St. Louis Trip

We took our annual trip to St. Louis in August this year.  We were lucky and the temperature wasn't too hot.  I always dread the drive, but it always goes better than I think.  Having a DVD player in the van is wonderful!

The first adventure once we arrived was a trip to the race track.  Joseph took the boys to see some car races.  None of us girls cared to go along.  Joseph said it felt like a small town event!

We took pictures,

Played with Grammy's toys, 

and had a lot of fun cousin time!!

 

 We went to a brand new water park.  Everyone had fun but Eden and me. I just really hate getting wet!  Eden was really too small to enjoy a lot of the activities.  The best part of the day for me was hanging out with Chandra and her kids.  Things are always better with Chandra along!

We took the little ones to Mastadon State Park.  The big kids didn't want to come.  Lincoln especially had a great time.

Looking for mastadon bones!

The local bowling alley had unlimited bowling for $5 so it was a win!  We only bowled 3 games before the little ones gave out.  Kimball and Joseph went another day and I think they bowled 11 and 8 games respectively.

Kimball, Joseph, and I went with Heather and my mom to the temple.  It's always a wonderful time at the temple and it was Kimball's first time in the St. Louis temple.

Our last day we went to Grant's Farm.  I love Grant's Farm.  I have good memories of Grant's Farm from school field trips.  We hadn't visited for 6 years so we were overdue for a visit.  I like how it's just big enough to see everything in a morning without getting exhausted like going to the St. Louis Zoo.

Tram ride through the deer park.  This was a highlight for everyone. We saw so many deer, elk, bison, etc.  They were really close to the tram, too.  Some of the elk and deer had HUGE antlers.  The antlers still had fuzz on them and the guide said that some antlers grow an inch a day!!

Riding the carousel. 

Through out the morning the kids got brave and fed some of the animals.

Kimball made some new friends.  Six years ago when we tried to make friends with the goats this happened:

That skirt survived though and Annika and Eden have both worn it! 

Our last night in St. Louis we had a small birthday bash for Kimball and 

two of our Minster cousins that have August birthdays. 

On the way home to New York we decided to stop in Kirtland, Ohio.  The last time we tried this 6 years ago it didn't go over so well with the kids.  I'm happy to report that even though we have 5 kids now instead of 2 the experience was so much better!

Sawmill

Newel K. Whitney Home

Living quarters for Joseph and Emma above the Newel K. Whitney store

I love the look of the buildings.

Newel K. Whitney Store

 Grove at the Issac Morley Farm.

Ashery

We spent the night in the Beachwood, Ohio and our hotel was near a fantastic shopping area.  Kimball was in Heaven. He loves places like this.  We walked to dinner and enjoyed walking around the shopping area.

There were games to play.

One of Kimball's favorite stores.

We had a great time in St. Louis and Ohio.  We hope to go back over Spring Break next year if I think I can do the drive by myself with all of the kids.  

July

Our Summer is off to a good start!  For the Fourth of July we went to a barbecue at our friend's house.  This was the third year that they have invited us.  My little ones love to play with new toys and all of the kids enjoyed the pool.  Hooray for the freedoms we enjoy!

Lincoln and Brooke

Rebecah and Melanie.  These two have been friends since Kindergarten and I love it.  

Our families became friends because these two are friends.

Random Shots:

Eating peaches!

Annika loves to build with Legos.  She is always making houses, phones, you name it.  We finally had to separate out the bricks and plates from the specialized Legos because she only uses bricks and plates at this point.  She made this "house" over the course of a few days.  It's more like a skyscraper!  I love that she can entertain herself for HOURS with Legos.  She is my child who excels at independent play.

Lincoln had a few good light saber battles with Joseph.

Rebecah did a cheer camp one week.  It was every morning for 3 hours and she had a lot of fun!  The last day of the camp the girls did a littler performance for the parents.

Sprinkler fun in the back yard!  Lincoln especially loves the water.

Eden with her babies.

Kimball had a 2 day Scouting adventure with Scout camp the following week.

Canoeing

Scout Camp:  Joseph was able to go up to Scout Camp and spend the day with Kimball and the other boys.  It was raining so that was unfortunate, but the rest of the week was hot, but tolerable.  

Playing "ga-ga" ball

One night the boys attended the Hill Cumorah Pageant

Joseph and Rebecah also attend the Pageant.  They met up with Joseph's aunt and uncle's family, the Rellafords.  They had a nice visit together.

The Rellaford clan.

We took a day trip to Ithaca to visit some waterfalls.  This is one of my favorite activities in New York.  We visited Ithaca Falls and spent some time exploring the rocks.

I guess we got individual pictures of everyone but Lincoln.  Oops!  He was probably too "on the go".

My girls!

We also hiked Buttermilk Falls.  It's one of my favorite waterfall hikes in Ithaca.  We were going to do a waterfall with a swimming area but the swimming area was closed because of heavy rain the day before.  The kids were so disappointed, but I'll admit I was relieved.  

This sounds weird, but one of the highlights of July was reading The Underland Chronicles to my two oldest.  If you haven't read "the Gregor books" do it.  We all enjoyed them so much.  There are 5 books in the series and I read all of them aloud to the kids.  We would get to the end of a chapter and they would beg me to keep going.  Now we need to find a series to read for August.  Reading to my kids will probably be the best part of Summer vacation.