The morning after VBS/Kanakak ended, we left at 6am for St. Louis for a quick family reunion. It was super good to see everyone -- people from Indiana, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri!
It was really good to get together -- the first time since Grandma and Grandpa Smiley passed away. The only downside? It was hot. Really, really hot. As in . . heat index of 105ish. As in . . . all I can think about is how hot I am!!!
The little ones lost their shirts because of the heat!
We made the best of it though!
Swimming with cousins afterward! I wish he had more personality!
J, K, and T in the hot tub.
This was our "designated" pool watcher. Kidding.
Because of some thunderstorms that rolled in that morning at 3am, we had essentially been up since then, and we were pretty exhausted at that point!
The next day, we went to the arch as a family. We have been there before, but the kids were young enough, they didn't remember it:( Even though everything was under construction and it made things a little trickier, we were glad we went!
Getting read to load the tram cars!
It's really tricky getting a family selfie up there!
Bryan's camera handiwork . . . the two silver "legs" at the top and bottom are the arch legs . . .pretty crazy to be looking "underneath" the arch!
As we were trying to park downtown and kept seeing LOTS and LOTS of red, we realized there was a Cardinals game going on at the same time! So, it made parking more difficult ... but it was super cool to see a Cardinals game going on while we were up the Arch!
One of our family favorites this summer has been to watch "Battle Bots" on Sunday night -- just a fun time of watching TV together watching robots destroy each other:) One day I overhead some planning/scheming . . . and the boys had staged their own Battle Bots competition. Now if only the batteries would stay charged longer:) The ones on TV have more umph!
On our way to Worlds of Fun! A summer tradition . . .
Kayla and Daddy on the Steel Hawk -- for you locals, that is the crazy high tower that just went in last year.
This picture doesn't do it justice, but one of those dangling feet belongs to them! I rode it with joshua later in the day . . let's just say that somehow in my "old" age, I have gotten wigged out about heights. Wowza. Mama was glad to get back on the ground.
Tyler was 48" this year and he loved the independence of riding some of the rides BY HIMSELF! (When you have 5 in your family, one is always by themself!)
I didn't get a picture of the kids on any coasters, but all of the kids really tried some new rides -- and it was super fun riding coasters with the kids!
Lots of giggling/cackling on the bumper cars!
The infamous Fury of the Nile ride...sometimes you get really wet on this ride -- which feels great on a really hot day!
Our family will forever remember riding Fury of the Nile because . . . somehow, while we were on it, my lightweight shorts ripped -- and of course, it wasn't a rip that could be ignored. Nope, it was a "oh my goodness, how am I going to navigate this" rip!!!! My loving husband took this picture of me and my attempt to keeping everything "G" rated after the Fury of Nile ride (he's super considerate like that!!!!)
The entire family walked to THREE different gift stores in search of shorts for mama -- proceeding to laugh every time I explained my predicament to the store employees!!!! Finally found a pair of shorts for the clearance price of $24.99 (kidding --it was torturous for this tight-wad), and decided that I could endure wearing some teeny-bopper length shorts just to continue our family day together! After my puke experience at the Royals game this summer, I am contemplating packing an extra change of clothes for me wherever we go! Seriously!
After a MONTH of rain/tornado/heat delays, Kayla finally had her last softball game this week. It was a bummer game . . she ALMOST had a home run (got tagged our 2 feet from home), was doing great pitching until her right hand got hit and had to leave the game, and then managed to get hit on her foot her next time at bat:(
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