Trip to Missouri Part II

Friday, June 13th: When I woke up, I walked Tiki our dog and when I got back I saw my Mom. I apologized as soon as I saw her and everything is OK. Later that day we went to my sisters house again! She had made this massive pot of homemade chicken noodle soup. It was really good. We ate in shifts since there were so many children there. The kids played on the trampoline out back. I walked out there and saw Katie do a flip! It just about scared me to death. I didn't know she could do it. But I guess kids can do things that we adults can't do anymore.

Saturday, June 14th: The day of the Big Surprise 75th birthday party for my Grandma Peters. My mom and dad left early to help with setting up. Kim and her family and my family car-a-vaned to Dupo, Illinois. The party was to be at my Aunt Debbie's house. My grandma's and Aunt Debbie's yards are back to back. We were expecting a large crowd, so we thought we could park at my Grandmas so we could avoid the traffic. We thought that would be OK since Grandma would be out with my Great Aunt Bonnie. We pulled onto my grandmas street and there in the front yard was my grandma and great aunt Bonnie! Yikes.
Luckily we were able to drive right past them without them noticing it was us. Can you believe that! So we drove to the street parallel to grandmas and parked at Debbie's. I was surprised though, there were no cars. Then I found out that everyone parked their cars at a vacant building near by. We said our hellos and then it was time for the big moment. We all gathered in my Aunts Living room while grandma and Bonnie crossed the back yards. They came to the door and passed it. They were headed to the side door where all the food was. Yikes! But luckily my cousin, Anna, went out the door and asked, "Grandma what are you doing here, come in this door." She took the bait and we all yelled Surprise! And sang Happy Birthday. It truly was a surprise. Her kids had pulled it off Perfectly! She asked how they planned it with out her knowing. My Uncle Danny said, "what do you mean we planned it right in front of you!" Everyone had a good laugh at that. They had even gathered pictures and made a movie of her life. She thought they were taking pictures because she suspected that they thought she was going to die soon or something. She was just amazed at how many people were there and some of them she hadn't seen in years. I have to admit I hardly recognized my cousins all grown up with their girl/boy friends. All who came had a good time.

After we left we went home and finalized things for Katie's baptism. Things did not go as smoothly as we thought. We ended up making a trip to Walmart at 10:30pm to print out her bulletin and picture to display on the table but because I left the original CD with the signature giving permission to print it, I could print it out, but I could not buy it. Bummer! The bulletin was the wrong size. It was supposed to be a half sheet folded, but instead I made it wrong in InDesign as a full sheet of paper. So we headed home to print them off the computer. But we figured out how to resize them, but it through some of the pictures off center. Bummer.

Sunday, June 15th: Father's Day. I forgot my Dad's Father's Day gift at home. I forgot the Father's Day cards that I bought Robert from me and the Kids. Oops. Both were very understanding since there will be more Father's Day. So today the focus was Katie. You only get baptized once. This Sunday did not run as smoothly as last Sunday. Our systems converted over to Central Time.
On the way home from church I was hoping that the Kids would fall asleep. Nope. And it was about 30-45min drive! When we got home we had a quick lunch and packed Katie's bag of panty's, change of clothes, hair dryer, etc. We packed the kids back in the car and headed back to the church to set up everything. I put Katie's bags in the bathroom. Set up the display table, bulletins in place, etc. Everything was in place. I assigned my sister to be in charge of taking pictures with a list. She was busy with Katie and Robert. The meeting started in the Relief Society room and all went well....almost. Brian, who didn't get a nap, wanted Robert.
But Robert was busy. So he was in and out of the meeting way too many times! When it was time to take Katie to the baptismal font I was expecting to go to the gym, since that is where I thought it was. Instead it was on the other side of the building. So I watched her be baptized. I went into a different bathroom where Katie was and then headed to the other bathroom to get her bags. When I returned I realized there were no outlets in the new bathroom. OK. We went to the primary room. Katie took her wet clothes off and wrapped a towel around her. I went to get her change of clothes (panty's etc.) I could not find them! I left them at my mom's house. Yikes!
Luckily my sister-in-law, Tia's, sister, Julia, lived just a few blocks away and ran home to get Katie some under clothes. We dried her hair and got her all dressed up-- Just in time for our 25 min intermission video of Katie to end. What good timing. It was time for the cousins and siblings to sing "I am a child of God" to Katie. It went as well as could be expected for their first and last time though it. After Katie's baptism was over we gathered in the gym for family pictures. That was a little stressful. But maybe the pictures won't show it.

Back home at the cabin on the lake everyone relaxed and enjoyed themselves. I was a little disappointed because my brother Brian and his wife, Chelsea, took off and headed home to Rolla. So my brother Ben and Tia, his wife, and their kids, our family, Kim and her family, and my parents enjoyed ourselves. I guess I had imagined all my siblings over at the lake where we could talk and reminisce about the our childhood while our kids played and had a good time. And we could take pictures on the lake. But I didn't verbalize that so how could I expect them to read my mind.
Monday, June 16th: Happy 30th Birthday, Leslie! I had planned to spend the day with my family and my friend Heidi, but she is expecting and has difficult pregnancies and so she ended up in the hospital. We went up to Herculaneum to purchase our bike rack. We returned home and put it together and got the bikes out for the girls to surprise them. We had to buy training wheels for them so they could ride. That evening my mom made homemade ice cream and a cake. I opened my presents. It was a low key birthday for this old lady!


Tuesday, June 17th: I can't quite remember what happened this day. My guess was Laundry. That evening my mom and I sat down and watched Phantom of the Opera, the movie. It was really good!
Although, at about 9-9:30pm finally got a phone call from Monica's grandma and she gave me grief to have to drive 30mins to drop Monica off to me and a few other things. I finally told her if you don't want to bring her then you can find a way to get her back to Georgia. But I was not going to let her give me another excuse. I told her I would be at our meeting place from X time to X time.

Wednesday, June 18th: Packing day. We gathered all our stuff to pack the van back up to head home. Robert and I went up to visit Heidi to see how she was doing. We took her to lunch again at our meeting spot for Monica and then Heidi took us around the Old part of Herculaneum and showed us all the houses and streets that were bought out by Doe Run's lead factory. I couldn't believe how many houses were gone. We stopped off at a park to look at the flooded Muddy Mississippi. Got a few pictures and then took Heidi and her son home. It is never easy to say goodbye.

After we got home I went swimming with my sister and the kids. My mom made S'Mores for the kids, then they played in the sand box.

Thursday, June 19th. It was so hard to leave. I'm Missin' Missouri. It took us longer to get home. Everyone was a trooper.

Thanks for reading about our trip to Missouri.
Thank you to everyone who made it possible for Katie to have a memorable baptism. Thank you to all our friends and family for being there for us.