The windows are open and I can hear the bells from the nearby Catholic church. What a lovely sound! We have had great temperatures all week allowing us to turn off our brand new air conditioner. We are supposed to get into the 90's early this next week so getting that AC now was still a good idea!
We had a full week. Monday was recovering from our extensive Sunday driving to Hillsboro and then to Columbia and back. We took a bike ride that evening - first one we have had in a week or so. Tuesday we volunteered to help clean the temple from 12-4:00 and that was physically tiring. We cleaned lockers inside and out in the women's dressing room so it required a lot of bending and stretching. We got home in time to have Beckie over for dinner and then I dashed out the door to orchestra rehearsal. As the administrator, I have to arrive early to set up a sign-in table so I can take temperatures of all the musicians. They then record that temperature next to their name, sign their initials, and they are good to go into the rehearsal hall. Masks are worn at all times but, if the wind players have been vaccinated, they can remove their masks when they play. The brass are supposed to have bell covers. Small lined trash cans are to be near the brass section to empty spit valves into. SO many protocols to follow at this time....
Wednesday was grocery shopping in the morning and in the evening, we went with the church youth to Forest Park to a free Saint Louis Symphony outdoor concert on Art Hill.
As you can see, there were a LOT of people in attendance. We decided to pay $10 to park at the zoo lot and that made for a much shorter walk to the venue. We brought a young brother and sister along in our car and, because of our parking decision, got there before the rest of the ward youth. One of the leaders went to the hill in the afternoon to place blankets down to save our place. The orchestra played familiar favorites and they were amplified so we could hear even if we couldn't see much other than the shell with blobs of red dressed musicians. Temperatures were cool enough that light jackets were nice. And, they ended with fireworks!
Thursday, Linus got a haircut. I asked them to also trim his face and he really looks different!
Friday we drove out to Ballwin to see the Southerlands and to get a report of their amazing Disney cruise from the weekend before. Emily had to leave for a photo shoot so we an hour or two with the grandkids before Joe got home from work. All four, Noah, Lucy, Quinn, and Larkin, had just glowing reports on their adventures on the cruise. They are at the perfect age to enjoy and remember. Quinn dressed up in the prince costume he got as part of his visit to the Bibbety Bobbety Boutique. Pretty schmancy!
Once Joe got home, Steve and I headed over to nearby Babler State Park to camp out that night. We bought a new 6-person tent at Aldi a couple of months back and we wanted to try it out. When we camped in early June with the ward, we were in a 3-person tent and with two blow-up twin air mattresses inserted, it was pretty cramped. Add two dogs and it was like we were in a bouncy house. This new tent is extremely roomy - tall enough to stand up, space for the two mattresses and a walk-way in-between for the dog beds. And, it is waterproof as we learned over night when an unexpected rain shower blew through for a couple of hours. It rained enough to get the firewood wet so we didn't even try to cook our breakfast. We just loaded up everything and drove home to eat and where we set up the tent again in the back yard to dry out. We did this fairly early in the morning but we weren't worried about bothering our "neighbors" as they weren't worried about bothering us during the night with their loud talking and swearing. We will not camp on a Friday night again if we can help it because the campgrounds are crowded. We will camp during a weekday when hopefully, we will have less neighbors and they might be older with no children and less inclined to have potty mouths.
Thursday night, Steve and I watched the last three episodes of Season 3 of Manifest. Can't wait for Season 4 finale to arrive - we need closure! Last night, we watched "The Christmas Candle" on the Roku station. It was pretty good. Kind of predictable.
Below is a photo Steve took of me one morning this week. I kept falling asleep during my scripture study so I finally just gave in and put my head down for a little pre-walk nap. And, the last photo shows what happens when one puts a water bottle in the dishwasher! What a shock! Who knew?
Last Sunday evening, our stake realigned some ward boundaries and our meetinghouse will now have two wards meeting in it. Our ward added a few families from the Webster Groves ward and we will get to meet them today after sacrament meeting at a meet and greet. And, our meeting times have been changed to noon to 2:00. This gives me more time in the morning to blog and do other types of family history so I am happy. I just hope I can stay awake, though, since meetings are now during my usual nap time! And today, I am particularly sleepy since I took some vertigo medicine this morning. Oh, well....
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