Thursday, July 30, 2009

An Overview of the Last Couple of Weeks...

includes a visit from Emily, Maggie and Katie's friend, and pictures from Nashville. Enjoy:

The Massac County Youth Fair...

has become a yearly event for us. Each year, the kids participate in the greased pig contest. Here are some pictures:

Treez B Gone

One call, a few dollars, and our storm damaged trees are officially gone. We have had the fortune of a Sassafras tree springing up wild near one of our old trees. Here are some pictures:

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Our Wonderful Mini-Vacation...

As July began, we packed up the family, and embarked on our mini-vacation. First stop, Six Flags!



While we were at Six Flags, one of the ride attendants dropped Carl's glasses, and we had to stay the whole day and night (until 10 pm) to retrieve them. However, we made the most of out time. We picnicked in the parking lot, rode all the rides we wanted, saw some performances, and stayed for the night parade, which was fun. We had a long drive to Springfield, Illinois, but ended up at Jim and Nan's house around 2 am. We slept like the dead!

The next day, we were going to spend the afternoon at the Springfield beach, have a picnic, and see some sights, but the beach was closed (hence the kids' sad looks in the first pics below). However, we got over it, had a wonderful walk on the Lincoln Memorial Garden trails, and then spend the evening with Lara's grandparents, and had awesomely good ice cream at Krekel's in Springfield.



We got up the next morning, and drove BACK to St. Louis to spend a day at the zoo. We were joined by Jim and Nan.



We had a great day, and made it back home to Metropolis by about 10 pm that night.

Lara and I had a chance to see some old friends in Carbondale that night, but age was catching up to us, and we decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Unfortunately, when we got home, Lucky, our new dog, had injured herself in her kennel, rubbing her nose raw and chipping her front teeth on the kennel door. Even with someone watching her and letting her out regularly, she worried herself practically sick. We have decided that it is probably time to take our chances with the dog in the house instead of the kennel, or the next time we travel, we will professionally kennel her.

We went down to the river and watched the fireworks in Metropolis on the 4th. They were beautiful.