An Unexpected Trip to St. Louis

A couple of weeks ago we made an unexpected trip to St. Louis when my mom had an emergency appendectomy. We were there for almost a whole week and I realized later that Julianne had spent 3 weeks in St. Louis this summer. The other day she asked, "Why can't I go to St. Louis more?" When I told her that it wouldn't be as special if she went all the time and that we would miss her, she didn't seem very satisfied by my answer. She always has such a fun time seeing all of our family and friends there that she is never ready to come home. For the first day we were there the girls got to spend time with Papa and Gigi, so that I could be at the hospital. They had a blast playing outside in Papa and Gigi's big backyard. After my mom got home from the hospital and started feeling better we mainly stayed at her house, but we had a really good time. Julianne learned to play the Wii and loved sword fighting and bowling. She was actually pretty good at the sword fighting and beat me just about every time. We did manage to get out of the house a couple of times to swim at Mr. Dave and Mrs. Karren's pool. Mrs. Karren even showed Julianne a couple of things to work on to learn to swim. We had a little impromptu birthday celebration for Julianne with family that wouldn't see her on her birthday and Julianne thoroughly enjoyed the presents and cupcakes. Great-Aunt Shelley's birthday was just a few days after when we celebrated so she and Julianne celebrated together. Here are some pictures from our trip.