St. Louis and the farm

Emily, Michael, Grandma & Grandpa
Leyna reading to Naomi
Leyna & Michael
Michael, Naomi, & Mom playing patty cake

swimming at Dawn & Craig's house
Emily in the cellar - mid process
Emily & Michael in the creek
Emily, Michael & Lynn on the John Deere

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I arrived home from a trip to St. Louis and grandma and grandpa's farm. It was a great time!


We left last Sunday afternoon after Michael arrived home from camp. He was exhausted, but has lots of stories to tell about his 24 hours at camp. We arrived in St. Louis around dinner time. After dinner with Aunt Dawn, Uncle Craig, Justin & Leyna the kids went downstairs to play with Justin's new Wii. How great that he was so willing to share it and show it off. The adults sat around and visited and just took it easy. It rained, so the kids were unable to go swimming like they would have wanted.


On Monday morning we went to pick up Naomi as Greg and Jamie were loading up their moving van and preparing for their treck to Texas. Naomi was such a sweetie. She was very happy to be with her Aunt, Grandma, cousins, & Great Aunt that she only took a 30 minute nap. Wow! Greg & Jamie came over after loading everything up and the kids went swimming with Greg. What a great way to relax.


On Tuesday morning we said our good byes - that was hard as other than the short visit at John & Jamie's wedding in July, we are not sure of when we will see Greg, Jamie & Naomi next. After that we went to the farm. Bonnie had fixed lunch - so we enjoyed lunch over at Lynn & Bonnie's. The burgers were gigantic - I couldn't believe that Emily and Michael ate a whole one. It rained so the kids were not able to play outside much - but they needed rain so it was great for the crops. While it rained we defrosted Grandma and Grandpa's freezer and cleaned out their cellar. The cellar contained jars, and jars of canned goods done over who knows how many years. We threw out about 20 jars of stuff - and some were really smelly!!! Both Emily and Michael were a big help with wiping off the jars and moving the jars around. We could not believe that we got it all done in a matter of a few hours. The hardest part was dumping out the rotten jars of stuff. Michael actually helped me with that. I took the kids into Dip & Deli for ice cream as a reward for being such good sports.


Wednesday was more of a fun day. The kids and I went down to the creek & went walking in the creek. That is always a fun thing to do. Michael found an old fishing pole - thought it was a golf club at first. After heading back and cleaning up we went over the Grandma & Grandpa's to visit for a while and then went to Dip & Deli for lunch. Grandma had invited Great Aunt Ruby along also, so their were 9 of us to go into lunch. It was a good lunch - the girls in that cafe sure work hard. There are only two girls to cook, serve, take orders, and bus the tables. Wow! They sure earned a gold medal from me. We then went swimming in Lynn & Bonnie's pool & then ate dinner at Grandma & Grandpa's house. After dinner the kids played outside for a while and I visited. Then we played one round of Aggrivation and headed to bed.


Thursday morning Michael & Emily went on a tractor ride, we loaded up some beef which we will enjoy - nothing tastes as good as farm meat - and we got ready to go. We arrived home Thursday afternoon which gave me enough time to clean out the freezer so I could fit the hamburger into it, got laundry going, and defrosted some soup for dinner. Mom stayed the night so after dinner we played 4 or 5 games of Mexican Train.


While we were doing that Doug had to go to work and get the computers going as they had lost power, and was working some on the camper. While we were out of town Doug put an airconditioner into our camper, reinforced the roof, oiled the bearings & got 2 new tires. Wow! We have it ready to go for next weekend and for later in July.