Never Better

One Direction has a new hit out, The Best Song Ever. 




Reflecting on our Summer of 2014, I'd sum it up with the phrase The Best Summer Ever. 

So many times during the past weeks one of us has said, "Oh, do you remember when..." or "That is what ____ would say" or "You remind me of ____ when you do that."  We have laughed and laughed when looking at photos and recalling stories. 

Once again, the photos will say it best, so I'll leave it to them to express the joy, happiness, love, and peace we felt when all of my siblings and their families came in (we missed Nick and Patrick, of course). 

I am always struck by the genuine joy in the faces of my children, husband, and myself in our collection of photos, starting during our trip to St. Louis in June.

Thank you for the best summer ever. 

California

It had been four long years since we had been able to travel to California.  Happily, it was well worth the wait.  Oh, there are so many memories about which I could write. 

Here's just a brief list of topics:

• watching my children and their cousins splash in the Pacific
• laughing at the funny things 4 and 7 year olds say
• hearing about my siblings' and their spouses' daily lives
• spending 2 full days with Regina, my beloved college roommate
• celebrating Aaron's birthday with so many relatives
• feeling relaxed
• playing tennis
• getting to know Micki and Ken better
• touring Google and Tesla (and proudly wearing my Tesla shirt on walks since then)
• cognitively taking a break from the routines of Kentucky life

The pictures say it best.

   

 

In the spirit of St. Louis

Elizabeth mentioned how much she wanted to go to St. Louis and see Uncle Al and Charlotte many times during the past year.  Michael also wanted to see them again.  I have wanted to travel to their home for years; however, I didn't think my back/neck would let me.  But you never know unless you try … so off the three of us went, while Steven stayed behind to work and take care of Zoe and Niki.  As rare as this comment probably is after a trip, everything was amazing on this trip.  Even the car ride was significantly (p<.01) better than I expected.   

In one day, we made it all the way to the beautiful Crowne Plaza Hotel, which was recommended by Charlotte and is 1.1 miles from their home (unless I am driving and misunderstanding GPS, as happened every morning, so it ended up being a multi-mile trek for us).

If you ever travel to St. Louis, stay in that hotel.  Pool, fitness room, fabulous breakfast reminiscent of The Seasons with its omelet and waffle station, large hotel rooms, etc.  We loved it.  I got to play Frogger for the first time in probably 30 years at their arcade!  It cheered me up after Michael would soundly beat me at fuse ball every game.  

We saw Uncle Al and Charlotte the next morning and headed to the zoo.  The hundred degree (literally, it was 100 degrees) weather did not deter us from touring the majority of the zoo (with multiple stops at the misters to cool down) and loving the sea lion show!

We then cooled down further at the science museum, where Michael loved working with the construction demonstration and Elizabeth loved figuring out the Killer Ball activity, which involved sparing Gumby's life by figuring out how to use random supplies (i.e. paper clip, straw piece) to divert a fast-moving ball from plowing into him (Gumby is male, right?).   

We had a fantastic home-cooked dinner made by Charlotte and just enjoyed being in her and Al's presence and sharing our lives with one another.  None of us wanted to leave their home.   

 

 The next morning we picked up Uncle Al, who took us to the Arch.  The gods and goddesses were shining down on us as there were no lines for tickets or the ride up to the top.  You can ask him why we weren't able to purchase the souvenir photo, but we fortunately had plenty of photos of our own.  We spent time in the beautifully-created exploration museum and ate taffy, which apparently is food popular a few centuries ago.

Uncle Al then took us on a tour of St. Louis and Washington University, where we ate in one of the dining halls.  Uncle Al was quite the popular person, as we saw very few people during our campus visit, yet Uncle Al knew three of them.  We were surprised.  Only because he is retired, not because he is not an extravert.  Then we had my favorite … frozen yogurt!  That evening, we went for Chinese food at their favorite restaurant and wow, we knew quickly why it was their favorite.  Back at their house, we had dessert and a big coin spill all over the kitchen floor.  I won't tell you the name of whose fault it was, but he wears glasses and longish hair and is my mom's brother.

 The next morning we headed back to Kentucky and arrived in one piece.  We knew seeing the sights of St. Louis would make the trip worth it, but to spend time with Uncle Al and Charlotte, well, nothing compares to that.  As I said last time we saw them in Kentucky, the world needs more Uncle Al and Charlottes.

Louisville again, then Holiday World

Elizabeth and I were back in Louisville a few days later, this time with the boys in the family.  We ate lunch by the river, then everyone indulged me in my one request - that we go on the Belle ferry, which I hadn't done since Laura was with us there a couple of decades ago.  I loved it. We loved it.

You can see that everyone did their own thing at some point - Steven was the sightseer, Michael ate lots of food, and Elizabeth avoided us because we are generally an embarrassment to her coolness.

After the two-hour ferry ride, which was absolutely spectacular (in spite of repeated playings of polka music, at the request of some visitors from Kansas) we headed toward the History Museum.  Just before we arrived at the entrance, Michael noticed the big Louisville Slugger Museum's bat.  Off he and Steven went, while Elizabeth and I went to the history museum, which featured an exhibit on mythical creatures (e.g., mermaids, sea monsters, unicorns, etc.). The highlight was seeing a non-mythical sword demonstration and getting to practice a little en garde (that might be fencing; Aaron could explain the difference to us) behavior ourselves.

We left Louisville and went to Indiana.  Swam in the pool, had pig-out night, then spent the next day at Holiday World.  There were new rides but the fun was the same as it is every single year.



It was about 100 degrees, so the long-winding lazy river was a huge hit (do Elizabeth and Michael really think they successfully eluded me by repeatedly staying underwater each time they passed me?)

There was a new basketball game and long story short: After watching grown men not reach the required points to win a prize, Michael did - check out his form!  Then Steven did ... three times - we see from where Michael gets his remarkable form.  So now Michael has four more sports pennants in his room.

Such a great family trip.  Zoe and Niki also had a wonderful time, spending the two days at Angie and David's house.  Hope some of you can join us next year!