80th Birthday Party

Both of my parents turn 80 this year within three months of each other. Dad was 80 on June 16, and Mom will be 80 on September 13. There was no way for us to make the almost 1,000 mile one-way trip twice, so we planned a joint celebration. Mom knew about it as I needed an insider to help plan. We tried to keep it a surprise from Dad, though, and we succeeded. We thought we were going to have to tell him that day, though, as he fell and really skinned himself up. We were sure he would not want to go out to dinner, and so we'd have to tell him to get him to go. That didn't happen, though and he was really surprised.


My dad was an only child, however my mom has a huge family. She was the second of eight children. Six of them are still living. Most of her generation had 4 or more children. Many of my generation are already grandparents themselves. Of course, we have spread out all over the US now, but there was a great turn out for the party. It was so great to see everyone!

We packed out the back room at the Hometown Buffet in Fairview Heights, IL.


I took this picture of Gerren, but he took most of the rest of the pictures. I'm so thankful as it freed me up to socialize! :)


The buffet had tons of wonderful desserts, but we had to have a cake for the birthdays!


There were actually a couple tables of friends rather than relatives. This table is filled with people who've been friends of Mom and Dad's for a very long time: Adele Walker, Alene (Libera) Mergelkamp and her husband Ralph, Ruthie Williamson, and Kathy Grimm.


This is my Aunt Eve Gershwender (she was married to my mom's brother, Uncle Jim, and is always included in family functions), her children (my cousins) Jane Crum and Jerry Munro and Jerry's grandson, Jonathan.


Two of my mom's siblings, Earl Munro and Dee Hermanson.


Pat Fisher (my cousin Betty's husband) and my cousin Terri O'Saben.


The table in the foreground of this picture is another table of non-relatives, sort of. The Mamino family grew up with the Munro family (my mom's family). They are always included in each other's family events.


My cousin Adrian married a woman named Adrienne. :) She's on the left in this picture.


My sister Cindy and her husband Tom enjoy the party.


Cindy's kids, my niece and nephew, Tina and Tim, Tina's friend Stephanie, and Carys eat lollipops.


I finally sat and ate after making the rounds of the room. Landon ate with Greg and ate again with me. I think he had about 8 plates!


These boys are sons of my cousins Betty and Barb. Betty and Barb are twins. I cannot remember is these two guys are Brock, Mason, or Max. Yikes!


Mom talks to my cousins Jane Crum and Susie Molitor.


It was a lot of fun.

A Fun, Full Day

After a good night's sleep, we were ready for another day. We went to church with Grandma and Grandpa, the church that I joined in high school. It's a very traditional church and like going to a foreign country for my kids, but I really loved seeing some old friends there that I haven't seen in a while.

Here's my mom, Grandma Epie, in the kitchen. She was given the name Epie by her nieces and nephews when one of them couldn't pronounce Aunt Ethel. She became Aunt Epie then, and it seemed like an easy way to distinguish between grandmas for us.


This is my dad, Papa JoJo. He's lost a lot of weight since the last time we saw him. He looks really good considering his medical challenges this past year. He gets around pretty well for an 80 year old!



Unbeknownst to them, we were expecting a surprise visitor, my BFF since the 5th grade, Kathy. She considers my mom and dad as her mom and dad as well. Her dad had already passed away before I met her, and her mom has been gone for 16 years now. We spent a lot of time at one another's houses over the years. She'd been wanting to get back to Belleville and the 80th birthdays spurred her to actually come.

While she was here, Chase and Carys got Grandma Epie into the hair salon.


Fabulous, huh? This is what inspired us to get the camera out.


Carys had been begging to "slide" since we stopped at a McDonald's yesterday but didn't have time. So, we headed to the nearby park. The weather was surprisingly nice.




Gerren decided to climb on TOP of the jungle gym.



Boys!


Greg and Grandma had a little chat.


Landon had his books along, of course, and enjoyed talking to Kathy who lives in the midst of Civil War history - Richmond, VA.


Greg took this montage of pictures of Kathy and me. They were so fun and expressed such a range of facial expressions that I just had to post them all!











We headed home for ice cream and some more chatting!


Gerren was going crazy with my camera!


Carys had not had a nap and was getting heavy eyed. She tried coloring to keep herself awake.


She kept spilling drinks, too. I think she was delirious.


Greg spent most of the day trying to get Grandma's computer working correctly. It's a long story. It's working fine for her now, but the wireless router doesn't work, so I can't get on the internet on my computer at her house.


Carys finally gave up the ghost and fell asleep. Mom looks rather tired, too!


Chase was exhausted herself.


It was a great day, and I enjoyed my time with Kathy SO much. It's been way too long since we had time to really talk. So, in honor of long-lasting friendships, I'm listing three things I love and admire about my childhood BFF:
1) She has an incredibly positive attitude and faces everything in life with that attitude.
2) She is, and always has been, a hard worker.
3) She loves her friends and family and her patients. She is the kind of healthcare worker anyone would be blessed to have.

I love you, girl! Thanks for making the trip to Belleville.

God’s Provision

We were driving northwest on I-24 W just southeast of Nashville, Tennessee, Saturday morning when our right front tire blew out.

Thankfully, we were in the right hand land at the time and Greg was driving. He did incredible job of getting us onto the shoulder of the road safely.

