Hodge Podge Trip to the States Part II

With the computer back on track it is on with the show! So we continue with our land trip.

Carl and Eric load the mixer

The kids helped shovel the stones

When we returned to St. Louis Eric and I worked on his patio. It was almost a week long project of preparation as Eric still had to work each day, culminating into a weekend long concrete mixing and pouring marathon done by hand.

We finish the patio pours

Cole is learning to shave

Cole and Madison engrosed in their digital games

 

With the patio setting, we drove off Monday morning to Ft. Benning Ga.  We spent three weeks with Aron, Katie, and their kids Madison and Cole. Madison was practicing for her part in the Nutcracker as Claire, put on by the Georgia Ballet so she was gone a lot to practice. However, we got to ride bikes, jump on the trampoline and play a lot.

Leslie snuggles with the kids

Aron recieves an award from the army

Then we headed back to St. Louis for Thanksgiving, with Aron and family a few hours behind as he had a night class to attend.  Aron is getting a master’s degree in business and Katie is home schooling Madison.

Eric frying the turkey with help from Cole

Meals are a happy time

In St. Louis we had a great Thanksgiving with everyone!



Breakfast is a fun time for kids.

The kids made cookies with Kelly and Leslie

We hated for it to end, but end it did and Aron and family headed back to Georgia.

Leslie with Judge Roy Bean, SASS #1, and ladies

We Learn to dance the period dances




It snowed while we were there

We drove down to Branson Missouri for a 4 day Single Action Shooting Society, SASS, convention. The hotel was all decked out for Christmas and we had a great time attending the various events and classes. I even got to do some indoor wax bullet shooting.

The shooting was fun!

We shot postol, rifle, and shotgun with wax bullets

All dressed for dinner

Leslie is ready for the ball

We left Branson after a two day snow storm, Leslie chopped an inch of ice and 4” of snow off the car, back to St Louis where we spent a couple weeks with Eric and family.

Our little Prius covered with snow

Time to stop again. However, we still have Christmas to go in the next segment. See you then!

Hodge Podge Trip to the States Part I

The middle of September we put the boat on the hard in Virgin Gorda and prepared her for hurricane season.  We flew back to St. Louis for a few days, just long enough for Leslie to trade in our 2004 Prius for a 2010 Prius, then we drove to R.I. 

Leslie and the "new" Prius

 

 While there, we packed up our storage shed into a POD to ship to St. Louis and went to the boat show in Newport to buy stuff.  We met our friend Diane at the boat show and filled the needs for this coming years boat projects!.

We meet Dave and Jan at the show

Diane at the helm of a new Lagoon 450

 

Dinner at Tamar's House

Neighbors and friends get together

We stayed at cousin Alice and John’s house and had a great time. We also had a dinner party, thrown by Tamar, at our old neighborhood. Time to visit was limited in RI and NY, where we visited with Carl’s dad and cousins Wray and Cindy, as day care was closed for a week in St. Louis and we were going to take care of Tali and Cloe.

Eric runs to the first set of targets!

Eric engaging various targets

We drove back to St. Louis to play with the kids for a week which is one of our favorite things. While there, Carl got to do some shooting with Eric.  Eric is still with Boeing and Kelly is now a high school librarian.

snow storm at Ally's house

Leslie, Mom, and Ally

We drove west to Cody Wyoming stopping to visit Leslie’s Aunt Helen in Nebraska before continuing on  through a snow storm to spend a week with Leslie’s sister Ally and visit her mother. It was a fun visit and we got to do some activities with Ally as well as take mom on some outings. We also hooked up with other friends there and had a great time at the Buffalo Jump Winery.

We stopped leaving Nebraska

Leslie in cousin Melody's garden

It was then back, stopping at Leslie’s cousin Melody in Nebraska where Carl went on a Combine ride to harvest corn.



Tali and Cloe relax at the water feature

we prepare to release turtles on the beach

The turtles are off!

Then off  to St. Louis to repack and go to Mexico with Eric and family.  A fun time of surfing, water slides, pools and aquacise.

Eric Surfing

Cloe, Tali, and Eric put in sun block

one of the slides at Mexico

More to come but the computer is complaining.