Merry Christmas!

Finally! Christmas is here!!! On the 1st day of Christmas my true love gave to me...the Bones Season 3 DVD!!!

What a wonderful couple of days it has been at home. We have managed to put all of Sofia's gifts together and played them at least four times each. We have learned that Santa needs to put the toys together BEFORE they are wrapped because it just takes FOREVER! Here is a picture of Sofia with all her toys... yeah... she got a digital camera... since we no longer have one because... well she broke it sort of.

The only gift that is missing from the picture is the sled that Tio brought her. Pretty sweet!

Its Freezing outside

Current temp is NEGATIVE 2. We lost power Friday from 9:55am until 3pm. Sandra and Sofia were at home cause Dunlap canceled school. The house only got down to 61 degrees. Not too bad for the heat not running for 5 hours. I was at work until noon friday, After work I went to the store to buy kitty litter for our old neighbors (Georgia & Lyle) that needed some traction on the ice. Georgia preferred kitty litter to sidewalk salt. I helped her spread it on the sidewalks and driveway. They now have the nicest smelling driveway in Peoria.
Today after i get off work we are going to Maryville (by St.Louis) to see Sandra's family. It should be a few degrees warmer there than Peoria. Have a good Sunday. Stay Warm...

This could be Peoria tomorrow

Yesterday, Wednesday 12/17, Sofia was on the front of the local section of the Journal Star. She was asked what she wants for Christmas. We happened to be at the mall waiting for Sears to fix a tire on sandra's car. Of course Sofia wanted to tell santa what she wants for Christmas. She's talked to him about 5 times so far this year. No kids were in line so we said hi and as we exited a journal star writer took Sofia's picture and wrote down what she told her she wanted for Christmas. If you don''t have yesterdays paper you can look at our copy sometime.
-- I am pretty psyched for the ice storm we are suppose to get later today. I hope dunlap cancels classes tomorrow cause sandra would have to take Sofia to Julie's house in the morning on her way to work. Julie lives in a pretty remote location off of Route 40. Stay safe out there if you must go out.
-- Also, The Cubs have announced the caravan is coming to peoria thursday January 15th. It is down at the Riverplex again. $15 per person. I plan on going, Let me know if anyone wants to carpool. Have a good weekend. If you have any ice skates lying around tomorrow might be a good day to use them to skate down the driveway to get the mail.
-Vince

Vince @ Work

Hey its me( Not Uncle Eddie, its Vince), you're sleeping right now in your warm beds and I'm at work at a cold TV station watching crappy programming. I am grateful I have a job though, well atleast until April. Massive layoffs are expected at WHOI on april 1st. Let's hope its just an april fool's joke.

---Last night we went down to the Cathedral for the Our Lady of Guadalupe feast day celebration. Sandra had students coming to get extra credit on their final. About 70 kids along with parents came to see some hispanic culture. The Journal star took some photos of some of the kids so look at todays paper if you can (Sat 12-13).

--- After we got home we finished our Christmas cards, look out for them in the mail within the next week.

Today Sandra and Sofia are having breakfast with Santa at Dunlap High School. I'm Jealous. Tonight Grandma and Grandpa are watching Sofia as we are going to a Christmas party at Grant and Kristen's farm. Should be fun.

I hope everyone's Christmas shopping is going well.

I have one thought to leave you with. I don't understand why some people that don't believe that Jesus existed celebrate Christmas. What are they celebrating? The sales at Kohl's? I guess they just like to get gifts like everyone else does. I don't celebrate something if i don't believe it happened. Do atheists celebrate Christmas? Sorry if i offend anyone, but it just seems wrong. I don't know.

- Vince

An evening full of angels

Where do I start? First, I would like to thank one of my many angels on earth.... Laura.

