A Trip Down Memory Lane.

We continued our tour of the great state of Missouri and traveled from St. Louis to Springfield.  Brett and I have not been back to our college town since the day we graduated 13 years ago.  We headed to the Drury campus and immediately found the outdoor architecture piece Brett made with his friends in Architecture school.  It was still there! Definitely dated, but still there!

We took the kids on a campus tour.  

Kate really perked up when she saw the Drury Panther Swim Team practice facility. 

Brett was excited to go back to the architecture building.  The lobby and studios really haven't changed much. 

Brett pulled a lot of all nighters in that building!

Once we finished at Drury, we drove down National Ave to the house I lived in with 2 other girls.  I have to admit, I kind of forgot which house it exactly was on Guinevere St :)  We actually pulled in front of the house next to this one at first and took a picture there!  I quickly realized once we got in the car that we were at the wrong house and  that the house I lived in was 1 house down!  Brett was so annoyed with me:)  I quickly jumped out of the car again and snapped a pic in front of the correct house.  The house could definitely use a little love for sure, but I was really excited to see the house that Brett proposed to me at again!

Then we headed to the Missouri State University Campus to check it out.  We showed the kids the Blair-Shannon Dorm I lived in, the book store and finally went into the Speech-Hearing Clinic where I did my clinicals and was a grad assistant.  Gayla, the clinic secretary I worked with, was still there along with many of my clinic supervisors.  It was so great to see them all again!

After our 2nd campus tour for the day, we headed down Chestnut Expressway to check in to our hotel.  I had to take a pic of the road sign as EVERY TIME my mom and aunt would come down to visit me, we would drive down this road they would sing "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" at the top of there lungs :)

Brett and the Kids swam for awhile before we showered up and got ready for dinner.  

We knew exactly where to take the kids...... Lambert's!  The home of the throwed rolls!  Kate's favorite snack and bread and coke, so she was quite excited !

We got our fill of southern comfort food and waddled our way out to the car.  

We finished the night with a quick drive down to Branson for some Putt Putt Golf.  

As you can see from the pic, the boys beat the girls.  Both Brett and Will got a hole in 1 during the game.   Nonetheless, we all had a great time!

Summer Road Trip to St. Louis

We decided to take a little family get a way to St. Louis in July.  The kids LOVE packing their snack packs for the road to munch on while we drive and also in the hotel room at night.  

Brett will jump on any chance to see a Cardinals game.  We lucked out with great weather and a great game too!

Add caption

Go Cards!

We stayed downtown and ventured around the area at night and found some really fun places to check out.  

The light up fountains were definitely a hit for sure.  How Will stayed dry the whole time was just short of a miracle. 

We spent an entire day a the City Museum.  We went there a few years ago and quickly figured out that the kids were a bit too young to really enjoy all the exhibits.  This year, they were ALL OVER IT! Brett even got pretty excited about it, but kind of forgot that he is a bit bigger than the kids. Yep, that's him in the red shirt getting stuck in the tube :)

 

"Where's Will?"

Legos!!

s

"Will, watch what you are doing!"

Such a fun trip!  Until we meet again!

Swimming, Camps and Tubing in Manchester.

Despite practicing in the pool 4 days a week, the kids still jump at the change to go to the Clive Aquatic Center with friends to jump around and have some fun!

Plus all the yummy treats during pool breaks. 

Will loves his Sour Patch Kids. 

We also squeezed in a few trips to the library and checked out the fun displays outside the building. 

Kate completed a fun camp at Living History Farms called "Camp Victoria."   While she was there, she learned a lot about the life of women in the 1800s, including clothing attire, cooking and etiquette.  On the final day, they hosted a "Tea" where each participant got to invite 1 guest to attend. The girls did a great job with the place settings, table decorations and menu. 

On a hot Saturday in July we hopped in the car and drove 2 1/2 hours to Manchester for a fun day of tubing down the rapids.  

We stopped for lunch at a really cool park in town that had exercise bikes for the Moms to ride while the kids play.  

Tubing down the river was a ton of fun!  Brett, Kate and Will were much better swimmers than I was.  In fact, I actually got my tube stuck outside the channel at one point late in the day and had to climb on top of a rock and wait for Brett to come and help me out!   K and W definitely found that quite humorous!!

And then we found a really cool soda fountain downtown to get a cool treat before we headed home.  Such a fun day!

A Summer Weekend at Nana's

K & W Love spending time at Nana and Papa's during the summer.  The kids were able to do some fishing at the West End Pond.  

"Dad, are we going to ever catch anything?"

We also try to arrange to spend some time with the cousins too while we are in town. 

Great Grandma June has a bday in June. So we were able to throw a little party for her while we were in town. 

Happy Bday Great Grandma!

We loaded up the car one day and head up to Iowa City to see the fun sights of the town.  First Stop,  the famous Black Angel in the cemetery.  

Next stop,  the bakery on Summit St where we got my wedding cake.  

We grabbed a cup of coffee and a few baked treats.  Then we sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful summer afternoon in Iowa City!  Such a fun summer day trip with Nana!