Welcome Motra and Grandpa!

We were excited to have Stuart's parents come visit us this summer. We haven't been to Idaho in forever so it was good to have almost a week with them. Claire and Jeremiah loved having their grandparents here too.

We started their vacation with a personal tour of Busch Stadium, thanks to my brother in law, Larry. I've seen the tour a couple of times but never tire of it. I think the stadium is beautiful and I love being there. My kids like being down near the field and in the dug out--though they don't look too thrilled about it in the pictures.

Motra, Jeremiah, Claire, and Stuart in the Cardinals dugout. Sweet!

A rare photo of all of us together--thanks Larry!

After that we walked down to the Arch and the riverfront. Motra was sweet to walk back with my kids who were tired of walking and therefore lagging behind. I'm sure they appreciated her a lot more than their mother who kept encouraging them to "hurry up." One thing that I love about my father in law, Ferris, is his outgoing-ness. He talks to anyone he wants to and I think it's great. So of course I had to take a picture of him talking to a Park Ranger he had stopped to question about the Arch.

After that we drove to the Science Center where we stopped and built our own arch and then of course went to see the dinosaur exhibit that Jeremiah loves so much.

On the way home from the Science Center, Motra and Grandpa got a taste of a true Missouri storm. While on Forest Parkway we had torrential rain. So hard the traffic was crawling because you couldn't see far in front of you and because there was lots of flash flooding. On top of that we had hail. Our normal 20-25 minute drive took about twice that. I was glad Motra was in the car because Claire was very nervous and it helped her to have her grandmother there to reassure and comfort her. Then of course an hour later when we went to dinner it was sunny skies. Typical Missouri weather--never dull!

One thing that was neat was having Ferris teach Claire how to ride her bike with no training wheels. At Claire's school I mentioned to Ferris about Claire refusing to ride her bike without training wheels and maybe he could help. And help he did. When Claire hesitated her grandpa told her it was time to cowboy up (or was it pony up?) and get on the bike. Claire did so and after about 10 minutes Claire was riding across the school field through the grass.

The next day we returned and she was riding around part of the track and through the grass. Unfortunately as she fell off in the grass her hand came down on a bee and she got stung, so riding lessons ended. Still, it was enough. Stuart and I took Claire back a week later and it looked like she had been riding for a long time. I think it's great Claire can say that her Grandpa taught her how to ride a bike.

Both grandparents too worked with Claire and her catching/batting for softball. Unfortunately when they went to Claire's softball game Claire struck out until the last inning (after Stuart and Grandpa had left) when not only did Claire hit, but their team came back from a 7 run deficit and won. Still, they got some nice pictures of Claire batting and decked out in her catcher's gear.

Overall the week went by much too fast. We really enjoyed their visit--and their fun package that came a week after they left. Yummy! Hopefully next summer we can visit them in Idaho and return to all our favorite Idaho spots and eat an endless supply of cherries and raspberries that grow in their yard.