SQL Server Auditing is not available in Standard editions? If the Auditing option is not available in SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard edition, then why I still see it under the Security object in SSMS? 

After reading online, it seems that my option is to use the Trace Profiler that it seems will be deprecated by the time I master it! Can I use extended events in my SQL version?

I only want to capture events like what stored procedures are used more frequently, who are the login names and staff that runs them through a front end application which is built in Visual Basics... Thanks for any advice. Thanks.
The auditing option, along with the resource governor and other enterprise only features  are always shown in SSMS no matter which edition you are running. Part of it is probably for familiarity in UX design and part marketing. ;)

Yes, you can use extended events to capture some of this information. Setting up a server side trace to capture this is also very simple and well documented.