Farewell Tour

We took a quick trip to St. Louis to see Myles' side of the family before we head out of the country. He has several elderly aunts that we wanted to be sure to see. We left our house at 8:30 Friday morning and returned to our house at 10:30 Saturday night. We did not get to see one aunt, Myles' mother's sister, because she is quite ill and not up to having visitors. But we did get to see many other family members. Myles' Aunt Dottie is 91 years old and is his godmother.

 She is in terrific health, still drives and is sharp as a tack. She spends her time volunteering at her church and helping to take care of her 92 year old sister who lives across the street and is in poor health. Her sister's name is Marie but everyone calls her Sis. Sis sat up and visited with us and was happy that we came to visit. Dot arranged a lunch get together with many of Myles' cousins. It was so nice to see all of them. They are always lovely company and we are happy that we were able to see so many of them before we leave. 

We also met up with four college friends and their families who live in St. Louis. We had a wonderful relaxing evening at a beautiful park with Julie, Cara and their families. While the kids played, the adults talked and talked about old times. We stayed way past dark and were a little worried that we might get locked in. Fortunately that did not happen!

On Saturday we went down south of the city to Jefferson Barracks Military Cemetery. Myles' parents are buried there. His mother died August 4, 2008, and we had not yet seen the updated headstone. His father's information is on one side of the headstone and now his mother's information is on the back. The kids put flowers on the grave. They really miss their Grandma. Myles' dad died in 1992 before the kids were born, but they have great affection for him as well. It was a sweet and emotional morning.

From there we went downtown and checked out the WWI Memorial that bears Myles' great uncle's name. That was pretty neat.

Myles' cousin Pat, and her husband Joe, met us downtown for lunch. She gave each of us Miraculous Medals that were blessed by Pope John Paul II when he came to St. Louis.

 We will keep those with us as we journey to his home country!

On our way out of town, we stopped by O'Fallon, Missouri to visit our college friends, Kevin and Lori and their kids. We got there about 4:00 and our plan was to stay an hour and then hit the road. We lost track of time and stayed two hours! The kids all hung out in their basement and we sat in their back yard catching up. It was time well spent. We finally got back on the road at 6:00. We stopped in Concordia, MO at about 8:30 for dinner and then pulled into our driveway at 10:30.

This week we're getting new tile floors in our upstairs bathrooms and having a garage sale on Friday and Saturday. I also need to get school supplies, get everyone to dental appointments, get Natalie to soccer camp each day and Ben to weights and conditioning each day. Somehow it all gets done!