St.Louis pics...as promised

The as we are leaving pic...at the airport...I couldn't get him to just look at the camera. Isn't he funny!
The St.Louis zoo. Eric and his fam. (my eldest brother.)

After Eric's pic, we read the sign that said NOT to climb on the statue.This is my twin, his wife and their kids. Roy was kind enough to be in my pic. Thanks bro.
The tortoises playing leap frog. Or at least thats what the parents kept telling their kids, that and he's giving him a piggy back ride. My mom tried to curve us around this one. Jake told me later that if our kids had been there, he would have explained what was going on. I agree with him. Dude, the boy turtle was groaning....it was funny.

Perty flower.

Thought this was cute, mostly because I can remember when I wasn't tall enough to see over stuff. She's just there. This is Jordan, Eric's youngest. (and yeah, I'm ready for comments related to me still not being able to see over things. ha ha.)

The coolest thing I think we saw at the zoo. The hippos would dive down and show themselves...THIS close to the window we were standing at. I got quite a few pics. I thought it was cool how the fish and hippos share the aquarium. Quite nice, quite nice.

You'd have to click to enlarege this one to see, but that elephant statue behind us has water spouting from it's trunk. It was really cool looking. I stopped some guy and asked him to take our pic. Not too bad I thought. (and yes I wore a shirt to sort of match Jake, what can I say, I'm silly!)

This was Jake's favorite exhibit. Partly because it was really cool in there compared to the mugginess outside. I was really proud of this pic. This guy was swimming under water and jumping out. I was stoked I got him in mid air. Fun times with photography.

No, Jordan is not my favorite niece or anything, but I posted this pic because when we got out of the penguin house, it had started to rain, we tried to wait it out for a bit, then decided, who cares, it'll feel better than the heat. So she was dancing in the rain...she's just awesome!

THe next day at the aunts house. we took a few group pics, the aunts with gma, and all the cousins and fams and stuff, but for my blog, I'm choosing the one with my mom, brothers and fams, and cousin ashley, cause she wanted to be in it too. (she's standing to the right of the guy in orange-eric.) I love how everyone is donig their own thing, including me who is cheesing it at the camera, like we were "supposed" to be doing. I love how jake is looking at Jadin and she at him. and mom looks at the camera..cause she knows cassie will be upset if it's not just right (thanks for the effort mom.)..., and eric is thinking okay, I think i'm ready for this picture...and Roy making sure his other daughter, Jasmin is okay, and emma and jordan just smiling away to eachother, and melissa wondering if this is ever going to be done...Jen looking really cute, and alex sitting in the middle, sort of waiting for it to be over...she's a good sport. I think i'll have to print and hang this. Aaron, my other brother and his wife couldn't make it out...we were sad/disappointed, but we got over it and had a blast, like i have menitoned in the previous post.

THe neices. I always torture thiem and try to get a nice group pic...it wasn't working so i said silly faces. Much more personality if you ask me. i love emmas face checking out Jadin...and check out Jasmin's I LOVE YOU hand....yeah for sign language..go girls!

3 and a half generations! well maybe not quite a half, but this was just over 10 weeks pregnant. and Alex straightened my hair, not bad if you ask me!

Love the St. Louis view! Sweet.

But dig Salt Lake City too. Thought this was nice as we were flying in. Plus makes for a nice finishing pic for the short trip.

Hope you have enjoyed the pics....and as always, thanks for reading.

St.Louis

...without the pics yet.

So last weekend (11-12) Jake and I flew to St.Louis, Missouri to visit the fam for the weekend. It was a great trip.

I'll try to think of some fun stories.

The flights went over well. I decided to sleep during take-off, just in case my stomach decided it wasn't up for the motion.

umm...when we got into ST.L they said it was like 77 degrees or something. I was excited for it to be really nice outside. Well as we walked out of the airport, there were a few soldiers just outside of the ramp smoking cigarettes. I was a little over the top and held a jacket up over my nose. I didn't want to smell it. They were all really sweet. They took note of my behavior and all very casually tried to hide their cigarettes, head bowed and they all said...sorry ma'am...

That was nice of them.

We got out of the building and I almost died. There's NO WAY it was 77......maybe with like 150% humidity....i know that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it was awful. Keep in mind I used to live in the state, but I'm no not familiar with their summers anymore. It was sooo hot. Couldn't wait to get into the a.c.

I got acclimated pretty quick though.

Once we got to my aunts house, we say the nieces and some aunts and grandma. It was really nice to be back there. Everyone was excited about the baby, and really nice to jake of course. I got bit by 2 mosquitoes almost immediately. Welcome home, cassie!

Let me just say that the St.Louis zoo rocks any zoo I've ever been to!!! and people should fly to STL just to see the zoo. It's free and it's huge. All you have to pay is for parking. so worth it.

The reunion-type with my family was wonderful. We had all 5 aunts. (my mom included.) my gma, and my brothers...(2 of them and their families.) and 4 cousins..with some extra family members with them too!....it was a blast. we just ate and talked, looked at old pics. the kids were playing wii and chess and running around. There was a strong storm that blew through...my aunts who's house we were at kept wondering if we needed to go to the basement or not...I couldn't think why she would ask that....then it was brought to my attention that a tornado could appear....I forgot where we were...hahaha.