Sofia had been coughing weirdly (if that's even a word) for a day and I didn't like the sound of it. She had no temperature, but it sounded like she could be in trouble. I called the MedPointe and they said that it would be a 45 to 1 hour wait. I thought... hum... she doesn't have a fever and if I took her she could be exposed to some pretty bad stuff. Let me call Nurse Laura. Thankfully she was home (of course she was... aren't angels always there when you need them?) She listened to Sofia's symptoms and assured me that she felt she was fine, but if I wanted her to she would come over and listen to her lungs with her stethoscope. She said she would be right over. Sofia was fast asleep on the couch. After a while, Sofia woke up to see Laura and was able to listen to her lungs. Laura said they were clear.... thank goodness. She recommended the usual.. medicine, liquids, and perhaps a steam so Sofia's nose would clear out some. My favorite part was when Laura said, "I just saved you $100". Thank you for being an awesome friend!

Speaking of angels.... the Victoria Secret Fashion Show was AMAZING. My favorite look for the evening was the butterfly outfit....

It's too bad they don't sell those wings.... I would totally wear them everyday of spring... wish it was spring!!! BURRRR!!!

Who's your favorite angel?

I received a funny email today from a co-worker that I would like to share....

Right up there with the Superbowl and the MLB playoffs, march madness or January 1st. Tonight is the big Victoria Secret Fashion show. Get your popcorn, spray the room with hairspray and cheap perfume, prepare yourself for an evening of acute frustration but a night that should not be missed by males of all ages.

Sandra tell Vince.

I couldn't help but laugh! Not only because of what my co-worker wrote(and by the way I was the only female on the list), but because I'm a huge fan of the fashion show and watch it every year. I love the wings that they put on some of those girls.. I remember one year Heidi Klum came out as the last angel and she pulled a rope that made her look like a gigantic snowflake. IT WAS SO PRETTY!!

Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?

Well, the Christmas season has official started yesterday with the first week of advent. How exciting! We decorated the new house and had a fun time trying to place things differently, yet the same as Margaret. I bought rope lights for the porch, but since it's too cold well we are using them inside for the holidays. My nativity scene is still AMAZING on the shelves and the top of the armoire. I would show you pictures, except our camera broke yesterday after taking our family Christmas picture outside in the first snow of winter. We will be sending it in to get fixed in a few days. Long story. Anyway, we are all well after Vince got really sick over Thanksgiving... let's just say that he was a giant fountain and had a fever. Maybe that was not the nicest way to explain it. He was though. Anyhow, Sofia and I are crossing our fingers that we don't get sick. I should be ok since I got the flu shot, but Sofia didn't. I will let you all know what happens. In other news, we are still Christmas shopping.... who knows when we'll finish.

Louie is well too. I never mention him in the blog for the most part.

ps. Answer the phone like Buddy the Elf day is December 18th (Thursday).

Double Date Night

How fun! It's been so long since Vince and I had been on a date, but last night we went on a double date with our friends Tom & Laura (we pronounce Louda) Anyhow, we went to the Conklin's Barn Dinner Theater to have a lovely buffet and to watch Perfect Wedding. Our server was Dan and he was awesome. He gave us extra cheese appetizer and let me tell you.... IT'S SO GOOD! We also had desserts and I had the chocolate peanut butter pie, I even gave it a standing ovation. The barn allows guests to byob (that means bring your own beer), but being the classy bunch we are, we had wine. DELICIOUS!! It was a wonderful evening that was filled with some out of the ordinary conversations about wounds, things that ooze, and drainage. When you hang out with a nurse you just never know what can be talked about. We had a lovely evening and we would like to publicly thank Tom & Laura for inviting us on a such a wonderful evening!

The (Almost) Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field

Well it was a nice weekend in Green Bay. I went with my father-in-law(Jose) and bro-in-law (Omar). It was a nice man's weekend. The only thing that could of been better was if the Bears had actually showed up and won. They lost 37-3. But I guess it was better the packers won cause it wouldn't of been too enjoyable with 2 grumpy packer fans the rest of the weekend. Here are some pictures if I can get them up. Sandra usually does the pics but she has been pretty busy and I am gonna try to do this myself. We'll see what happens.




Above is Omar doing the Lambeau Leap at the Packers HOF Located inside Lambeau.

