St. Louis Trip 2016

We took our annual trip to St. Louis to visit my family.  It was really hot and humid so Joseph and the big kids went on some outings, but the babies and I stayed home.  It didn't help that Annika ran a fever one morning and then the babies suffered from terrible diaper rash the rest of our trip.

On Monday, Joseph and the big kids went to Elephant Rocks State Park and explored.  Joseph said he would have enjoyed it much more if he hadn't been trying to take pictures so he could explore easier.  The kids had a lot of fun there.

Monday afternoon they changed venues and cooled off at Johnson's Shut-ins State park.  Apparently it is a large rocky area with little waterfalls and small rivers running over the rocks where people climb and cool off.  The kids had a fun time here and it is on their list of things to visit again when we are next in St. Louis.  (Their list expands every year we visit.  Pretty soon we'll have to stay a month to fit everything in.)

Tuesday was another full day of outdoor fun.  Joseph took the kids to a water park which was really just a glorified swimming pool with a few different slides.  My kids really aren't in to real water parks yet.  

They came home and ate a quick dinner and then headed off to a Cardinals baseball game.  The Cardinals were playing the Reds.  It was really hot and Rebecah was quite bored so they only made it to the 4th inning.  Rebecah has decided that she won't go to another baseball game.  Let's face it, baseball can be a little slow especially if you aren't really into the game.

Wednesday was a day for Joseph and me.  We attended the temple with my mom and Heather.  It was a wonderful time. 

Playing "Life" as a family.

Kimball and Joseph put together this 3-D puzzle of the Neuschwanstein Castle.
 It made Joseph and me miss it all over again.  

Thursday we were going to visit the zoo, but we all decided it was too hot so we went to Suson Park instead.  The kids played on the playground for 30 minutes and then they were hot and ready to visit the farm animals before heading back to my mom's house.  

We didn't get any pictures, unfortunately, of my mom, Heather, or Chandra, but we had a great time with them.  We were glad Chandra could come over 3 days to spend time with us.  She and Christian were a huge hit with my kids.  Annika is still talking about "Channie" on a regular basis.  

Here are a few pictures that I got from Heather of my kids with Christian.  Christian is so sweet.  He is about 10 1/2 months younger than Lincoln and Annika, but outweighs them by a few pounds. They got along great.

One last shot of Lincoln that Joseph took during church.  Lincoln was sad that I
was holding Annika instead of him so Joseph had to take him out to the hall.

Cemetery Trip

I think every generation tortures their children with a cemetery vacation where you go and see the headstones of ancestors.  I know my family endured one growing up and Joseph's family did too. Well, this year it was our turn to torture our kids--and me too.  Joseph really wanted to visit the Artz Family Cemetery where about 20 of his ancestors are buried.  To be perfectly honest, we only did it out of love for Joseph.  The thought of traipsing through cemeteries was not on my list of fun family vacations, but I knew it was important to Joseph.  Joseph had a list of 3 cemeteries in fairly close proximity to visit in northern Illinois so we made that the first stop of our St. Louis vacation.

The Artz family cemetery is a family cemetery so it isn't kept up--at all.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I wasn't expecting 2 foot high weeds over the entire area.  It was gross.  Joseph was the only one to have long pants and shoes so I didn't let anyone else in the cemetery for very long.  I could just imagine all sorts of undesirable creatures lurking in the weeks...Joseph found one too!

Joseph was happy at his cemetery though and took quite a few pictures of the headstones.

 

 

 

Our other two stops were in well maintained cemeteries so they were more enjoyable.  Thank goodness it wasn't too hot and humid when we visited.

Headstone at the second cemetery

The best part of the trip was seeing Lincoln and Annika go nuts over a little teddy bear statue that was next to the grave of a 2 month old baby.  It wasn't a family member of ours, but they would crouch down and hug this little statue.  It was precious.

The third cemetery had just one headstone of a husband and wife.  Joseph would be able to tell you who all the people were.

 

I know family history is important, but now that you can see all of these graves on findagrave.com I don't see a need to drag my children to see the real thing.  Sorry, ancestors.  The only cemetery I take my kids to is the one where my dad is buried...it's 10 minutes from my mom's house so very doable.

July Catch-Up

 Our July just seemed to fly. The big kids had 4 weeks of swimming lessons.  The lessons were Monday through Thursday for 45 minutes each day.  The lessons were about 25 minutes away so it took most of my morning each day.  The big kids really enjoyed lessons this year and it was fun to see their progress.  It's amazing how much confidence they have gained as they become better swimmers.  Rebecah is a bobbing queen but it was very exciting to see her swim the width of the pool for the first time.  It's amazing to see my kids do something that I have never been able to do. I'm glad we can afford lessons for them so they can develop this life skill.

The babies did fairly well during the lessons although each day got harder to keep them out of the pool.  Thankfully, Joseph was able to take the big kids to lessons about half of the time so the babies could stay at home.  When the babies got too adventurous we would just go walk the halls       of the high school.

Joseph has a free 6 week membership to the YMCA again this summer.  He has taken the kids quite a few times to the open swim hours so the kids can practice their technique.  I would say that trips to the Y have been one of their favorite activities this summer.

The last thing of note for the month was a family day trip to Watkins Glen State Park.  We went 2 years ago when I was pregnant with Lincoln and Annika, and I can honestly say it was easier to do the hike pregnant with them rather than being pregnant and carrying Lincoln up all of the stairs like I did this visit.  I still think it is my favorite place to visit in New York, but maybe the next time we go it can be when the kids are a little older.  We were so busy keeping an eye on the babies that we didn't get too many great pictures.