The best day!!!!

For reals...like I almost want to cry, it was so perfect!

On July 13th, it will be 10 years since Brigg made me an Aunt for the first time. I love that boy, he's not like any other child his age...he is special and he turns double digits soon, so we wanted to do something SUPER special for him!

We decided a couple of months ago that we'd like to take a mini trip to St. Louis this summer so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and surprise Brigg and have him come along with us and attend a Cardinals game with Sean. So this morning, we showed up to pick him up. We were waiting outside the house in Muscatine and I called him and told him we wanted to give him his birthday gift early and asked it that would be okay. Of course, he said he would like that. :) I told him to go outside. There Sean, Tate and I were with a Happy Birthday balloon, his bag already packed in our car and said, "let's go! Want to come with us for a couple of days?!" He was totally shocked and caught off guard...and excited! So he went with us at 9am and we didn't tell him where we were going. We let him ask us a question every 10 minutes in the car as to where we were going and what we were doing. It had to have a yes/no answer and then after he asked the question, he could take a guess. I video taped every time he asked a question and took a guess...I'll post those in a couple of days when I get home. After an hour, we gave him a hint. His hint was that where we were going was not in the state of Iowa. It took him 20 more minutes (2 more questions) later before he guessed St. Louis, MO. He was SHOCKED when we told him "You're right! And you're going to the Cardinals/Phillies game tomorrow night!" SHOCKED. He was speechless really. It took him a while to react. So cute and sweet! His goal is to see every MLB team and he hasn't seen the Phillies yet, so he was pumped. :)

We stopped and ate lunch and then rolled into St. Louis around 2pm. We went directly to The Magic House.

It.Was.INCREDIBLE.

SO FANTASTIC for kids of all ages! Both Brigg and Tate had such a fabulous time! There are countless activities for kids and play areas and science projects and I could go on and on and on. It was HUGE!

Tate painting...

Brigg loved the room all about electricity. He is so smart!

Sean and Brigg even played checkers!

I think Tate's favorite place was the play Hospital Nursery complete with lab coats, stethascopes, lifelike babies, clipboards, a receptionist desk...the whole nine yards!

And this was my favorite part...

Tate is in heaven with Brigg around. He loves and looks up to Brigg so much! I can't think of a better 9 (almost 10) year old I'd want him looking up to!

Seriously, I was having so much fun!

And then the day/evening just got BETTER!

We went to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner in a really cool, old area in downtown St. Louis that had brick roads. Just such a neat area! And the food...YUM-O! Both Tate and Brigg inhaled their lettuce salads and then devoured a bunch of spaghetti. The atmosphere in there was really cool, too!

Both of these boys are in heaven down here...

And Tate wanted to pose for a picture JUST like the big boys. Hilarious!

Then, when we walked home from supper, we were just basking in the amazingness of the weather and suddenly I thought, "geez, it would be perfect weather for the game tonight! I hope the weather is this nice tomorrow when they go to the game!" It hit me...they should go to the game tonight too! So I suggested it and Sean and Brigg were ecstatic about the idea!

We rushed up to our room so they could change into Cardinals gear and they headed out for the 3 block walk to the stadium. They only missed a few minutes of the game and got CHEAP tickets. SWEET!

Tate and I headed up to the rooftop pool for the evening. As you can see, we are DIRECTLY across the street from the Arch. It's pretty amazing! I didn't even tell Tate to do this and I really didn't even know what he was doing pointing his finger. When I asked, he said, "I'm pointing at that big amazing thing for the picture, Mommy!" Well, duh! :) He's so cute...

Could things have gotten better? I didn't think so, until we were leaving and I decided to take a quick picture of the pool's view and when I walked over for a better shot, I noticed the rainbow. I mean, perfect.

And to think we have about 36 more hours to go!

Best day ever.

For reals.

:)