The bike picture sums up the whole weekend. I was on a trip with 2 kids in Packer Heaven. I had a lot of fun as well, but these 2 guys were 2 kids on Christmas morning all weekend. The bike story is that on game day they ride kids bikes from the training facility to the stadium. Its a tradition that started who knows when. The big guy in the back right is Gilbert Brown.





Vince Lombardi's office in the Packers Hall of Fame.
Lombardi is one Packer I like. Not just because his name is Vince either. My favorite quote from him is "Winning isn't Everything, It's the only thing"





Yeah they won 3 super bowls. Big whoop, we did the Super Bowl Shuffle. Don't they look so happy though


Along with the Hall of Fame we took a tour of Lambeau Monday morning before we headed home. We got to go out the tunnel the Packers go out on gameday. Pretty cool even for a bears fan.


Yep I married into a Cheesehead family. The sacrifices we make for love.


This is Gilbert Brown(Former Packer) He was at the tailgating party we went to at Brett Favre's Restaurant. All you can eat burgers, brats, beer, screwdrivers and more from 9am until kickoff.
Yummy!!!

Gotta love the bumpers!

The three of us went bowling last night for fun! It was a great experience, we only bowled one game, but seeing Sofia try to push the ball down the lane and then watching it slowly roll all the way down to what it seemed like eternity was great. Even better was when she hit a pin or several and got so excited about it. I think the entire bowling alley watched her have fun. She's so funny. Vince won 140... not bad. Sofia got 45 and I barely made 80. What a great night though. It was good family fun and didn't spend that much on our evening.

I have to tell you all about the deer Sofia and I saw in the backyard on Wednesday. It was a buck, with huge antlers and he stood about as tall as me. It scared me, but he ran down the ravine quickly, thank goodness. The first thing I said of course was, "That was AWESOME!!". After Louie went to the bathroom we went inside... here comes the best. Once we got inside Sofia looks at me and says (mind you she hadn't said anything while we were outside),

"Mami, I didn't like that big squirrel." :)

The Cereal Wall

Some of you have seen Vince's "project" at the house. It all started from an idea a few of his roommates had. Somebody thought a cereal name and picture was funny and they taped it on the wall, soon it became a joke to find other cereal boxes with funny names and pictures to put on the wall. What was one cereal turned into hundreds and so they placed different cereals on the wall and it was their goal to keep finding new ones. The summer after the kitchen was covered in cereal boxes the owner of the college house took all the boxes down to paint the kitchen, thus eliminating their precious wall. I remember how devastated the guys were that all their hard work, all that cereal eaten, was gone. Vince suggested that some day he would like to have that cereal wall again. Well, here we are.... 2008. Vince and Sofia (mostly) have been working on this for a few months now. They are over 50 boxes of different kinds of cereals, all unique, all eaten at the house. So, if you want to help us make this wall, you have to come over and eat our cereal... that's the catch... it can only be consumed at our house. I already brought up the fact that we could finish it in a week if I asked my students to do it for extra credit... Vince said, "that's not how it works." I respect that, plus we have to look for all the non-brand name cereals that are spoofs for the name brand ones. For example, Reece's Puffs... we have that and Coco Peanut Butter Spheres... yeah and the cereal box has a purple octopus on it, not sure why. Anyhow... here's how the wall is looking.

FYI: Sofia took the picture on the left. Her and Vince were playing around earlier in the day taking pictures of the wall.

Bing, Bong, yeah it's me... give me the candy! I'm Superman, look at the red pant legs!

Sofia's first year trick or treating. It was tons of fun!! Our new neighborhood gives out GOOD candy, not the crappy non-official halloween candy. All NAME brand candy, it was AWESOME!! We met some of our neighbors too. The lady across the street gave Sofia a stuffed halloween kitty cat toy and the family next to her was giving out NORMAL size kit-kat bars!! Unbelievable, yet amazing... Sofia loved ringing doorbells, she didn't always say "trick or treat", but she knew to stick out her pumpkin so people would give her candy. It was cool. We went around the block and came home. She was getting tired and the pumpkin was getting too heavy (that's a good sign). Oh, and we did have to get back home to our costume party at the house. We had a great crew come over.... a jellyfish that one 1st place, a racket ball guy, a security guard, a pumpkin, a hunter, and even Lou Pinella!! Vince dressed as a police officer and I was a black cat. If you can't tell from Sofia's pictures... she was a white cat, but didn't want to wear the cat ears. Great Halloween!

