Our big adventure began last Saturday morning with a leisurely drive from Huntsville to Paducah. We only stopped briefly for fast food lunch, and we made it to the Hancocks of Paducah fabric store with plenty of time before they closed at 3 for me to spend money. I picked up the backing for the diamonds jelly roll quilt I've finished peicing, and then we headed for the Residence Inn where the boys got to swim. My two little fish had fun splashing. Bridger liked the independence of the floatie, and Taplin liked having Meghan toss him in the air. Meghan liked spending the boys' energy after the car trip so that they would be able to be calm in the hotel room. We drove through downtown, had Chinese for dinner, and headed "home" to the hotel for some TV and sleep.
Sunday, we drove the second half to the trip to St. Louis and spent a relaxing evening at my brother's house. It was good to visit with John and Mary and let them meet their grand-nephews. Monday morning was hot and sunny, a perfect day for a trip to the St. Louis Zoo. I think Taplin liked the elephants best. Bridger liked the train ride. "Oh, man, that was great!"
Both boys had fun in the children's zoo, especially petting and brushing the goats. Taplin didn't seem to mind too much when the goat head-butted him. Tap's tough.
Monday evening, we left Taplin and Mary at home and headed out to the Bridger's first major league ball game, a Cardinals game at the new Busch Stadium. Bridger was a trooper, walking the eight blocks or so to and from the stadium and intently keeping up with the action at the game. His mommy got him his new Cardinal hat and shirt which he had to put on immediatly. He slept in his shirt when we got home, and he kept his hat close by on the bedpost, but he was most disappointed when Meghan wouldn't let him wear his shirt for the rest of the trip.
Such a beautiful stadium! Allen spent the week in cold, rainy Denver, so I know I made him jealous sending him pictures of the ball park and the Busch beverage Meghan got for me. Ha.
Tuesday was the hottest day of the week. Whew! We went to the
Museum of Transportation. Bridger liked the display with the drive in movie theater and thought we should go to see a movie at one. When we got tired, we took a break on a bench in the shade, and John and I were surprised to see that it had a memorial plate attached honoring Willis Goldschmidt. He was the founder of the museum back in the 1940's, and he was our next door neighbor. He was just a couple of years younger than our Dad, and they spent many evenings or Saturdays chatting in the yard. I found a
video about Mr. Goldschmidt and the museum - what a trip back in time to see him again. Rose, his wife, and Mom spent plenty of time chatting over the backyard fence. I was always disinvited from those adult conversations when I tried to nose in and listen instead of minding my own backyard business.
Tuesday afternoon included a trip to the
Magic House and, unfortunately, a summer thunderstorm that knocked out the museum electricity. We got to go in for a while anyway, and it was light enough because of the large windows, but after a short stay, they decided to close the museum early. Regardless, the boys had a fun time and would have stayed for hours if they could have. Taplin liked driving this truck...
while "Untle John" and Bridger fixed the car.
The rain brought much cooler weather for our trip to St. Charles on Wednesday. I wanted to shop at the
quilt store, obviously, but we also had a great lunch at the
Winery of the Little Hills, and we shopped in quite a few of the stores on Main Street. I think the most fun was having a cowboy picture of our two little wranglers made at the
Tintypery.
Thursday, after a long, rainy drive home, and Friday morning, Meghan let the boys play before heading south to Daphne.
Here's my little ham, Taplin...
and the Everette Brothers...
oh, and Mr. Louie Etheridge, home from the kennel. He was having a hard time keeping his eyes open for the picture, but I know he's happy Allen and I are home and things are right with his world.
I hate how quickly summer days slide by. I have a long, long mental list of what I think I can accomplish during my weeks off, but then the week is gone, poof, and only a fraction of what I wanted to do is finished. I don't really know how I have time to work during the school year. Anyway, last week, one goal was to finish the June block of the month for The Quilt Show quilt. I am pretty darn proud of myself for sticking with this since it is fairly involved with lots of tiny pieces. I have forty of the little stars and twelve of the big ones put together. I didn't have to rip out nearly as many times this month. Maybe I'm improving, or maybe it's just having more patience being on vacation.
This weekend I spent lots of time working on machine quilting my diamond jelly roll quilt. 
I had lots of help. Allen laughed when he saw Louie snuggled on the stool with his paw and his chin stretched out to rest on my leg.
I won't say that the entire weekend was all about Louie and sewing. Allen got to the range Saturday, and we enjoyed eating at a steak place after that for lunch. We would have driven to Guntersville for seafood lunch yesterday, but it was a threatening, stormy Sunday so we went to the grocery store and had pan fried tilapia instead. Mmmm...summer cherries! 
But yes, much of the weekend really was all about The Dog. Louie roved from sewing with me to sitting on Allen's lap or begging for a game of basketball fetch.
He even thought that my porch time was his opportunity to join me for a swing. Seriously, the dog jumped up next to me all on his own and waited by himself for me to get the camera. I guess he likes summer vacation as much as I do!