So....we had a flight back to Salt Lake through Chicago. Fun story about the airport and the plane. Jake and I like to play cards on the plane..or anytime really. We play Pitch and Cribbage...anyway

So I carry around my cards from some of my trips. Ireland and Grand Canyon are in my bag currently. So we were playing with the Ireland cards. We get off the plane in Chicago to stretch our legs....and go to Cinnebun...

(we were in the STL airport, and hadn't had time to grab a bite and I was hungry of course...so we went to the BK there, but you had to pay at the cinnebun, and it smelled soooo tempting, but we passed up the chance..in STL, so when we got off the flight in chicago, we still had the frosting on the brain, so we gave in and found one..jake was right there with me on that one!!!)

so we get our Cinnebun and then it hits me. I had put my cards in the back pocket of the chair in front of me on the flight. Good news is that we were on the same plane with same seats and everything...but you never know when they clean what they do with things they find...so I eagerly get to my chair and...

NO CARDS...i'm freaking a bit cause they are from IRELAND...can't just jump a flight across the
Atlantic to replace them..and yes they are that important to me..

so I scurry to the back of the plane and ask one of the flight attendents if they know about them. and they say YES. She digs through a bit of stuff in a little cubby and assures me that they weren't going to keep them..hehehe...

I was a proud peacock, and as high as my emotions have been, I almost cried.

It was a great trip. Short and sweet, but nothing to complain about, quite opposite happy memories...not enough pics of my nieces like I like, but enough....enough for only being there for 29 hours I think it was...

as always thanks for reading, and I'm going to try to get pics uploaded tonight.

enjoy.

Fun time with friends.

Last night after work Jake and I joined Susanna for bowling. We haven't been since our league ended in April I think it was. I wasn't sure how well I would do especially since my first two frames were open. (That means no Spare or Strike.) However I won the first 2 games, and Jake and Susanna are very respectable bowlers. (We all have our own ball and bags and everything..hehe...) Anyhoo, I didn't write my scores, but I think it was like 164, and 175 or something like that.

Jake finally found his hook on the last games with 5 strikes in a row...and ended with 185 or something like that.

Then we went to the Drive-in. This was our first time this summer. We really like it $7 for 2 newer movies, and you get to bring in your own snacks...and it's fun.

So Susanna, Jake, Erin, Corey and I met at the drive-in to see the new Johnny Depp movie, Public Enemies. It was playing with The Hangover, which Corey had heard was good, but I hadn't seen anything about it....other than some people had said it was crass Vegas humar stuff...We stayed anyway. Had a few laughs, but for the most part....not a movie that I would personally recommend...They could have kept it cleaner...some of it was just for the very very very cheap laugh.

Public Enemies was entertaining enough...the filming was a bit different. Almost documentary style. This was another movie that I didn't know anything about other than, Johnny Depp and Gangster movie. It glorifies the bad guy a bit...and I don't love that.....but over all I enjoyed that one. Really what I liked the best was spending time with close friends enjoying some candy and mt. dew, and bathroom trips together. I am blessed to have such wonderful loving people in my life!

And to all of you who take the time to read this...you as well are part of my wonderful loving people!

as always thanks for reading. Erin took some pics, I might try to get them and upload just to have a visual, cause, I like visuals!!!

For Grandma Cullen

This is a baby burp cloth and blanket that a friend made for me when they found out about the baby. Gma Cullen loves her projects, so here's a closer look at what Mom Mary was talking about. Enjoy.

tickets to hawaii?

hey. I'm just throwing this out there for anyone with ideas.

I want to go to Hawaii, I think HNL (honolulu) from sept 22-29. I've been looking on travelocity...anyone have any other ideas about how to find a good deal?

did you hear that michael jackson and farrah fawcett died? crazy day for hollywood.

as always, thanks for reading.

Just in case you haven't been informed...

as I have been telling people, in February 2010, i'm going to be really fat...

also known as,

Jake and I are pregnant!

We are really excited.
God is good.


That's about it for now...
lots of food...and that keeps me from wanting to be sick..

smiles,
as always, thanks for reading...

Moon Lake

Jake's parents and brother are here visiting from Minn. We went up to Moon Lake for a few days. It was a little rainy, but not enough to interfere with our hiking.
We went on a hike basically following the lake. It was neat, cause the terrain kept changing. It was rocky, marshy, forresty....it was as diverse as the Utah landscape.

First night for dinner Mike cooked Brautworsts over the fire, and the boys chopped up some veggies and cooked them out in the great outdoors. Quite delish...

This was at the beginning of the hike. It was such a beautiful view from every angle.

The first day we took a brief walk. It just so happened to be the same hike we woule take the next day. The boys got ahead, cause Mary and I kept stopping to take photos. They were kind enough to say cheese for this one.

Some of the trees were dying. We found out it was a because of beetle. It made the woods look like it was in the middle of Autumn.

I got to touch the water of course!

I love God's beauty.

We stopped so I could take a pic of roadkill, and the beauty that we were driving past. On the way out to Moon Lake, we took an alt. driving route. 35, I think. It was a mazing. I recommend it to anyone that is driving that way.

The boys at the cabin. It was a nice temporary home. And the guys that run the resort there are awesome. Very helpful and friendly.

The lighting on this one is nice.

It's me and the baby...

Jake and his new hiking boots.

The pics aren't in any kind of order...but as always, thanks for reading.

and if you can, get out and enjoy the good weather while we have some.