Where did the summer go?

Wow. It's August already and school (the longest 4-letter word) starts next week. I originally meant to post each time we did something cool, but it's now too late for that. So, I'll run down the summer via pictures.

We started in June by going to Springfield, Illinois to see Grammy and Grandad and go to the Lincoln sites. Hereis a picture of us with the Lincoln family at the Lincoln museum. The kids really enjoyed the tomb as well.

At the end of June, we got a needed break from our children. They (except for Hannah) went to Grandma's house for 10 days. It was the longest time that 2 of our children had ever been away from us at the same time. We got the house clean (almost spotless), and it took them less than a day to change that. While they were gone, we went to St. Louis to see Up and then saw the fireworks from the city park in East St. Louis. Here's Hannah "enjoying" the fireworks with Daddy.

The next week we were invited to join Aunt Lisa, Uncle Bill, Grammy and Granddad at the All-Star Fan Fest at the America's Center in St. Louis. The boys had a lot of fun playing baseball games and meeting some former baseball players like Jack Clark and Orlando Cepeda. We have a picture of the boys with Jack Clark as well as a picture of them under one of the arches that were around St. Louis. Aunt Lisa and Uncle Bill were lucky and went to the actual All-Star game!!

The next weekend we went camping with the entire Coverstone family, and that was a lot of fun for everyone. The meals were great and the weather was phenomenal. Here's a picture of Clara helping Aunt Laura with the cucumber sandwiches.

During the summer the kids went to 3 different VBS weeks and they actually were able to go to 3 completely different weeks. They went to one at Grandma's house, one at the church in town where they attend AWANA during the school year and one at a friend's church. We don't have any pictures, but they sure enjoyed their 3 weeks.

Last week we went to the zoo for the 3rd time this year. We went the first time for my niece's birthday at the end of April. We saw a lot that day, and we have decided to definitely go to the zoo during April at least once every year (as long as the zoo stays free). The second time was a couple of weeks later where we went to see the butterflies and the insetarium. When we went last week, we went to the children's zoo and to see and pet the sting rays. We had originally planned to go for free during the first hour the zoo was opened, but I didn't notice on the website that there were special summer hours. When we arrived and asked about the free activities, we were told that the zoo opened at 8:00, not 9:00 as we had thought. We ended up getting a family membership to the zoo, because we will go at least 3 or 4 times during the year, and right now, the kids are at an age where they always enjoy going. Here is a picture of the penguins and Caleb petting a turtle.

After the zoo, we went to Qdoba to eat and then we went back to the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park. Arthur enjoyed the Lindbergh exhibit, but Caleb and Clara were getting wound up, so the parents didn't enjoy things as much as we would have liked. There were 3 of the All-Star arches located in the park, and we took pictures at 2 of them. If you've ever been to Forest Park and haven't seen the Art Museum, it's a beautiful view. The other arch we posed under was in front of the History Museum. The 3rd arch that we saw was in front of the steel animal sculpture at the zoo, but that's a long walk just to get a picture, so we skipped it.

Anyway, it's been an eventful summer, which is what we had planned, and we didn't spend a whole lot of money, which was also what we had planned. We are going to Six Flags on Saturday, and since school starts next week, that may be our last trip of the summer. We still haven't figured out how to handle Hannah at the park, but we'll figure it out. I hope to post soon after with pictures of our great day.