Anyways, we spent the afternoon over there, and then a giant thunderstorm hit! (Thunderstorms never scared me until I moved to St. Louis) It was raining like crazy, and then Joe called me to come get him from work. After hydroplaning once or twice I made it to Sonic (where Joe works) and made him drive home. We spent the rest of the evening together as a family just playing...man I love that.
Tuesday was a pretty uneventful day which consisted of me cleaning Hudson's room (which needed it badly) and wasting time. I think I might have done the dishes, that's bonus points right?
Wednesday was definitely the highlight day of our week. Joe had his final day of classes (his classes are in 10 week blocks, he started a new block today) so he was home early and didn't have to work! DOUBLE POINTS! We decided to spend the afternoon at the zoo with Hudson. Hudson has been learning all sorts of animal sounds and all about different animals and so I was really excited to show him the animals he was learning about in real life! First we saw the new Sea Lion exhibit which is AWESOME! The exhibit is a tunnel with clear walls so the sea lions swim right next to you and over your head. Hudson loved it. He kept saying "arp! arp! arp!" because that is what a seal says. They're close right? Next we went over to the Hippo exhibit. Normally the hippo's are in the back of the exhibit, and you can kind of see the top of their heads. Not this time! They swam right next to the glass, and often would press their noses up against it. Hudson just stood there amazed, we hadn't learned about hippo's yet so he didn't quite know what to call them at first. The hippos crawled on top of each other, pranced around, and showed off, and I'm sure it was just for my little man. This was definitely the best part about the zoo. After that we saw the baby elephants, the monkeys, an alligator, and some snakes. Hudson wen't bonkers in the monkey house, monkey's are probably one of his favorite animals and so he just went from exhibit to exhibit screeching "ahh ahh ahhh! Oooo! Ooo!" It was such a blast to take him to the zoo. I can't wait to take him again! (which will actually be this week because my Aunt Sherri and my cousin Alicia and her kids are coming to St. Louis to visit us! And they want to go to the zoo! Woot woot!
I feel like Thursday was another day of simply being lazy, Hudson had a nasty, nasty cough (the kind where he was gagging and almost throwing up,) so we took him to the Doctor just to be safe. It was really neat because Joe does his clinical's in the same hospitol so as soon as he finished for the day he just walked over and met us at the Doctor's office.
Friday we went to the library, and Hudson got his first prize for summer reading! It is a super cool ball. He loves to read books, so it didn't take very long for us to reach the first prize!
Friday night was probably one of the scariest nights of my life. Really the only night that was scarier was when I found out I had preclampsia and it was time to get the baby (Hudson) here now. (Talk about new mommy anxiety)
So anyways back to Friday...we had a tornado! I had just read the blog of a friend of mine's who lives in Oklahoma and was hit by the really bad one two weeks ago, and thought to myself, "wow, good thing we aren't going to go through anything like that." I think I thought too soon.
We were at the bowling alley playing ski-ball, (Joe and I like to do that when we only have a few dollars for date night/family night) when a mom dragged her crying child away from the arcade saying "there is a big tornado coming and I would like to be home before it hits, so we are leaving" then one of the worker's made an announcement and we didn't catch it. We went to the front desk and asked what they had just announced and they said that the tornado sirens had just gone off and that if they went off again everybody could go to the bathroom and wait out the storm. Well, knowing how yucky public bathrooms are, we really didn't feel like crowding in there with a bunch of other people. We looked outside and the sky looked good so we decided we could brave the 7 minute drive home. Scariest drive of my life...as we drove west towards our house we could see the giant black cloud that we were driving into. Joe kept reassuring me that when the sky turns green is when you get scared, but I was shaking. We got home and turned on the news to see where the storm was at. We learned that the storm was projected to hit us within the next 10-15 minutes, so I sprang into action. I grabbed pajamas for all of us, extra bedding, water, and our 72 hour kit along with cell phones keys, and I secured our file box so that it would be safe. We went downstairs and plugged in the computer so that we could receive updates while we were downstairs. A while later it got super loud and you could tell the storm was here! I'm pretty sure I stopped breathing for a bit. Thankfully our area didn't get hit by the tornado's and so our entire family is safe and sound. However there were quite a few tornado's that touched down in surrounding area's and now there is some pretty big threats of major flooding.
I feel so blessed that I was able to keep such a clear mind and grab the kinds of things we would need while down in the basement. However, I did realize how ill prepared we were if we had to leave for whatever reason. We definitely have the resources to stick it out for a few days in our own home (entirely due to the fact that my in-laws are very prepared) but if we had to leave it would be quite the scramble to try to get things together.
The rest of the week went smoothly, and it ended with our last night with Emily here in St. Louis. It has been such fun having her here and she helped a ton with Hudson. The great part is that she is coming back in July and I can't wait!
So great news! June starts the final stretch of our college days! Joe now only has a year left of school and then he will be done! I am so proud of him. He is doing really well in school and he is working so hard for our family. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful man in my life. He is such a loving dad and a great husband.
as promised...here are some pictures from the last few months. I can't seem to get videos to update so it's just pictures.
as promised...here are some pictures from the last few months. I can't seem to get videos to update so it's just pictures.
Hudson has a thing for drawing on himself. His arms and legs are covered too
He also got into something blue, but I don't remember what it was. I just love how guilty he looks here!
My little music man!
Hudson can make a chair out of anything...bookshelves, presents, paint cans, toys, books, you name it!
this is when we were dying Easter Eggs! We had a blast
He loved "fixing" the vacuum! He gets his handyman skills from his Grandpa's!
Opening his Easter basket! We weren't going to do anything for him for Easter, but Grandma made sure the Easter Bunny came! We are so blessed!
Painting pictures for Grandma Bigler! (Sorry mom, I keep forgetting to mail them)
One of our favorite family games is Croquet. Hudson loves to carry the mallet around and pretend like he is playing
He also likes to put the end of the mallet in his ear...
It was so nice we got out Hudson's pool! I had to get in there with him in order for him to like it, but after that he really enjoyed it!
Riding bikes!
He sometimes likes to hide in the closet....takes after his Dad.
Making muffins with Grandma!
