Adventure week

Sarah, Steve and I went camping at Johnson's Shut-Ins Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Temperatures were perfect for camping - cool nights and pleasant days - but not so perfect for swimming, even though we did it anyway.  Neither Steve nor I ever completely immersed and I didn't venture down the shut-ins.  Emily and Quinn and Larkin drove down Wednesday to spend the morning with us and, darn if that wasn't the day it rained.  Not heavy but enough to prevent any swimming.  Although, Larkin, while climbing the rocks, accidentally fell in!  Beckie stayed with the dogs and we are so grateful for that.  Not only can we not take the dogs down to the shut-ins but there were dogs at practically every campsite and it would have been so stressful - for us AND the dogs.  Thanks to Steven for loaning Sarah his small tent and sleeping bag.  

Sarah helped me take and edit this night photo above our campsite and you can see that fall colors are just starting to happen...

We got home mid-afternoon on Wednesday - in time for everyone to shower and for me to attend the first of two Mehlville School District strings registration/information meeting that evening.  

Thursday, I had a visit to the dentist to check on my crowns and make sure they are still doing their job.  This was my view from the chair.  The room next to me was all St. Louis Cardinals memorabilia.   It is a pretty great dentist office...

Thursday night, I had a neighborhood beautification event to attend so I could not join Steve and Sarah at the annual St. Louis Symphony free concert in Forest Park.  Our ward youth always attend and this year, it was Steve's turn to go early and save a spot for them.  He and Sarah brought blankets, folding chairs and a picnic dinner.  They also each brought an umbrella to protect them from the sun but instead, it turned out they needed them for the rain that fell intermittently on the concert!  The musicians were covered so they kept playing and Steve said that most of the crowd stayed.  They always pass out fans with the face of the conductor on front and a list of upcoming concerts on the back.  

Sarah and Beckie went to lunch on Friday while Steve and I attended the temple.  That evening, Steve, Sarah and I drove over to The Hill (St. Louis's historic Italian neighborhood) for some gelato.  The shop is right next to a lovely fountain....very reminiscent of Italy

Saturday morning, we three met Larkin at the zoo.  It was Larkin's birthday present.  Being a pleasant fall weekend, the zoo was quite crowded but it was still enjoyable.  Larkin wanted to visit the turtles at the herpeterium, the monkeys, the big cats (who were all out but sleeping in shady spots), the giraffes and zebras, and we ended at the red pandas before heading to the gift shop where she bought a stuffed fox.   Emily, Joe and the other three kids dropped Larkin off and they spent their time looking for Pokeman and attending the art museum.  We serendipitously ran into them at the nearby McDonalds afterwards and had lunch with them!

Saturday evening, Sarah and I attended the opening concert for the 2023-24 St. Louis Symphony season.  Their featured artist was Hillary Hahn who played the Mendelssohn violin concerto.  We also heard the Sorcerer's Apprentice, Magic Flute Overture, Till Eulenspiegal's Merry Pranks and Don Juan.  It was an incredible performance!

Emily and family and Beckie are coming over this evening for a family dinner.  We hope the weather cooperates and we can eat out in the backyard.  I will post photos so if you are reading this now, come back on Monday for an update.  Sarah leaves for Utah on Wednesday so we only have a few more days with her.  It will be sad to see her go....

 

Lots of family time

The week started last Sunday after I blogged....Elise had a concert with the Memorial Baptist Choir that evening so Steve, Beckie, Emily and I drove to Columbia to hear her.  We stopped at Steven and Tamara's first to have supper and then Steven joined us at the performance.  For being a church choir, this group is extremely talented.  This is the third year Steve and I have been able to attend this annual event.  Elise is second from the end on the right side of the back row...

A close-up of the stained glass window you can see in the photo above.

Here we are after the concert.  I guess we all got the matching clothes memo....

Here is a photo of Emily, Larkin and me as we picked Emily up for the drive to Columbia.  As always when a bunch of us get together, the two-hour drive to and from Columbia and the supper was full of great conversations.

While Elise was making vocal music last weekend, Kirsti was making instrumental music in the Nebo Philharmonic Orchestra at an outdoor concert that was part of a children's fair.  Alice and Ivan got their faces painted at the event.  I am so happy that Kirsti is playing violin again!  

