4th of July with Missionaries

On the 4th of July, we had all 8 missionaries in our ward over for dinner. Terri made up the feast consisting of pulled pork sandwiches, corn on the cob, a few salads (including my favorite fruit saled), some type of yummy potato, plenty of chips, dip and salsa, peanut butter bars, lemon squares, rice crispe treats, brownies, homemade ice cream, and plenty of Goose Island (a Chicago original) root beer, orange cream and grape soda. I think there was more, but you get the point.

Tyler and Ashlin found the kid pool and had to jump in. A missionary was trying to get the kids quiet by playing "Nija Rock" (basically kneel down on the ground and see who can be quiet the longest) only to be out-smarted by Haley who quickly said all of the missionaries have to play. We also introduced them to the great midwestern game of "Cornhole".

We had such a great time that we hope to keep this as one of our family traditions that we can do every year.

Trip to St. Louis - 6/30 - 7/03

Finally we were able to make the 5 hour drive to St. Louis and after 9 years I went back and visited my ol' mission stomping grounds.

We were able to catch up with a few of the people that have had a great impact on my life, which I enjoyed immensely. We enjoyed some great frozen custard from Fritz's, my favorite Florissant stop, swung by the temple, and enjoyed some time at the St. Louis zoo (we failed to take pictures of that). The Kids were happy to just swim at the Hotel pool, so that was a big hit and overall we really enjoyed our extended 4th of July holiday weekend.

Navy Pier Night - 6/23/07

My work sponsered a night for our family to go to Navy Pier, a nice attraction in Chicago. We were able to eat a lot of food, watch a 3D dinosaur movie (however, I spent most of the movie out eating pizza with Ashlin and Ali who were a little scared, but Terri, Tyler and Haley really enjoyed it), ride on a boat cruise around the shoreline, learning some of Chicago's history, and ride the marry-go-round several times before culminating the evening watching fireworks.