since today is wednesday, entrance is free into the MO botanical garden, including the children's garden before noon.  so we had an early start today to try to enjoy the garden before the temperature got above 100 degrees, which wasn't a far cry from the 95 degrees at 9 a.m.

in addition to enjoying the flowers of the garden, we fed the koi in the japanese garden, ate a snack in the chinese garden, and played in the fountains in the children's garden.

at home, marine and pablo watched "cloudy with a chance of meatballs" during lunch.  in the afternoon, we all went to visit a neighbor's new snake.  and in the evening, marine went out with some affton high school students again.

for photos, please follow this link to my facebook page:

for most of the day today, we stayed at home, except bryan who went to play ultimate frisbee despite the high temperature of 100 degrees.

marine treated everyone with her own french version of french toast for breakfast. 

in the afternoon, cady gave marine a tutorial in playing guitar.

in the evening, bryan's former students, tess and haley, took marine to watch a cheerleading competition in which bryan's school, incarnate word academy, was competing.  marine enjoyed watching the cheerleaders and learning about this common aspect of american life.

a couple pictures from today can be found on my facebook page, following this link:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2261505377553.135589.1245993928&l=e5fa089446

today and july 18th, Marine visited with some more villmers: bryan's parents in bryan's hometown of hematite, and bryan's aunt who lives in fertile, MO, and is the directoress of a group of religious women.  in hematite, we stayed indoors, ate lunch, and visited.  marine gave bryan's parents a refresher course in french pronunciation which brought back a lot of memories for bryan's mom, who had taken french in high school.

on the 18th, Marine visited with bryan's aunt natalie.  here again we ate lunch, then went for a little walk in the woods down to the french village, explored the world of natalie's christmas village, and picked blackberries in the garden (and in the 99 degree heat).

if you'd like to see pictures, please follow this link to my facebook page:

lots of events today including going to bryan's nephew grant's baseball game, attending the terbrock's scavenger hunt support team party, a neighbor's birthday party, and a night out with some teens for marine.

in the morning, we left at 8 a.m. to get to grant's under-8 years old baseball game in arnold.  marine met bryan's relatives: katie, michael, grant, nathan, ryan, jeff, mary grace, and caleb.  it didn't take long today for the heat index to rise above 100 degrees and for grant's team to establish a commanding lead, going on to win.

after a little break at home, we left for julie terbrock's house where we were part of the support team for jenny terbrock who was participating in a scavenger hunt in st. louis.  jenny would call us with trivia questions about STL and we all would search on the internet for answers to send to her.  then as she and her partner sought out those places, we all had barbeque and partied the afternoon away.

in the early evening, we went two doors down the street for the birthday party of  four-year-old sean, where all of us, including marine, got toy story tattooes, which is a good look for marine for her evening out with some affton students.

marine and some affton students went to a local teen hangout, swing around fun town, which has batting cages, go karts, bumper boats, arcade games, and miniature golf.  she had a good time experiencing some st. louis teen culture.  (her next teen event will be going to watch Incarnate Word Academy's cheerleading team participate in cheer regionals)

follow this link to my facebook album for some photos:

needed an early start today to get to the zoo in time to enjoy the free hour of the stingray petting pool, the carousel, and the children's zoo.  we had a particularly good time with the chimpanzees who were hanging out eating some morning snacks right up against the glass of the viewing area.  marine informed us that her favorite animal was the zebra, so we made sure to pay them a visit after the giraffes, finishing our morning with the elephants.

for nearly five hours in the afternoon, cady, jessica, pablo, and marine went to the community pool in white cliff park with the eberhardts.  bryan played ultimate frisbee, laundry, reading, and a nap on his own.

for photos, please follow these links to my facebook albums:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2251632410735.135147.1245993928&l=1e605ee93c

today we had three activities:

a free movie, the chronicles of narnia: the voyage of the dawn treader, in the morning.  then, a visit up the arch in downtown st. louis, and some water play in citygarden, which is also downtown.

marine mentioned that she was a little bit scared of heights, but that she was fine with going up in the arch, which is 630 feet high.  first, we looked through a mini-museum that described the building of the arch, then we rode the egg-shaped elevator up to the top.  after visiting above, we returned to the bottom so that marine could visit the information desk to see if anyone found marine's bracelet that had fallen off her wrist. we were very happy to discover that someone had found and turned in her bracelet, yeah!  next, we walked through the museum of westward expansion, which chronicles the development of the louisiana purchase from france.

our final event of the day was some cooling water play at citygarden in downtown st. louis, which has trees, grass, sculptures, and three separate water play areas.  marine found it peculiar that she could walk through downtown in her bikini with office buildings all around.

to see photos, follow these links to my facebook albums:

two significant activities today:  the women's world cup semifinals and the little mermaid at the muny.

bryan set up the projector so that we could watch the world cup semifinals on the "big screen" of our living room wall.  pablo's godfather anthony joined us for the US vs. France game.  Marine was very proud of her countrywomen's performance though she was disappointed by the result.

in the evening, we met up with a former student of bryan's, natalie (iwa class of 2009) and her sister madison to watch a live outdoor performance of the Little Mermaid at the Muny in forest park.  we got there really early to sit in the free seats lines and enjoyed dinner and visiting until the gates opened.  we also got rained on briefly around 6:30.  the night was a delightful 82 degrees F with a pleasant breeze through the trees.

to see photos, follow this link:

today was another very relaxed day, especially since the weather was extremely hot.  again, we did some grocery shopping but spent most of the afternoon in the pool. In the evening, Marine went out with three Affton High School students to enjoy some bowling and visiting, which she found to be quite fun.  unfortunately, she came in fourth place out of four people while bowling.

to view a pool photo, follow this link:

part of Marine's experiences here in the states is learning about regular family life, so today she accompanied Cady and the kids to the library and the grocery store.  she was able to pick out her favorite french cheese, comte, and get some cow milk, although we took some time to figure out which type of milk was most similar to what she drinks in france.  for the record, vitamin D is her choice. 

no photos today.

since Marine is supposed to experience everyday american life, cady took her to the library to check out some children's books, movies, and CDs.  then later in the day, we all went grocery shopping so that marine could pick out some food that she really wants or misses.  she choose some cow milk, since we don't have that, french baquettes, and her favorite french cheese, comte, which we all thought was very sharp but tasty--more potent that parmesan.

in the evening, we went to 7-11 for a free birthday slushie, and the kids played some games with marine at home.

no pictures today.