed him out to his car. Once Bay had closed the door, Spencer looked up at him with a big proud grin and saluted. Bay, of course, saluted back. And a tradition was born. Now every time Bay leaves, Spencer salutes him as he is leaving. Unfortunately, I have never had the camera with me. I don't always remember that Spencer is preparing to give a parting salute, even though he never forgets.

Poor David always leaves SO early, if he is here at all, so Spencer has never really had the chance to walk him to the car.

Until today.

Spencer followed him out and even closed his door for him.

And then he saluted.

David, of course, saluted back.

Priceless.

I'm the Daddy

Jessa and Spencer go through these funny games where they are the parents, and we are the children. They are so silly and sometimes obnoxious. I know I never talk to them as harshly as a parent as they talk to me when they are my parent. At least, I hope not.

Last night when we were trying hard to herd everyone to bed, Spencer went into the wrong bedroom. Jessa and I were turning down beds and getting out some books to read. I heard some lumbering heavy foot steps and stuck my head out and saw this:

And he started, in his best "Daddy" voice saying, "I'm the Daddy. I have on my work shoes. Whenever the sun comes up, I have to put on my work shoes and go to work." He was so precious and cracking me up!

Of course, he picked up that we thought it was cute and hammed it up. "Y'all be quiet. Daddy has to sleep because as soon as the sun comes up, I have to go to work in my work shoes." David had to pry them off his feet for fear that when the sun came up and he really did have to put them on that they would be no where to be found.

Not sure what his fascination with being the Daddy and going to work is, but the very next night, he was walking around like this:

Daddy of course, loves it. Wanting to be like Daddy and not dressing like a ballerina with his sister is a win/win!

City Museum

Living at Scott AFB is very exciting for us. We have mostly stuck to the South, except for our time in Europe. So we are thrilled to check out a new area. The closest big city to us is St. Louis. There are tons of things to do in and around St. Louis. We had already done a few things on visits with Daddy over the past few years, but now we have lots of time to check it all out!


The first FUN place we visited was the City Museum. Wow!

They built this museum in an old Shoe Factory. It is definitely not a traditional museum, by any means.

Look at our incredibly expensive and oh so fashionable bracelets.

It is hands on and very kid friendly (and rather expensive). Most of the bottom floor was caves that could be explored. We were crawling around, checking out the cool carvings and the tunnels and slides. SO fun! I was sorry I was wearing shorts!

Look at that big kid. They are big on the parents being involved!

Posing in the caves - Jessa cannot even stop looking around to look at the camera!

David was a trooper!
As you crawled through the caves, you found old staircases to climb up into the old factory. There was a huge, spiral slide made out of an old chute used in the shoe making process. Jessa was nervous at first, and Spencer wanted me to slide with him. After Jessa finally consented to go down this slide but only with Bay, she was hooked! She ran up the all the stairs with us trying to keep up. So funny – as I topped the stairs, I saw the back of her head sliding down and Bay hopping in the chute quickly, just trying to follow her!

There were slides everywhere. The staircases used painted old conveyor belt rollers. You could climb inside tunnels and over other people. Everything was cool and recycled and fun.

Daddy trying to make sure Jessa waits her turn on a big slide.

Big bowl slides

Bay is the coolest grandfather, wouldn't you agree??

The roof was another attraction all of its own. There was a Ferris Wheel! What a view!

The elevator taking us to the roof.
Also on the roof was an old school bus. It was mounted on the edge, so if you climbed to the front you were hanging off the side of the building. So cool!!

Spencer could not wait to hop on the bus!
Oh and Jessa loved being able to walk across the fountain pond.

There was also an aquarium in the same building. It was sort of small, but we still enjoyed it. There were tunnels in the tank for you to look in and climb in.

Jessa made friends with a turtle:

Oooo and lunch was fun, too. A little pricey, but the seats were worth it.

AND they have the world's largest pencil there.

Bottom line: We love the City Museum in St. Louis! What a fun way to spend the day!

6 thumbs up (Jessa, Spencer, David, Bay, Nikki, and Me)

Stare at the Pig

This is the title of a game. Jessa made up this game. She first suckered David into playing it a few weeks ago. I was not with them, so I did not hear it. He was confused because she is the creator of the game, thus she is the only one who knows the rules. And as you can imagine, these rules are subject to change, and she won't tell you that either. The first time they played, he thought he lost. He asked me if I knew about this game. I did not.

So one night after supper, the babes wanted to go back outside for a few minutes. They had spent a lot of time outside earlier since we have been enjoying the nice spring/summer-ish weather. A positive to this is that I have noticed how much tireder they are at night. They give me way less trouble about going to bed and fall right to sleep, so I am all for a few more energy wasting minutes. And now that Daddy was home, they wanted him to play some, too.


I was busy cleaning up the kitchen, and Jessa came in to tell me that it was time to play a fun new game called Stare at the Pig. I walked outside and saw David grinning at me. He told her to fetch me so another person could witness/participate/try to understand/learn how to play this fun new game that is sure to catch on and sweep the nation.

She lined us up in chairs and told us we were supposed to stare at the pig. Apparently, she was the pig. She explained that we were supposed to stare at her (as the pig) for 5 minutes. And whoever did that was the winner. We were also not supposed to talk. We were slightly concerned about the actual objective. She is a fair judge, though, so we left the decisions in her hands.


The Pig (Jessa) got started. After a couple minutes, without warning, she jumped up and declared Spencer the winner. OK, sure, fine. Now it was his turn to "be the pig." He complied (as he always does with anything that she asks of him). After a shorter time, she announced that David was the winner. He then proceeded to "be the pig." After a minute or two, she stopped him and yep, you guessed it, Mommy was the next winner and new pig. I became the pig. After a minute, she said she was the winner again, and we were right back where we started.


An important aspect of this game is that the audience is a huge part of the fun. Do not think that the pig is doing all the work or getting all the excitement. Oh no! We all took our turns observing and playing the very important role of the ones who Stared at the Pig. After all, staring is the whole point of the game, right? I guess? Who am I kidding? I have no idea, but Jessa seems to enjoy it.

To help you understand this extremely fun and complex game, please enjoy this short video of "Stare at the Pig". Do not be alarmed if after you are still confused, even after viewing the video. This may very well be part of the fun. You will note that no clip of "Mommy as the pig," is included. Although I would like to point out that I did introduce rolling in the mud and wallowing to the activities for the pig to perform. Strangely, there is no footage.

**Something to note, if you are the holder of the camera, you are never in incriminating or embarrassing photos or videos. . . I love being the holder of the camera! Ha!

Don't be jealous of all of our family fun and creative game playing. Jessa is available for workshops to introduce your family and friends to the ball of fun that is STARE AT THE PIG!
Let us schedule one for you today.

It's going to sweep the nation, I just know it is.