St. Louis

Catching up with my blogging

Amy gave me this postcard along with a lovely scrapbook she made me before she left for St. Louis. It doesn't look that far, but it is a 12 hour drive, but a very nice ride. We can't make that drive often but we are flying out to see them the Thursday after Labor Day - Yeah!!! I can't wait to see them. I miss them sooo much. Then we will go back for Halloween and they are coming to Richmond for 2 weeks at Christmas.Amy is so talented with her scrapbooking, I wanted to share some of the pictures in my going away gift:

Thank you Amy, I love it and look at it a lot!!!

Happy Anniversary!

Today, August 12 is our 11th anniversary. I had a perfect day. Didn't have any thing special planned - we have a house guest for a few nights. Our teenage neighbor, Kiara is staying with us while her mother is out of town on business. So, after I took Kiara to school ( she has band camp at her high school), I came home and relaxed, read my book and worked in the yard.

Our corn wasn't so sweet this year!

I cleaned up the garden a bit so I can plant a fall crop. These butterbeans and asparagus look good but that's about it.

Veggies picked today.

Late in the afternoon we head for our favorite relaxation area. Turn on the music and enjoy the outdoors. This hummingbird feeder was given to me for my birthday from Joyce, my coworker.

I am sitting on our patio taking pictures of Dave in the garden.

I am working on this - a sweater for Meighan. These are the sleeves.

Okay, not great pictures, I am taking these myself - arms length away. But I wanted a picture on our anniversary.

One more. I love you Dave!

I'm happy - knitting, having a glass of wine and watching for birds, especially the hummingbirds. Dave got Chinese for dinner and we enjoyed it on the front porch. Then we went for a walk through the neighborhood. Now we are watching the Olympics. Yes, it was a great day.

Summer Birthdays

Our family has a lot of birthdays in the summer. Here are a few pics of the celebrations:

Ian is 12!

Aidan turned 6.

Samara - she makes the cutest faces.

Aidan likes Pokeman.

He's happy!

Monica with her parents and sister.

Kari, Brian, Samara

Somebody's tired.

Emmy also turned 6 in May. We bought this hat for her in Las Vegas.

Serving refreshments to her cousin.

We have had a lot of fun this summer. Matlin's birthday was celebrated at the Cheesecake Factory. I forgot my camera. Matlin is 17, is driving - has her own car and is a senior this year - Yikes, we can't believe it.

Road Trip to St. Louis

On June 25th we packed everything up and headed to St. Louis. We took our time and stopped often. The Melniczenko family couldn't get into their temporary home (corporate housing) until after 3 on Monday. We didn't try to keep up with each other - stayed in touch by phone as to where and when we would stop for meals, breaks, etc.

The first night we stayed in Charleston, West Virginia. The hotel was on the river and offered some fun things to do.

Great view from our room -over looking the river.

The kids loved riding the carts. We headed to the pool with the kids, so Mom and Dad could have some alone time.

Then we headed to the front of the hotel - lots of activity - bands, food and lots of kids.

Yummy pizza!

Our gang -how much I will miss them. But we will visit as often as possible.

Music, Dancing - right up our alley. We were having a blast, suddenly a bad storm
interrupted the festivities.

The next morning was sunny. Spotted this barge carrying coal down the river.

Alex cooling down his cup of coffee.

We did find a few great shops and flea markets along the way. This was my favorite.

Jammed packed full of lots of goodies.

I didn't do too bad - at least Dave is smiling:

This is the necklace Amy had made for me as a going away gift, she also made me a scrapbook from the kids (I'll share that later). I love both of them.

I got a lot done on the baby blanket I am making for a co worker.

Ate way too many snacks - I love gummy bears, even more than chocolate!

We stayed in Corydon Indiana Sunday night.

First sign for St. Louis

We ran into the Walmart to pick up some beer and wine = we soon found out that no alcohol is sold on Sunday in this area. Meg picked out some hair coloring stick thing.

Doesn't she look tired. Mommy putting that pink stuff on.

Mommy getting pink highlights.

Dinner didn't go too well tonight - the kids were very tired. They just don't sleep well in the car.

AAAlex and Grandpa enjoying some silly time:

Our little action hero.

This is a very nice little town. We will stop here again.

We're here!

The kids love to draw, paint, etc. Nice picture Alex.

The corporate condo is nice and roomy.

We had a fire alarm Tuesday morning. We were on our way out, headed for the Zoo. Nothing serious.

The St. Louis Zoo is very nice and just a few blocks from their place.

The train was very cool.

Amy had to be at work on Wednesday, so we went to have lunch with her. The building is huge and the security is huge too.

It is like a little city inside. Has everything. 3 cafeteria's and the food was really good.

Meg loves her dolls.

And Alex loves his.

Dave and I found this Bat Woman Barbie and thought it would be perfect for Meg.

I think Alex plays with it more = I think Meg prefers her little cutey baby dolls.

These are a few pics we took the week before their big move. They were getting ready to go see relatives in Pottstown.

Amy said that Alex wore this mask from his Halloween costume all day.

I miss these guys already.