Zen and Great Grandma

Trip to Missouri, August

Zion's friend, Ben, came to stay with us this month. We decided to bring him along on our summer visit to my mom's house in southern Missouri. Sam was working, but he let me have the nice car (AKA the orange one with the built in DVDs, satellite radio, and GPS) so I could cart all 3 boys and Jedi down with us.

We had a short but fun trip. We enjoyed a break from a punishing storm outside of St. Louis on the way down. When the rain broke, we headed to our favorite campground for some fishing and stretching. A 10 hour trip turned into 14 hours, but we finally pulled into Ozark a little past 10:00. The boys spent the rest of the week hot tubbing, playing with neighbors Bradley and McKenna, using grandma's slip & slide (a very worthy purchase from Goodwill), and running wild and free in the country. Grandma treated everyone to a night out at Incredible Pizza. Ben and Zion enjoyed the go carts and bumper cars while Bradley and McKenna racked up the points for tickets and prizes. Zen was happy just to mooch rides off of anyone he could on the train and the merry go round.

It was awesome to be able to spend time with mom as well as Grandma and Jasper.
Mom's garden looks amazing, and her house is a peaceful respite, as usual.

The campground was such a popular choice that we spent several more hours there on the way back up north, swimming, fishing, and catching tadpoles, crayfish, frogs and minnows. This put us home at almost midnight, but it was well worth the stop. Enjoy the pictures!

Covenant Point

Our camp trip was a welcome respite from working on the house. Sam was amazed at the beauty of the upper peninsula. We spent our week kayaking, fishing, hiking, and hanging out on Hagerman Lake. It was so gratifying to see the bond that Zion had with the Point staff from his week at camp earlier in the summer. We took full advantage of their patience and dedication over the course of the week as they entertained the kids so Sam and I could have some peaceful adult time. Chuck and Jane were great hosts, as usual.

Fun City!

We met the Feeney family at Fun City in Burlington, Iowa, when we rescued our car from the dealership where it had been for a few weeks. Fun City lived up to its name--we explored the water park, the arcade, laser tag, and blue icees in our short visit. The boys had a blast, and it's always so nice to hook up with Abi, Katie Grace and Hannah. Enjoy the pictures!