To Daddy, From Grace

To Daddy, From Meg

Go, Baby, Go!

Anna Kate can really go! When we left to go camping, she couldn't quite crawl yet, but since then she's really taken off.




It's a bit more difficult for Anna to crawl while she's carrying her elephant, but she manages...

Oh, the places we've been!

We were in the car a lot while we were on holiday.

We were in a bunch of states:

Texas
Arkansas
Tennessee
Illinois
Missouri
Indiana
Wisconsin
Iowa


And we saw a ton of critters (this list doesn't even count the zoo):

raccoon
snake
deer
squirrels
cows
horses
butterflies
wasps
bees
flies
mosquitoes
beetles
wild cat
loads of birds
wild turkeys
geese
ducks
bunny
inchworm
june beetle
lightning bugs
turtle
goats
llamas
armadillos

AK

The Zoo

St. Louis has a fantastic zoo! We saw loads and loads of animals and birds and reptiles and everything. We also sweated buckets. It was hot, hot, hot.









Here's sweaty Meg, watching the sea lion show.

Near Disaster

Remember this pachyderm? The one Anna loves? And sleeps with? And carries around?






She almost lost it!

Walking around downtown St. Louis, Anna Kate and Mama were bringing up the rear. Anna was riding on Mama's back, snoogling her elephant. And then she dropped it! And Mama had no idea! And neither did I! Nor Meg! Nor Daddy! The elephant was on the street we were crossing! And some kind St. Louis driver honked and said, "Hey! The baby dropped something!" Whew! Crisis averted.

St. Louis Arch

St. Louis was our next stop. We stayed in a super-mosquitoey KOA, but didn't hang out there very much. Instead we went to the arch, the zoo, the kids' museum and a car repair shop (actually only Daddy did that last one). Here's the Arch:










Here's me and my sister on the steps.















Now we're inside, learning something about the construction of the arch maybe. Or possibly just playing with the phones.


















Here's the outside again.

Galena

After we left Wisconsin we went to Galena, Illinois. It's super beautiful!







Here's us at a park.















Goin' down!


















What a smiley Meg!
















They had an electric slide.













Anna Kate loved the swing!














We sure love this kid.

Ooh, and there was Meeman-Shelby

Y'all, I forgot to tell you about Meeman-Shelby State Park just outside of Memphis. I forgot mainly because it was awful. When we drove around to look for a campsite, the mosquitos swarmed our car. When we got out, the mosquitos swarmed our persons. Even after we applied our hippy bug lotion, the mosquitos ate us. Even through our clothing. It was awful. We have no pictures, so I leave you with this:

Wisconsin

After the wedding, we hopped up to Devil's Lake State Park in Wisconsin. There we met up with Grandpa Bruce and Aunt Leah and Cousin Caleb and Uncle Ben and Aunt Becky and Cousin Jacob and Cousin Joshua. We had a super time visiting!








Here's the lake.













This is the kid table.













We went boating! In a row boat!



















We even got to wear life jackets.

































Here's me and Meggy with Cousin Jacob.













And here's one that Mama likes to call "birds on a wire" -- Meg, me, Jacob and Josh.




























We also went bowling on night while it rained on our tent. Here's Uncle Ben and me watching one of my tries. Look how great our shoes are!






















And here's Uncle Ben helping Meg Rose.














They didn't have any shoes small enough to fit Anna Kate, so she just rolled a ball around.

South Bend

Our next stop was in South Bend, Indiana. My mama's cousin Laura McCully got married -- and we were the flower girls!

right after Mama took this picture the camera's battery got exhausted. But let me tell you, we were cute little flower girls. If Mama can dredge up some more pictures from someone else's camera, we'll let you see them, too. Anyone?

Chambana

Here we are in Champaign-Urbana, at an unexpectedly nice campground just north of town.

mmmm... Zorbas.

That man isn't real! I mean, Daddy is, but the other guy isn't! He's a fake library guy.

Ferne Clyffe

After Lake Catherine we went to Ferne Clyffe State Park in Illinois. We seem to have not taken any pictures. When we got there, it looked like it might rain, so we got our campsite quick quick. Daddy got out the tent and had just gotten it all spread out to put up when the clouds started dumping rain. The entire top of our tent is a screen until you put up the fly. By the time the fly was on, there were puddles on the floor of our tent. Bummer.

Everything looked a bit better after a trip to the pizza parlor, though. Mama and Daddy mopped up the floor with washcloths and then dried it pretty well with towels. And then we were mostly dry.



Some of those guys jumped on as we hiked at Ferne Clyffe. How awful!

Lake Catherine State Park

After Caddo Lake, we went to Lake Catherine State Park in Arkansas. It's beaaaauuutiful!

Here's a hike picture. Notice how lovely it is?

Another hiking picture.

And here's a snake! We almost blundered onto this fellow while we were crossing a stream. I saw him, and we watched a little while and then gave him a wide berth. He stood up a little bit and opened his mouth, and then slithered on down the stream. Anybody know what kind of snake he is?

Caddo Lake State Park

This was the first place we camped. Not directly in the swamp, but less than a stone's throw from it. There was tons of night music, but the good part was that the frogs must've eaten all of the mosquitos.

Here's me pushing Anna Kate in her swing. Look how close our campsite is to the swamp!

We had two dinner guests that night -- one was a guy who was riding his bike all the way across Texas and then all the way across Oklahoma. The other was this inchworm.