Atten-hut!

Captain Jason Stapp is now the commander of the 311th HHD out of Lexington, Mo.

They had the ceremony last Friday when they got back from annual training. Jason assured me it was going to be a small ceremony and that I didn't need to come, but I thought as his wife, it was somehow my right to show up. So, I got to see Jason assume the command from McConnaha, who is going to be deployed soon.

Now I'm the commander's wife, and I "get" to do things, such as help run the family readiness group. It might be a lot of work, but I'm kind of looking forward to meeting the families behind the soldiers I've met.

Adventures in Forest Park

Once upon a time not so long ago, Lauren and I had some crazy adventures in Forest Park. I had originally wanted to spend the day finding all of the geocaches in the park (there's about 18), but then I found out that Lauren had never been to the St. Louis Zoo! I decided we would have to fix that.

Our day began with a couple of geocaches near the zoo. Then we proceeded to the World's Fair Pavilion where a police officer told us that people were setting up for a wedding. We looked for our next geocache and played in the fountain while we listened to the warbling of a trio practicing for the wedding.

Next we took a break for lunch and played at the Turtle Playground. There was supposed to be a geocache in there, too, but we didn't find it. It must have been muggled. We took photos with the turtles and admired the snake-head that had been replaced after it had been vandalized.

After lunch we hit the zoo. I love the zoo! I love the animals AND the fact that I don't have to pay for the privilege to see them. We saw pretty much all of the animals. Since Lauren had never been before, I HAD to make sure she did it right. We saw the sea lions get fed, and I dragged Lauren through the Herpetarium. We had a lot of fun in the Primate House, watching the high-energy ring-tailed lemurs bounding all around their space. Another fun place was Penguin and Puffin Coast. It felt pretty cold coming in out of the Missouri heat and humidity, but we got used to it, especially after the puffins near us kept splashing us! Check out a few more photos here.

As we left the zoo, the clouds that had been above us all day finally let loose with the rain. It was a nice rain, a summer rain. It was light and warm, and we didn't mind walking back to the car in it. Then it was on to Pat's Irish Pub and Grill. Mmm...

The main event: The real reason we came to St. Louis was to see "Meet Me in St. Louis" at the Muny. We found our last geocache (total: 3) on the way to the theatre. The rain had let up, and it was a gorgeous evening. We listened to some music before the show and then went in.

The show was great! I got a little anxious when the Trolley Song started and there wasn't any hint of a trolley on stage, but they opened up the stage to reveal a real, motorized trolley car that carried the actors offstage! Lauren and I were bummed when it started raining in the middle of the second act. People headed to the wings to get some shelter. Those who remained seated began opening umbrellas. Lauren and I didn't have anything, but we had made it that far in our beloved musical, and we were going to see it through! We waited patiently as they called the rain delay and gave us updates as to when the play would began again. Turns out there was only about 15 minutes left, but that included Esther's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and the trip to the World's Fair. For the fair, they opened up the stage to reveal a lighted outline of the buildings at the fair. It was beautiful! And at the encore, everyone stood and sang "Meet Me in St. Louis" together. Yay for a great ending to a great day!

Happy Bastille Day!

When I studied abroad, I was in Paris over Fourth of July Weekend. I had a fun time, but I missed the fireworks and celebration back home. Too bad I didn't get to stick around for the French celebrations on Bastille Day. If you missed today's fireworks the first time, here they are again.

Flat Jason is famous

Many of you know that, for most of 2008, I carried around Flat Jason, a lifesize cardboard cutout of my real Jason while he was deployed to Kosovo. Flat Jason received recognition in the Columbia Missourian and the Columbia Tribune, but now he's gotten some TV air-time, too. To see the clip, click on the video player beside the written story.

I hope all this fuss over him doesn't go to his head!

Washers o' Our Fathers 2009

For the big day, Jason and I drove to Chillicothe to hang out with the fam. We met up with Josh and Jess and tried the multi-cache geocache in Simpson Park. We found four stages, but as we were looking for the last cache, it started raining. Since we were already late for lunch, we headed out to Grandpa's.

Then we went to Uncle John and Aunt Marilyn's house to play washers, eat dinner and set off fireworks. Some family didn't show up because they claimed to be affected by the plague. That definitely cut down on the number of teams for tournament play, but we had to start later due to a rain delay anyway, so I guess it all evened out. In single-elimination, it was down to the Pitt Crew from Alabama and Goose and Mav from Colorado. Pitt Crew walked away with the win; it's not entirely surprising due to their second place finish in 2008.

After the meal, most of the boys headed to the cement pad to start the fireworks and the girls were content to watch from a safe distance. We had a nice display again this year, thanks to Tony and the boys, with only a few near-maimings.

Click here to see photos.

Living with Jason...and Lowe's

My first official day living with Jason was July 1. Due to small cabinets, I had already determined there was not enough storage room in the kitchen to keep our food and our cooking utensils. So, we went to Lowe's to find a pantry.

The next day, Jason assembled the pantry and completed an assortment of odd jobs around the house. Then he decided he wanted to make a set of parallets out of PVC pipe. Back to Lowe's we went.

On the third day, after attempting to put his parallets together, Jason realized that we had miscalculated the number of end caps they required, which, in turn, required us to return to Lowe's. Three for three.

Hopefully we'll get our act together soon.

First day of work

My first day of working remotely began without a kiss goodbye from my husband because he was traveling for work, but when I went into the office, I saw he had left me some pretty sunflowers to brighten my day.

Crooked Jack at Cooper's Landing

Headed out to Cooper's Landing to catch a local band, Crooked Jack. It was real Jason's first time to Cooper's. He said it reminded him of when he got to hang out by the river when he was little. We only got to stay for an hour or so because a big storm came rolling in. No worries, though. It was long enough to hear some good music.

Grandpa's birthday

This year we celebrated Father's Day and Grandpa's birthday together since the days were so close. Lots of good food and a newer version of Hide-the-Suitcase...

Luke

Tough-girl Madison

Inspector Lauren

Baby Hannah

Crazy Steve