Doing my job...

Great Birthday Party for a great dog!!

Had a great time. Here we are. Sorry about the delay... I know some die-hard Iadipaolo blog fans out there really needed to see this picture.

Louie's cousin???

Yesterday was Louie's 5th birthday. We lit a birthday candle and put it in a bone I got him. Sofia helped Louie blow it out. There is a cute picture but my assistant is too busy with Dunlap related activities to upload it.
Today Sofia and I went to the store to get the ingredients to make dirt cake and mud for the halloween party next week. Dirt cake is made with oreos, french vanilla pudding and cool whip in case you are wondering. Mud is a cheese dip with rotel and meat. Its awesome. You'll have to come have some if you're intrigued by these dishes.
If sandra ever gets time we'll have a picture of our little party up here. Until then here is a picture of a random pug that had a great birthday. Have a good weekend.

Update: Vince Style

Hey BlogFans. A lot has happened in the past 2 weeks since our last post. First of all- What is up with all the businesses closing??? Our economy is hurting obviously, but when I hear that the best potato salad in the world will not be made anymore cause Danner's is closing, That's where I draw the line. Then you have a big chain store like Linen's n' Things closing too. Crazy Stuff.

Oh yeah, The Cubs laid a tird in the playoffs so we'll have to wait until next year AGAIN!!!
Last night, Sandra, Sofia, and I went to Howl-zoo-ween at the Zoo. It was a little chilly but fun. Sandra and Sofia are in Springfield this weekend. Her uncle came in from Venezuela to visit. I couldn't go because of work. I am already using a day off on November 16th to go to Lambeau Field to see the Bears play the Packers with Jose and Omar. It stinks to have to work weekends and not be able to take off somewhere. But I'm just thankful I have a job and one that pays me to watch TV is pretty cool too.

Lastly, If you don't mind a little raunchy humor I recommend "Forgetting Sarah Marshall". It's a pretty funny movie. Sandra liked it, but doesn't want to admit it to other people. The Dracula Musical was great. Have a good weekend everybody. "Die, Die, Die...... I can't"

Friday & Saturday ROCKED!

So much fun! Friday night we went to Galesburg and had dinner with my high school Spanish teacher, Señorita Pennington. We ate at Happy Joe´s and had a great time. Afterwards, we went to the Homecoming football game, where I got to see Mr. Wolfe (my history teacher sophomore year), a couple of high school friends, and the band half time show. It was a great night. Cold.. but great. I got in free because I got this award in high school where you get into all athletic events for free for life!! I felt so important using that :)

Saturday, Sofia and I went to the Spoon River Drive with Grandpa Paul and Grandma. We found many treasures. Sofia found some heart shaped earmuffs that made us laugh for a while. I had to take a picture. We also found an antique phone that was really cool and I took a picture of that. The Cub Bug was cool, it´s a lawn ornament using a Cubs aluminum bottle. $10.

AND, Sofia and I found some treasures to bring home. We invested in some antique milk jugs that are sitting in our new landscaped garden out back. They are pretty heavy and are about as tall as Sofia. They were $5 each!!!! They look so cool. We also found a statue to add more humor to the outside of our house in addition to our pug statue that is peeping on on of the trees. It´s a hoola hooping FROG!! He sits by our new lilac bush ($4). For the front of the house I found a really cool metal sign of the Cubs logo. Our neighbor across the street has a Sox flag and we just can´t keep staring at that flag when we look outside of our kitchen window, so now he can see our Cubs logo :) That was the most expensive item priced at $30 and last but not least, a really sweet candy dish shaped like a pumpkin for $1!!! It sits on top of our armoire. So not bad on the $ for all I got. I wish the Cubs thing cost less, but it was well worth it cuz it looks so cool and Larry Little (yeah that´s his name) can enjoy it.

