Meet me in St. Loius

Oh catching up....

I've been a blogging slacker lately...good thing I don't make a living at this. The next few posts are going to be a whirlwind tour of the last couple of months.  But for tonight I think I'll stick to one subject for this post....

The last weekend in March we headed out out to St. Loius for Ben's grandparents' 70th anniversary celebration.  It was the first time flying for both our kids...and my first time flying in 5 years (hard to believe).  The flight went well (especially now that we are home and I've had a month and a half to forget about the diaper blowout while we were taxiing to takeoff...and the 6 hour delay in Baltimore!).  Minus those two instances I think we did pretty well for our first time flying with children.
We got into St. Louis quite late and were expecting to navigate our way to our destination on our own, but we were surprised that Ben's Aunt Barbara and Uncle Chip were there to meet us!! 

The next day we headed over to the Friendship Village where Grammy and Poppy live.  They didn't know that we were coming in for the weekend...so it was quite fun to walk in and surprise them. 
It was Axel and Tobi's first time to meet Grammy Bear & Poppy (as the great grandkids call them).  

 

There were a lot of guests in for the weekend.  It was great to see everyone and celebrate such a great event.  It was so nice to see so many relatives from all over the country.  We had lovely family time at Ben's aunt and uncle's home, sharing meals, giving gifts, watching family movies from years gone by, playing with new friends, and enjoying the summer-like weather.

 

Sunday morning we attended church where Ben's Uncle chip is the pastor. It was palm Sunday.  It was a lovely service in a beautiful building.

Sunday afternoon was the main event...the anniversary celebration.
Sadly I forgot bring my camera to the big event at the Friendship Village, so all I got was this pic of the crowd (and Tobi pointing at me) at the reception.  As you can see, it was well attended!  It was a lovely celebration of such an amazing accomplishment.

There are a few more pics from the photographer here.

On Monday we made a trip to the St. Louis Zoo.  It was a great zoo...but we didn't expect the 90 degree weather on the 1st of April.  It was hot!

 

Axel's favorite part was the carousel.  He ooh-ed and ahh-ed the whole time.  He also thought he should be able to jump in and pet the tiger...but we strongly advised against this!

 

And Tobi was quite occupied with taking care of her brother! 

 
All in all it was a fabulous weekend!  What a special treat to be able to be there for such a great event!