A Weekend in St. Louis

This past weekend we went up to Saint Louis for a family reunion/great uncle's 95th birthday celebration.

A good part of Friday was spent at the zoo. Last time we went to the zoo we stopped to see each animal we passed and consequently weren't able to see the elephants, hippos, or rhinos. This year I had the boys make a list of the animals they wanted to see and we were able to see everyone that was on the list.

It was a pretty hot day, so we really enjoyed getting to cool off while visiting the penguins and monkeys. We took both of our strollers (a double and a single) and I am glad we did.


Waiting to go into the penguin house. As I said, it was hot. Jeremiah was really flushed; he probably drank a gallon of water and iced tea that day.

Nathaniel.

The boys did really well wearing their hats the whole time.

Somehow I never took a picture of Edmund, so instead here is a funny elephant showering itself with water.

Our great uncle paid for everyone's lodgings for the weekend. We got to stay at the Ritz!

The whole Hall contingent at the big birthday dinner.

Left to right, Glenn (Pop), Justice, Kimberly, Mary (Mom), me, Jeremiah, Nathaniel, Jaired (oblivious to the picture taking), Ellie, and Chava. Edmund is sleeping on Chava's lap.

Vacation 2010 Part 2 -- Yellowstone

A few more mountain climbing pictures...

Getting ready: Walking sticks, check. Water, check. Cameras, check.

Halfway up the main mountain we climbed.

A beautiful (the fuzziness is due to my picture taking, sorry) view of the Grand Tetons range from the highest point we climbed. There was a big grassy, sage bush covered plain on top of the mountain.

On to Yellowstone!

After spending a few relaxing days in the Teton area (yes, even with the mountain climbing it was relaxing!), we headed up to Yellowstone.

Our good friend Robby Haselwander was working just north of Yellowstone for the summer, so he was able to come down and hang out with us for the weekend.

We also met up with a good portion of Jaired's family on his mom's side for part of the family reunion. It was great to see the non-Missouri relations, and one of Jaired's uncles was able to take us on the main Yellowstone tour loop since he is so familiar with the area, so we didn't have to hire a tour guide. I don't seem to have any good pictures of the adult relations, but one of the boys' second cousins came, and she and Edmund had a great time playing together.

Joanna and Edmund on one of hikes.

Edmund and Jaired resting in the shade.

The boys slept well every night from all the exercise and fresh air they were getting. They shared a bed the entire trip and did a great job.

Edmund loved all the geysers. Here he is watching Old Faithful erupt. We stayed in the Old Faithful cabins, and we could see the geyser from our cabin.

Jeremiah, like his brothers, loves being outside, and he enjoyed being held a lot and getting first dibs on the stroller.

Nathaniel with his Aunt Kimberly, those two are really good buddies.

Nathaniel is a great walker. He doesn't even complain as much as Edmund does about having to walk instead of getting to ride in the stroller.

Visiting Mount Rushmore on the way home.

Oh boy, that trip home was crazy. Ellie returned with us, as the rest of the family continued on to Montana for the rest of the family reunion. We had decided before even starting the trip that going up in Montana was going to be too much driving for our boys, and I sure am glad we came straight home from Yellowstone. The drive through Northern Wyoming was grueling. We left Yellowstone through the East Entrance and drove through the Big Horn Mountains. The pass was crazy -- switchbacks and road construction! It took us about three hours to drive the 60 miles over the mountains, and Jeremiah was screaming almost the entire time!

The second day of driving, is when we saw Mount Rushmore and drove through the Badlands. About halfway through the day Jaired asked Ellie and I if we wanted to just skip that night's hotel and head straight home. We drove right through the night and got home twelve hours earlier than the original plan.

It was so good to be back home, but the humidity that hit us when we stepped out of the car was not welcome. It was 6 a.m. when we got home and the temperatures were already in the high eighties! We turned up our air conditioner and went to bed. :)

Vacation 2010 Part 1 -- Grand Tetons

We went on our first family vacation in June/July. We drove through Kansas and Colorado into Wyoming to spend time at both The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone Park. On the way home we visited Mount Rushmore and the Badlands. This was my first visit West. (Not counting flying to California when I was six.) The scenery is amazing and the weather was beautiful.

We tried to take a slow, laid back approach to the vacation, so that we would be spending time having fun, rather then stressing about getting places on time and worrying about cranky children. We traveled with Jaired's family and had one of the girls with us each day of the drive. They were an amazing help caring for the boys in the car.

I packed a lot of books and toys, as well as our portable DVD player, so Edmund and Nathaniel were pretty well entertained in the car. Jeremiah did not have quite as much fun; he was temporarily scarred by car travel, and for the second half of the trip would start crying the moment we entered the car. Fortunately, he has recovered.

These are some of my favorite pictures from the trip:

Edmund entertaining himself in the car with a Duplo "recorder".

Car break! We stopped in Kansas City to enjoy some delicious Lamar's doughnuts. Yum! I love how the boys are all looking in different directions, but none at the camera.

One of the rest areas in Wyoming had a Prairie Dog village. The boys had a great time feeding them our wilted grapes and lettuce.

The view from the family's cottage on Slide Lake. The beautiful Grand Tetons mountain range. We stayed in the cabin that you can see on the right edge of the top picture.

Hiking. Nathaniel took possession of Justice's hat for part of the trip. Family picture, nine bumps on a log, and two besides. The man who took the picture opted to get a good close up of us, rather then show the mountains in the background.

Mountain climbing at Slide Lake. These small mountains are MUCH bigger than the Ozark Mountains!

In the top picture you can see Slide Lake, and the slide it is named for. In the bottom picture is the 20 foot cliff we climbed down as we made our descent.

There was good food in abundance.


Plenty of playtime with relations.

Lots of rest and hanging out.

Edmund got inventive in his play. Books for a train track, and there is something about those plastic water bottles that makes them so fun to drink out of, much to the owner's chagrin.