My sister Annie

Before I continue with the most embarrassing moments, I want to blog some more about my sister Annie's visit. It went by way too fast! We had a great time with Annie and we hope she'll come back! She is so much fun to have around. Today Franny wouldn't stop saying, "Annie. Annie. I wanna go Annie."

I didn't know it before she came, but Annie had big plans to inundate me with all things High School Musical. What a cute show! Or as Annie would say, "That show is tight." (That means it's cool.) We watched Hannah Montana together and she taught me some tricks about text messaging. We spent a fair amount of time in Forever 21, Abercrombie, and Hollister (but not Gap or Old Navy of course, my younger sisters wouldn't be caught dead in clothes from there!) We also played A TON of Super Mario Bros. 3. I still remember all the tricks, warps, and secrets, and all I got from Bobby and Annie all week was, "You're such a Nintendo nerd, Katherine." Total lack of respect. I totally beat the game, and then Annie wanted to start all over again! :)

I already blogged about our visit to Columbia and Franny's unfortunate accident. This picture on the left is from our "Tour of ___ville." We started the tour off by heading over to the university here in town to walk around the pretty campus and check out the reptiles. It was very hot that day. After that we headed over to the other campus so Annie could get a look at where Bobby goes to school. We headed to the bookstore for some sodas and then it was on to the gameroom where Bobby spends most of his time. (Just joking.) We played a game of cutthroat pool and I totally won. After we played pool and a quick drive through downtown we headed to Mugshotz for a delicious peanut butter peanut butter cup concrete- our favorite.



We drove to St. Louis and hung out with Justin and Ashley for a few days and had a blast in spite of the heat. The first night we had a delicious dinner that Ashley prepared and then we went to the Magic House Children's Museum. Here are some pictures:

The next day we saw some more sites in St. Louis, including the zoo and Nora's fun birthday party, and then a late night of cards with Justin and Ashley after the kids were in bed. Monday we drove to Kansas City and went to the Great Wolf Lodge. It's a hotel with an indoor waterpark and it is awesome. (More on that excursion later. I need to import some video before I can blog about that.)

My kids love their aunt Annie and we were sad when she had to leave on Tuesday, but I know how excited everyone in California was to have her back, so we're grateful we could have her for as long as we did. She was so helpful while she was here, helping with the kids and the housework, but mostly it was just nice to have her around so we could talk and be together. I am so proud of the beautiful young woman that she is and so happy to have her as my sister. We love you Annie! Thanks for coming!