Scary Santa!

Jack,

We played around in the hotel room yesterday morning for awhile before heading off for the day.

Apples, hotel recliners and no pants. If you haven't tried it - you aren't living!

Where's Jack?

Peek-a-Boo!

Grandma Rose clued us in to the fact that Amber was at work, so we headed to Macy's to surprise her. I would say she was surprised! She still had 45 minutes of work before she was off so we decided to window shop in the mall.

First stop was to visit Santa Claus. You DID NOT like him.

Even though he gave you a lollipop after torturing you by setting you on his lap, you were very wary and anytime we walked back past him, you clung to me as though you just KNEW I was going to give you up to him again.

We found a mall carosel which meant that we HAD to go on it.

You rode the reindeer although I'm sure the significance of that was lost on you.

We made our way back to Macy's and played in the women's department

and wreaked havoc at the cosmetics counter...

I THINK Amber still has a job, although I'm not sure....

After Amber got off of work, we made our way across the street to Pizza Inn to see your cousin Dani and see if we could get her fired, too! (There she is in the blue shirt by the stop sign waiting on a table while her obnoxious aunt takes pictures of her!)

By the way - this is the ONLY other picture I took of Dani that turned out which proves:

A) I don't know how to work my camera to get it on the appropriate settings

B) I will probably have it taken away from me and be forced to complete a remedial picture taking class before having it returned.

At Pizza Inn, you had a large bowl of Chocolate Pudding which you deemed spectacular and every time you took a bite you exclaimed at the top of your lungs "WHOA!!!"

After about 5 minutes of eating the WHOA pudding, you were hyper enough that you wanted to run screaming laps around the restaurant (after all - that was perfectly acceptable yesterday at Chuck E. Cheese) and tried to pull down the blinds on the window at our table.

I hope Dani still has her job, too....

We next took Amber back to the dorms and got to see her room!

Amber was rewarded for her hospitality by having us change all of the channels and settings on her Spongebob TV (by the way - I'm SO in the doghouse. You couldn't believe a Spongebob TV existed and I'm sure you are plotting ways to get back at me for withholding this fantastic creation from you)

pulled off several jingle bell ornaments off of her first Christmas tree...

and then, for no apparent reason, collapsed in a frustrated heap on her dorm room floor.

I'm sure she can't WAIT for us to visit again! :)

From Cape Girardeau, we made our way to Sikeston where we played in the toy store at the outlet mall as if it were our own personal toy chest. Kelly and Bobby had completed their marathon, so we killed time in the toy store until they arrived and then we all went to eat a celebratory dinner at Lambert's Cafe.

It HAD to be a good sign that we were sitting in the Yea-Yea booth since this is what you call your Aunt Kelly.

You sat between me and Kelly and ate out of my booth alternating between climbing on laps and turning around to shout at the single guy eating in the booth behind us. Thank GOD he had a good sense of humor about the whole thing.

In spite of your excitement and general boisterous-ness, the staff found you cute and gave you a stuffed Norman doll holding a throwed-roll to bring home.

We all ate as though we had ALL run long marathons (although only two of us had earned it) and left happy and full. (and YES - that IS a laptop in front of you. At one point we attempted to calm your excitement by letting you watch a movie at the table, but with all the fun of a piano playing and food rocketing through the air, it didn't work. We put it away shortly after).

It was a great time!

I realized something this weekend and that it was fun to focus on the positive this weekend. A weekend that could have been stressful without heat and uncomfortable became a weekend full of fun and family. It was a real treat and I couldn't have enjoyed it more!

Love,

Mommy