Tanner's this weekend

This post is a little late, but we had a lovely time at Tanner's this Sunday. The three of us went (Vince on the left and I'm on the right). Sofia loved seeing these two characters. We bought apples, cider, and some gords. I think that's how you spell it. I did a cute display on the front porch with a pumpkin we got there also. It's FALL! So fun, can't wait to start dealing with the leaves that will fall from our gazillion trees!

I don't like having a cold....

I, Sandra, have a cold. Eventually, Sofia and Vince will also have colds. It's sad how these things work. At least I'm not coughing or have to constantly RUN to the bathroom... ha ha ha. Anyway, I had some medicine this morning and it did help a little. I guess I'm just a woman of simple words today. I told the pharmacist this morning, "Can you fix this?" and I pointed at my nose. It's been a long day.

A Vince adventure

So Vince decided to take me to a Vince adventure yesterday. Sofia and he tend to go on these adventures when I'm at work. He decided to take Sofia and me to Charter Oak park. It's a nice little park that has great slide equipment, a picnic area, and some trails to walk to a pond. I was rather negative about the experience because of the "walk to the pond part". I knew that it would remind me of my walks in the jungles of Costa Rica this summer. I expected iguanas to interrupt our paths, but it never happened. I must say it was a wonderful time. My favorite part was watching Vince come down one of the twisty slides that OBVIOUSLY were not made for a guy like Vince. I haven't laughed so hard in a while. We had a great time. This is me with the Ipod dock Station listening to some music like I'm the Fresh Prince of Bel Air...

CUBS WIN!!!

Leo Hildenbrand, 104, throws the ceremonial first pitch before Chicago Cubs game against the St. Louis Cardinals in Chicago, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008. For those of you who don't follow baseball, this guy was 4 years old the last time the Cubs won the World Series.


CUBS WIN!! Cubs 5 Cardinals 4 The Cubbies are the 2008 NL Central Division Champions!!! As José would say... YEAH BABY!!!

Today

Today we found out that Vince's aunt Rose passed away with Ovarian Cancer. She was such an incredible woman and we got to spend some time with her when we went to Michigan for the family reunion. She spent most of her life as a nun and her order of nuns that she was in focused on teaching.

Sofia took the above picture of her, the actual picture is of everyone looking around, but Sister Rose saw that Sofia was taking the picture and looked at her and smiled. She noticed the little things in life and cared for many. She will be missed.
Above is the picture that I promised of me at Mix Match day. Sofia picked out the skirt and Vince picked out the top. Wow... lovely.

Thank you so much!

Hello all... it's me Sandra. I just wanted to truly thank you for everything you all have done. Thank you for the prayers, cards, emails, flowers, and hugs. It has been a few rough weeks, but I have come to peace with all of it. Yesterday, Vince and I decided on a name ... we named him Angel (pronounced in Spanish). It seems fitting since after it occurred one of the most encouraging words that I heard were from my mom... "Bueno mi amor, lo mejor es que ahora tienes un angelito en el cielo que los está cuidando a los tres" "Well my love, the best is that now you have a little angel in heaven that is watching over the three you." Those words just brought me peace; therefore, may God bless Angel who is watching over us.

I have been keeping busy with school. Teaching Spanish 1, 3, 4H, and 5AP is a lot more fun than at first feared. I couldn't believe that I could handle it, but I seem to be doing better. I'm also sponsoring Snowball (a club that encourages students to lead alcohol and drug free lives filled with a good attitude). The first meeting which was 2 weeks ago, I had 250some students come. Yeah.. two hundred some students. Rumors say that they want to be in the club because I'm the sponsor... GREAT! Being "popular" is not fun, it just creates more work. I have 5 officers that help out as much as they can, but it is rather overwhelming. Fun stuff! Did I mention that I'm coaching JV Scholastic Bowl too? The varsity coach has been awesome allowing me to sit back for a few weeks until the season gets going more. So, busy busy. This week is homecoming week and I have really enjoyed it so far. The theme is "Music" so Monday was Band shirt day... I pulled my senior year of high school marching band shirt out and wore it. The band students loved it. Today was StopLight Day. A day that I did not like, but participated anyway. If one wore Red today it meant that you had a date to homecoming or you didn't want to go. Yellow was that one was going with friends, but was open to begin asked and go with a date if the opportunity came up. Green meant you did not have a date, could be asked, or you were going with friends, but rather have a date. HOW CONFUSING. I wore red because I'm married and well didn't want to create an awkward situation. Anyhow, tomorrow is mix match day and Vince and Sofia will be choosing my outfit this evening. I shall blog about that tomorrow.

