Day Three {Tuesday}

Today we took a tour of Historic St. Charles. It is a unique city with old buildings, gift shops, restaurants, history, and landscaping sprinkled throughout.

Our first hour was spent taking a few pictures at and around the old train station.

Then we moved to Main Street and browsed through the gift shops.

{Click on photo to enlarge}

Just for you, Timothy, Rachel, Joanna, and Naomi!!

We finally decided to stop for lunch and chose Mother-in-Law House. It turned out to be really good {By the way, I got my infatuation for food photography from my brother :)}

After walking a little more through Main Street, we decided to head towards ‘home.’

But we had one last stop for the day...

Yes... here is actual proof that we mulled around in Bass Pro Shop. We have all decided that if there was ever hope of us saving up enough money, we would seriously buy a boat.

Until tomorrow, Lord willing...

Day Two {Monday}

{We are a little behind, so here is yesterday's post}

This morning we woke to beautiful weather and big plans. In celebration of Hannah's "Gotcha Day," we all packed up and headed out to spend the day at Johnson's Shut-ins, a rock formation along a river. The effect is a natural, God-created water park that shows off the beauty and intricate details of God's creation.

We had a nice long two-hour trip.

As soon as we arrived, we found a place in the picnic area to have lunch. In my opinion, sandwiches taste so much better in a park!

Near the picnic area was a small playground where Hannah and James spent their time waiting for us to get ready to go to the real attraction.

You couldn't see the Shut-ins until you were practically on top of them. The water and rocks were beautiful. There were tons of people there swimming, wading, and jumping off rocks into the deep parts of the river. We couldn't wait to get down there and start playing!

{Click on picture to enlarge}

It didn't take long for us to get in! We had thought that the water would be icy cold because of the severity of the spring weather up here, but were greatly surprised to find it pleasantly cool. The Lord really blessed us with wonderful weather and water conditions and we had a blast!


Some parts of the river were only a few inches deep, while others were beyond thirty feet. We stayed in the shallow parts, climbing over rocks and wading through the rushing water.

Sometimes you had to climb high to get to the next shallow water, and we had fun trying to keep our balance. Jessica made me proud by climbing and crawling with us the whole way! :-)

We all wound up getting pretty wet. Hannah and I went in totally; Hannah on purpose and me, well, I slipped and you can guess the rest. Amanda was the second person to slip; she didn't go down all the way, and only got half-drenched, so what was there to keep her from going in more? I still don't think she ever got her head under the water.

Melody was the last person to lose her balance and fall, but she was content to stay half-drenched. And, of course, Jessica didn't fall in at all. I must admit I was disappointed; I thought it would be a lot of fun to see her dripping wet, but I guess I should be content with her willingness to clamber over the rocks with us. She did manage to give me a second dunking by using me to catch her balance and making me lose mine! I didn't mind though, it was fun!

Jessica, Melody, and Amanda bought matching beach shoes

Every once in a while we would find still or very slow moving water between the rocks. These were often full of tadpoles and minnows. James was wading with me and suddenly shouted, "Look, a fish!"
I looked, and lo and behold, the biggest tadpole I'd ever seen! It had tiny legs and feet growing and was just fun to look at. I caught it and showed it to the others, but I don't think any of them thought it was as wonderful as James and I did.

After we had gone up and down the river for a couple hours, I decided I wanted to go across the shallow parts. In some places the current was fast, and you could get caught and brought down a little ways, bumping and scraping the rocks until you got back on your feet. I got Amanda to go with me, and we had to get a picture on the other side!

As you can see, some parts of the water were flowing so fast, we didn't go through. We saw a lot of people using them for fast water slides, though. It was fun to watch, but it hurt to try (Voice of experience speaking!)!

Here are all the adventurers. Aunt Amy was more than content to sit with her feet in the water and watch us.

By the time we were ready to leave, everyone was starving! So, a stop at McDonald's was decided upon, and everyone grabbed a cool and delicious snack.

To mark the end of a fun day, we all played James' favorite game: Headbandz. I thought it was fun, but difficult. We older ones had to submit to the fact that we weren't quite as good as the younger ones. James won, with Hannah, Melody, Jessica, and me trailing behind.

~Special thanks to Aunt Amy, who took most of the pictures at Johnson's Shut-ins.

Day One {Sunday}

Today was our first Sunday away from home. We joined Uncle Mark and his family at Bayless Baptist Church and had good services both morning and evening.

Today was also our cousin Hannah's tenth "Gotcha Day" so we celebrated eating lunch at the restaurant of her choice: 

It was super good {Appreciate the picture, brothers!}.

This afternoon, we spent time studying, resting, or playing games with our cousins.

Didn't work that time, Hannah!

Lord willing, tomorrow we will continue Hannah's "Gotcha Day" celebration at Johnson's Shut-ins, a rock formation cut away by the stream. We have seen pictures and it looks incredible! We can't wait to go exploring.

And We're Off!

Today we left for St. Louis. And yes, we did indeed leave before 5:30 a.m.!

We started our trip with prayer for safety in our travels. Our wonderful drivers were Jessica and Melody.

For lunch, we stopped at Cracker Barrel in Tennessee. While waiting for our tables, we just had to try out the checkers game.

That one ended a tie: four kings on four kings. We finally gave up.

Our cousin and some friends joined us for lunch and we had a lovely time fellowshipping for a few hours.

In thirteen hours, we passed through five different states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri).

We were so grateful to finally cross the Missouri state line!

At around 6:40 p.m., we reached Uncle Mark and Aunt Amy's all in one piece! We got down to business after unloading the car and eating supper.

The "business?" Playing games, of course!





Second type of "business:" figuring out this whole blogging thing so we can keep you all updated {hopefully!}.

Check back for more interesting future posts!

Welcome to my Blog!

I've been wanting to start a blog for awhile now, but just never found the time... Today two of my sisters (Rebecca and Amanda), one of my dearest friends (Melody), and I headed out on a twelve day road trip to St. Louis, Missouri. What better way to start off my new blog than to record our adventures along the way?!? :) 
I have invited my 'partners in crime' to post from their point of view as well. I hope you enjoy - and check back often for updates! :)


~ Jessica