We were lucky to be able to head to Missouri in mid-July to catch up with Dan's family, introduce Maddie to everyone, and give Norah some time to play with her cousins. Norah, Ember, and Autumn spent lots of time playing, giggling, and swimming - fun to watch them reconnect!
As part of Judie's birthday present, Dan and Matt organized a tea party and a trip to the Magic House, which is a children's museum in the St. Louis area. The girls all came up with princess names for their tea party, and enjoyed fancy (PB&J) sandwiches and fizzy drinks served up by the daddies. (Maddie decided to take her morning nap in lieu of the tea party, since she wanted to stock up on energy for later!) Then it was off to the Magic House, which had play spaces for kids of all ages. Maddie especially loved the climbing equipment for babies (no surprise there, since climbing is her favorite activity ever), and Norah, Ember, and Autumn had fun in the play village - where they could play in a pizza shop, serve pretend ice cream, go fishing, drive a car, and more. The highlight of the day for the big kids, though, was the three story twisty slide, which they went down over and over again. We were all pretty tired by the end of our trip... but luckily we had a nice car ride back to Festus to take naps and get ready for more swimming with Granny Franny that evening.
The fun continued the next day with a trip to the St. Louis Zoo. We chose a VERY hot day for our zoo adventure (we're just not used to the humidity!), but we still got to see lots of animals, check out the sea lion show, and ride the carousel. Norah loved the sea lions and penguins, and Maddie was just happy to be along for the ride.
The best part of the trip was being able to spend time with family, since we don't get to see them nearly enough. We're so grateful for the time we do have together, and love watching Norah and Maddie get their Grammy/Grandpa/Granny/great-grandparent/aunt/uncle/cousin time. We're already looking forward to seeing everyone next time!
When we got back home, we had some monster zucchinis waiting for us in the garden. (We missed some heat in Fresno, too, which made the squash grow and grow and grow.) Once zucchinis get big, they're not good as good for eating, but they are still good for baking. The one zucchini below was enough for two loaves of zucchini bread, a big pan of zucchini brownies, and four dozen zucchini chocolate chip cookies. Now if only I could come up with enough recipes to keep up with all of our peaches!
Dan followed up his trip to Festus with a backpacking trip to Yosemite with Jake (Maggie's fiance) and Mike (Laura's boyfriend). While I love hiking, spending the night in the woods is really not up my alley, so Dan was glad to find other people to share this interest with. (Norah wanted to know why she couldn't go, but after a short explanation of the [complete lack of] bathroom facilities, she quickly changed her mind.) The guys arrived home smelling pretty manly and with a few blisters, but overall had a great weekend and saw some beautiful scenery.
And last, we finally made it to our first baseball game of the season (and Maddie's first ever) this week. The weather has cooled off just a bit, so it was a perfect night for baseball.
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