We're still here...

Sorry we haven't posted anything in a while. Some of you already know that Sandra had a miscarriage last week. She has had some difficulty after the fact. I won't go into detail but she had a few really bad days recently. She is doing a lot better and would like to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers. She was about 7 weeks along when this happened. There was no real reason it happened, About 1 in 5 pregnancies result in a miscarriage.

Crazy Italians

This weekend we are going to Detroit for the annual Iadipaolo/Ferrari/Suarini Labor Day weekend party. Of course there will be plenty of great food there, but the best part is the bocce ball tournament between the Canadian Italians and the American Italians. The men's tournament is fun, but the women can get pretty testy at times. We will post some pics when we return. Have a great Labor day weekend. Oh yeah, Go Cubs Go...

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Paul!!!

Today we celebrated Grandpa Paul's birthday. Sofia and Vince made him brownies!!! Yummy!

Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go!!

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I last blogged. We've been so busy lately and I start SCHOOL tomorrow. Wow... the summer just flew by.

Anyhow, yesterday (Saturday) we went out and had a great time at Grandma Arlene and Grandpa Paul's house (they live in the middle of NOWHERE). We had grilled to perfection chicken, baked sweet potatoes, and steamed peas. YUMMY! Sofia and Grandpa Paul spent most of the early evening in the AWESOME swing set, custom-built by Grandpa.




It is the most amazing, made from scratch, contraption that I've seen for a swing set. Grandpa is very innovative and has created a swing set that can be converted into a shed in 20 some years when all the grandkids are older (little does he know that I will still want to play in it). The area upstairs is designed to be closed off as a "house" and it will have a covered porch, but he is waiting until the older grandkids are a little older. The slide AND the staircase fold up on hinges so that he can mow the grass (so smart!). The upstairs area is tall enough for Vince and I to stand up inside of it. Grandpa put a tractor wheel inside so the kids or myself can drive. The even cooler part is that he has attached a tractor seat onto a milk crate so one can sit while one drives. There are other gadgets inside to play with. I suggested one of those horns from semi-trucks, he has a horn in there... but not a semi-truck one. Underneath the upstairs is a gigantic sandbox that Sofia and Grandpa played TOGETHER in for hours. Yes, Grandpa Paul who is at least 6' is able to get under there and play with the sand. Also a really cool feature, above the swings there are 5 of the old telephone pole covers that were made from glass. There are four clear and one green- they symbolize the grandchildren... 4 girls and one boy. Very cool. Anyhow, I wanted to go down the slide yesterday, but hesitated at the last minute. Maybe next time.

The Iadipaolo's went to the farm and then to the state fair!

Saturday, the Iadipaolo's took a trip to Dahynda... a town in the middle of NOWHERE. It's so peaceful there and very beautiful. Kristin and Grant's farm is located there (I work with Kristin). Besides the endless fields of corn and soy beans, we got to see the pig maternity ward (Grant raises show pigs). Pregnant pigs are not the most attractive creatures of the world, but I must say for being pregnant they seemed just like humans. Tired, grumpy, and needing special attention. The picture of the three pigs is a picture of what are called "guilts", these pigs have not been pregnant before, but will be soon. We also got to make smores!!! Yummy! Grant's sister brought over a basket of all the essentials and I became the official marshmellow cooker of the evening. They also have new kitties at the farm and Sofia loved picking them up.