We joined AAA before our trip to the Grand Canyon last year because I was going to be doing the majority of the trip by myself. We used the service on that trip when we had a flat tire overnight while at the hotel. We used it again this trip as well. Unfortunately, we were not at the hotel and were not really anywhere we could walk easily to and go inside.

So we waited in the van. The kids watched movies.

Carys had to go potty immediately, though. Thankfully, she's little enough to go on the side of the road. J The AAA people told us we would have priority status because we were on the side of a busy interstate. It still took 50 minutes for the truck to get there. Meanwhile, Greg began the process of taking the luggage rack off the trailer hitch and getting the spare tire out from under the van.

Then more waiting. He looks cheeful, though, doesn't he?

Once Mike arrived, he had the tire changed and everything back together in 15 minutes.

Jacking up the van was the trickiest part.

This is the tire we took off!

We were on our way about an hour and a half later. About 2 hours later, we were in "the middle of nowhere" Illinois when Greg thought the tire felt funny again. He pulled to the side of the road, and sure enough, the spare tire was flat. We were about 7 miles from the nearest exit, so Greg used the air compressor in the van to put as much air as possible in the tire. It seemed to be leaking out almost as fast as he could put it in, though. The next exit didn't amount to much. It was near the Lake of Egypt camping area and was comprised of one combination fuel and food stop called King Tut's Food and Fuel. (I am NOT making this up!) They had one can of Fix-a-Flat which Greg bought (for $6.21!). He also used their air machine to try to put more air in the tire. We got back in the van and attempted to make it about 7 miles to the nearest real town on a back road rather than a highway. We got 2 miles before the tire went completely flat.

The guy behind us saw what was going on and pulled over in front of us. I got on the phone with AAA. (I had also tried to do this when the tire first went flat.) I was not impressed with AAA at this point. They're great if you have a need somewhere where you can wait comfortably (like a hotel) but otherwise... It was going to be more than an hour to get another tow truck out. Meanwhile, Greg and John attempted to jack up our van using two jacks John had in his truck. They actually managed to do it as quickly as Mike, the "professional" did. Anyway, John and Dana planned to take Greg and the tire into Marion to Walmart to buy a new tire then back to put it on the van. But, guess what? A mounted tire John had in his truck that he was taking in to have the tire removed from the rim so he could use the tire for something else actually fit our van perfectly. Is that God, or what? They put it on and led us in to Walmart where we bought a new tire and had it put on. John and Dana did NOT want to take any money EVEN for the mounted tire which they gave us, but we finally convinced them to at least take $20 for it. She was adamant that they didn't stop to help us for money. We knew that, of course, but they gave us the tire and rim and spent a lot of time helping us. We hope they at least enjoyed dinner out!

To make a LONG story somewhat shorter, we would have arrived in Belleville at 3:00pm Saturday afternoon, instead we got there at 8:00pm. What a day! Thank you God for watching over your children during all of this mess!

On the Road Again

We left home at 11:15 this morning for a trip to Illinois to visit my family. It's been six years since we've been there. Thankfully, my parents have been willing to travel down here, and that has been much simpler than taking long trips with all the kids. However, they are getting older and my dad has had several surgeries in the past year. So, it's getting more difficult for them to drive all this way. Dad hates to fly, too. So, we're expecting to be doing a lot more traveling to Illinois in future years. It's much easier to travel since the kids aren't so little, but it's also getting more and more difficult to fit a long trip into our schedules.

We are making the trip in order to help my parents celebrate their 80th birthdays. Dad was 80 on June 16, and Mom will turn 80 on September 13. It was totally impossible to go twice in such a short time, so we picked a time in between the two. We usually don't travel at all during the summer, so this is strange to us. We hope to do some fun things while in the St. Louis area. Our museum passes are good for two different science centers in the area that we've never visited before, unbelievably. And we'll probably make a trip to the zoo. We've been up in the Arch several times, so we probably won't do that again until Carys is bigger.

While we're there, we'll also be celebrating our 20th anniversary, so we plan to eat somewhere on The Hill, an area of St. Louis famous for its Italian food. We can't wait! I've never eaten at a single restaurant on The Hill despite growing up in the area. Ridiculous!

Hopefully, I'll have some pictures to post this week.

Summer Encampment

Landon swore he'd never go to Summer Encampment. However he had such a blast serving on staff at the past Winter Encampment that he changed his mind. He does NOT like the heat. So, this was a challenge for him. He came home covered in a heat rash. This is typical for him and part of why he doesn't like the heat! He took his camera and got some great pictures. We got some as well at the Pass in Review ceremony.

Landon takes his first shot at rappelling (if you can call it that - he wasn't going very quickly down this wall!).


The India Flight Commander, Semko, brought this war paint. That's not actually what you call it, but Landon's not here so I can't ask him. :)


This is some of the Squadron 3 staff which consisted of Golf, Hotel, and India flights.


A Navy helicopter flew in, and the cadets got to tour it.


During the closing ceremony, the line staff went forward to receive awards. Landon is the one with glasses in the center. (He's been having a problem with his contacs and has to wear his glasses for three months.) The cadet on his left (actually Landon's right, but to the left as you look at the picture) is one of his good friends, Brock Wright.


Landon's Flight, Golf Flight, during the Pass in Review ceremony. Landon was the Flight Commander and is the one saluting in this picture.


After the ceremony, Landon had to sign out his flight and give them their certificates.


He got about 5 hours of sleep a night. It took him 3 entire days to get back to his normal cheerful self!