We have had lovely cooler temperatures all week.  Fall is definitely around the corner.  Why one of my iris plants decided to bloom is a curiosity, though

My pumpkin patch is doing great.  I think a white pumpkin seed infiltrated the seed packet, though

I had my last two string demonstrations this week - one on Monday and one on Friday.  I am SO glad to be finished with that part.  Hauling that bass is such a pain!  And I have to take it in the Element which means no air conditioning.  Thankfully, the weather has not been hot but I still get wind-blown.  

Linus had surgery on Wednesday to remove another lump - this one on his back leg.  There was more skin leftover to stitch together so he does not have a big, open wound like the first lump.  But, he still licks so the cone of shame continues.   And, because he was anesthetized, they cleaned his teeth and pulled a few more (he was already missing several teeth).  He now has only eight teeth in his mouth!  Good thing we feed him ground up dog kibble mixed with wet food.   Steve does the grinding with an old blender we have.  It is a very noisy activity so he grinds in bulk every other month or so.

Wednesday was a big day because Sarah also arrived!  Thankfully, her flight landed mid-day so I was able to make the two drives down and back from House Springs (round trip is an hour) where Open Door Animal Sanctuary is located to drop Linus off and then to pick him up at the end of the day.  Sarah will be here for two weeks and we are so happy to have her visit.  Usually, she comes at Christmas but there are a few autumn-related things she wants to do.  Julina drove over from Indiana on Friday night so she and Sarah could attend the Renaissance Festival in Kansas City on Saturday.  They picked up Elise and Steven along the way and the four of them spend the day together watching jousts and other shows, wandering around booths, eating turkey legs (maybe?) just like old times....  I will attach photos when I get them.

Thursday night, Sarah joined Steve and me for a watching of "The Others".  That morning, she helped me haul a bunch of mulch to an alley flower bed behind our house and we did some water coloring together in the afternoon.  She helped Steve do grocery shopping Friday afternoon after having lunch with Beckie.  Next week we will be camping for three days so stay tuned....

 

Things are starting to get busy around here

I had my first two of four elementary school string presentations this past week.  I bring my violin, cello, bass (yes, I lug that huge thing) and a rented viola and unpack them from our Element and I play something on each one and answer questions.  Hopefully, there will be some kids interested in learning and their parents willing to pay the tuition and take the time to drive them twice a week to this extracurricular activity.  At the first school, I presented three times - once for each group of 3rd, 4th, 5th graders.  At the second school, they crammed all three grades into a commons area and I only had to do it once.  It is exhausting hauling the bass and I won't even be teaching beginning bass BUT I still bring it because hopefully, a student or two will really want to play it enough to take violin, viola or cello first and switch when they are allowed to in middle school.  You're welcome, middle school orchestra teacher!  My last two school presentations will be this coming week...

Steve and I spent a quiet Labor Day on Monday.  We didn't do anything special other than watch Jerry and Marge Go Large that evening after our dinner of grilled hamburgers.  It was an entertaining movie and based on real events.  It is about playing the lottery which typically we wouldn't be in favor of but this story had a slight twist.

On Tuesday, we picked up our rental car - a Toyota Corolla - to drive while the Kia's engine is being replaced.  It is nice to have air conditioning again, although we are still having lovely autumn-like temperatures.  The only problem is that it is even lower to the ground than the Kia so getting out of it takes more effort for our old bodies.  Civic Orchestra started up Tuesday evening.  It was great to be back!  We have a new rehearsal location that is not any closer than the previous one but not any further, either.  So, it still takes me 30 minutes to get there.  

We had Beckie join us for lunch Thursday noon and had a nice visit.  The sister missionaries came for dinner that evening and we fed the elder missionaries lunch on Saturday.  

Friday evening was our ward campout at Washington State Park south of here.  Because our bodies are old, and because we will be camping with Sarah in a week, we opted to just drive down for the evening.  We brought a simple campout meal of  hotdogs, chips, grapes, raw veggies and s'mores.  I looked envyingly, however, at the Dutch oven mac and cheese and peach cobbler that Karen Brandt was fixing and decided that NEXT ward campout, I will be doing some Dutch oven cooking of my own.  

Saturday morning, Steve and I loaded up our bikes and explored nearby Willmore Park.

That evening, we drove over to Southerlands to help Joe celebrate his 44th birthday.  We had delicious homemade street tacos and we brought chips and guacamole and fresh pineapple and watermelon.  We played a couple of games of Azul when dinner was over.  It was a nice evening and I will include some photos that Emily took when she sends them to me.  

Throughout the week, I have been watching in bits and pieces the Ken Burns documentary on the Lewis and Clark expedition.  I have the book that was printed based upon the film and I finished it about a month ago.  What an incredible adventure!