On Sunday, I had to get ready for our trip to Springfield for the state fair and I found this...

it was dead, thank goodness! in one of our duffel bags downstairs... I was reaching in for two things that I didn't need that were inside the bag and I pulled this out. I ran upstairs screaming my head off (Sofia was in the living room and didn't even flinch). We went downstairs with latex gloves on and put it in a ziplock for Papi to see when he got home. We have set traps downstairs (idea curtosy of Tio Omar), but if they don't work the Iadipaolo's may be going back to the farm to get one of those kitties...

On Monday we went to the Illinois State Fair. First, we went to see Grant and his pigs. We don't know yet how well they did, but it was cool to see all the different "pretty pigs" at the swine barn. We hung out with Abuela Nere at the State Fire Marshall tent, ate lots of junk food, and got to see a monkey!! It was a really cool day for all....

St. Louis Scrapbook

Greetings Blog Fans!!! Sorry that I have not updated, thanks to the boss, you all know we're back. Anyhow, I made a scrapbook of our journey (the scrapbook was a gift from Vince on our anniversary). It turned out really cute and I wanted to share it with all of you (know that if you come over, I'm going to show you the book anyway). I hope you like it as much as I do. I think I did a decent job. I'm not a "scrapbooker", but I'm not too bad. Here it is...

The cover page. The picture inside the frame is the photo index thing that the pictures came with.

1st page: The St. Louis Arch, the temperature gauge in the car reading 101 degrees, the Maryville sign, and Lola our GPS (her name was inspired by the GPS in the movie RV which is also named Lola)

2nd page: Our campground. The picture on the upper left is Vince inside the tent holding all the poles waiting for me to place them. The picture with Vince giving a thumbs up was taken by Sofia.

3rd page: The left is our adventure at the Abuelos' neighborhood pool and the right has pictures of Angela our friend from St. Louis and the lower right is Sofia and Abuelo enjoying an ice cream sandwich.... yum!

4th page: Sofia on a slide at a mall that we went to and on the right is my FAVORITE page- a combination of all the characters that we found at Six Flags. Notice on the left side next to the margin a picture of Sofia and Vince with Batman and Robin.

5th page- The many activities that we did at Six Flags. Sofia got her picture drawn my Micheal (on the right page) with air brush it is displayed with Vince and I's caricature drawing in our bedroom. You will also see Vince with a giant hammer on the left page, he won Sofia that Batman cape.

6th page- Our visit to City Museum- in summary it's a gigantic juggle gym for adults. You may be able to see the outside of it on the lower left hand side of the page.

7th page- Our activities at the museum. They had blocks for the kids to play with and a giant area for crafts/painting. Vince painted the purple tulip on the left page. There was also a ball pit and the right page shows pictures of that.

8th page- The Wax Museum which is up for sale if anyone is interested ($1.7 million- Charlie the owner said if you bring cash he will throw in all the wax figurines). Pictured on the left page: Pope John Paul II, Moctezuma, Dali, Abe Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Vince staring at Genghis Khan. On the right page: Charlie's wax figure, Snow White, Babe Ruth, Dopey, and Micheal Jackson.

9th page- On the left is the many faces of Sofia at Bobby's (the greatest frozen custard place) located in Maryville. It was delicious!! On the right some pictures of Busch Stadium (Vince, Grandpa Paul, Abuelo, and Tio Omar went).

10th page-Our favorite stuff, I'll explain. Cool spray painted trash can at the city museum... so cool, maybe I'll do that for ours. Who can resist fun signs- the Lost Parents is just funny if taken out of context and the Scoop the Poop needs no explanation. My thumbs up to Funnel Cake (Sofia calls it funny cake) and a random guy at this place called Morgan St. Brewery where we ate having a beer sampler platter: 5 beers of the day for $5.50). Pictured on the right is Sofia sleeping after a long day at Six Flags (not only did we do the attractions at the park, but we also swam at Hurricane Harbor).

Last page- Home... our favorite getaway. A picture of the Peoria County sign on the bridge. I couldn't find a Welcome to Peoria sign on our way in. Bummer.

Hope you enjoyed it!!