Our Trip to St. Louis

Kianna and Kit with their ears pierced

Souvenirs

St. Louis Arch

Kids at the arch

Family Picture

City Museum

Us all climbing in tubes

This is the ball pit where Trevor's glasses were broken

Six Flags with Scooby Doo and Shaggy

Trace on the carousel

Mommy and Kaylee riding Superman

Getting ready to ride the swings

Boo the swings had technical difficulties 2x when it was our turn to ride them.

Since we moved to MI and our good friends, The Hayes, moved to Dallas, TX about five years ago, getting our families together has become challenging. As a solution, we decided to meet them halfway in St. Louis, MO for a few days. It was so good seeing them again. Even though our kids hadn't seen each other for nearly three years, it was as if no time had passed. We soon discovered that their kids are nearly as obsessed with Star Wars as our kids, so they had an instant bond.

Our days were action packed and a bit of a whirlwind. We left Bloomington on Sunday morning and arrived in St. Louis that afternoon. We went directly to The American Girl store to surprise Kianna with  an early birthday gift. She has been wanting to get her doll, Kit's ears pierced since she got her own pierced in the Spring, so we thought this would be the perfect chance to get that accomplished. She didn't know their was a store in St. Louis, so it was quite a surprise. It was so cute how she immediately knew what store we were going to just by seeing the red building with its large white star. We also gave both girls some money to pick out a souvenir from our trip. They had fun shopping. Trace and Daddy did some shopping of their own. Trace ended up picking out two Star Wars blasters, as his sourvenirs, which he and Graysen had a blast playing with all week. Kaylee was exciteded to learn that their was a Cheesecake Factory in St. Louis, although I don't think she was surprised. It is tough to keep secrets from here, since she now knows how to read and do her own google searches. She had told me that she saw that I had recently done a search on The Cheesecake Factory. Sometimes I think she is too smart for her own good. We had so much fun going there last Fall, that she had been wanting to go there again. It just so happens to be one of my favorite places, so I was happy to oblige. I was proud of Trevor and I, as we actually ate off of their new skinnylicious menu and looked up the calories of our cheesecake prior to ordering it. I actually left there not stuffed for the first time in my life and yet my belly was still happy after eating my turtle cheesecake. Yummy!

Monday, we met the Hayes in downtown St. Louis so we could see the arch up close. We took a quick tour through the arch's museum prior to heading to the City Museum. The latter was amazing! It filled with tons of crazy stuff. We were told it has the largest non waterslide in the world, at 10 stories high. It was quite a climb to get to the top, but the kids must have enjoyed it because they wanted to do it again right afterwards. There were some neat caves indoors to explore, as well as, lots of things to climb through. Unfortunately, none of our vacations would be complete without Trevor losing or breaking something. Trevor ended up getting one of his lenses knocked out of his glasses after Trace threw a ball that hit him just right wrong. Once located it had some really bad scratches and was deemed unrepairable. After a trip to Lenscrafters and ~$400 later, Trevor had a new pair of glasses and was good as new. Ugh!

We spent both Tuesday and Wednesday at Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor. We had a great time. The waterpark provided a nice respite from the 103 degree temperatures and led to no lines at Six Flags. We stayed in an air conditioned cabin at Jellystone Campground. We had our own kitchen and firepit, so we made our own meals with The Hayes. We spent our evenings swimming at their pool, making Smore's, and after the kids went to bed chatting it up by the fire. It was a great vacation and fun times with friends!

  

Our Visit With The Schmitz'

Kianna and Trace with Aunt Traci

Fishing with Uncle Todd

Trace caught a fish

Kaylee's fish

Kianna and Brittany fishing

We spent a couple of days with Todd, Traci, and Brittany in Bloomington on our way to St. Louis. As usual, we had a fantastic time. The kids had a blast hiking for geodes and salamanders in their woods. They also had a great time fishing and playing in the peddle boats. All the kids caught fish, but Trace caught the most. All he had to do was drop his line into the water and a fish would latch on. He caught about ten. We also made some yummy Smore's. In addition, we got to meet Brittany's boyfriend, Brian, and his son, Branton. We had a wonderful weekend with family. The only thing that could have made it better was to have gotten to spend time with Broderick too, but he is in Tempe, AZ for the summer...

Trevor's Fishing Trip

Trevor got invited to join a couple of his friends, Ashley and Kerry, on a charter fishing trip in Ludington, MI this weekend. Their salmon fishing extravaganza began at 4:00 AM on Saturday and by 9:00 AM they had caught their quota of five fish each. They were only guaranteed one fish each, so they were pretty happy with their catch. Thankfully the fish were beheaded and deboned prior to being packaged. Trevor was home by dinner time with 35 lb worth of salmon fillets. You can guess what we had for dinner that night and again tonight. Yummy!!!

Gaskill's Visit

We encouraged my dad and Sue and my oldest brother, Dave, and sister-in-law, Darla, to make our house their stopping point on their way to Washington D.C. They took us up on our offer and arrived yesterday afternoon, leaving early this morning. It was Dave and Darla's first time in Adrian, so Trevor and Kaylee gave them a tour of The Centre and LCS. Other than that, we spent the evening eating, swimming, and visiting. We had a great visit!!!!

Wenzel's Visit

Our good friends, Sally and Ryan, and their three girls; Brooke, Krista, and Makenna came to visit us this weekend. The kids had a great time playing together and were even able to have sleepovers. We enjoyed lots of pool time, as the weather was excellent. We hired a brave sitter who was willing to take on our six kids, so the adults could spend an evening in Ann Arbor together. We did a little shopping, enjoyed some Thai food, and watched one of the dumbest movies I have seen, Midnight Sunrise. Regardless, of the movie, we had a fun night out and a great weekend together. Thanks for coming to visit us!!!!

Art Camp

Kaylee spent each morning this week at The Centre's Art Camp. She currently wants to be an art teacher when she grows up, so she thoroughly enjoyed this experience. Each day had a different theme, as follows:

• Mosaic glass- She was able to decorate two glass pieces with mosaic tiles. The instructor then baked them and returned them later in the week. They turned out nicely!
• Painting- She painted two flowers and had her work framed.
• Photography- Kaylee borrowed our camera for the morning and practiced taking pictures. The main thing she learned was that in order to make your pictures more interesting your subject should be off center. I guess I learned something too!
• Drawing- This was her favorite day, mostly because Trevor was her teacher. He was able to dust off his drawing skills and spend the day teaching kids the basics of drawing. He had a blast doing it and Kaylee loved learning it. She was especially excited about her new pencils, erasers and sketch book she was able to take home. Trevor managed to get Kianna a set too...
• Graphic Design- She created a picture on the computer and the day ended with an art show.

Trace's Date with Daddy

"Boys only, no girls allowed" that is what Trace likes to say about his date with Daddy. Trace and Trevor had a blast together. They went out to dinner at Outback Steak House and shopping to pick out a new bike and helmet for Trace. The reason for this date night, other than father/son bonding time, was as a reward for Trace. He earned his new bike by waking up dry five mornings in a row. He has been potty trained for over a year, but was still wearing diapers to bed until he decided a couple of weeks ago that he wanted to start wearing underwear to bed. We are proud to announce that we are now a completely diaper-free household. Way to go Trace!!!!