Missouri trip

We went to Missouri to visit John's grandparents last weekend. My mother-in-law, Brenda, had been staying there the week before. We left at 5:10 am Friday - which is WAY too early to be putting in contacts! I wanted to stop at that furniture store in Clinton, but they weren't open when we passed it at 7:30. Bummer. We did stop at Branson to do a little shopping before eating lunch and continuing on to the farm. John's grandparents live in a small town in central Missouri on a farm that's been in the family for over 125 years. His grandpa has been retired for a while, of course, but still gardens. He would do more, but he has macular degeneration and can't see very well. His grandma had a stroke a few years ago, but is doing okay. She knows who I am, but calls me Nancy a lot (John's aunt). John took the kids and Grandpa fishing Friday evening. I got up early Saturday morning (with help from Ethan) and went walking down the dirt road in front of their house. There were lots of pretty wildflowers, and it was really quiet.

We took the kids over to John's Aunt Cindy's, and they got to ride their cousin Rachel's horse, Frosty. Frosty was Rachel's barrel-riding horse, and is now 17 years old and pregnant with a colt due next spring. Rachel's older brother, Seth, was working on his tractor for the tractor pull he was participating in later Saturday.


That's John's Uncle Lyndon by the tractor. Seth is under it.
We got to eat fish from the lake for lunch with sweet corn and fried potatoes - yum! You know, country life is different and much slower-paced, but I could get used to it if I got to eat fresh farm food all the time. I ate 3 ears of that corn.






John and I took Emily fishing again while Ethan was napping. The picture is taken from the boat looking toward the boat house.
I caught one little perch, and John and Emily caught 5 or 6 fish.





Saturday night we had a little birthday party for Cindy and Grandma. Emily enjoyed playing with her cousin Heather, Cindy's youngest.
We went to church with Brenda and the grandparents Sunday morning after packing up the car. I won't be mentioning to anyone in my congregation here that we attended the Christian church! We ate lunch in Waynesville before coming back home through Branson again.

We stopped at a little kiddie park and let the kids ride rides and play mini-golf. They had fun, but it was hot! This teacup ride had a wheel they could spin in the middle. The ride started, and Emily started spinning the wheel. They weren't really spinning very fast around, but Ethan's face kept looking worse and worse. Finally John was able to reach out and stop the spinning when they came around again. Ethan looked like he was about to throw up (but he didn't).
It was good to get home Sunday night. I like traveling, but it's always good to get back to my own bed.
On the way to Missouri, Emily was complaining about her little brother, as usual, and she asked, "Mommy, can you think of anything more annoying than Ethan?" I replied, "You and Ethan together?" John thought that was pretty funny.