On the first part of the trip, we got to see Mark's paternal grandparents as well as his parents, sisters, niece and nephew. We drove through terrible rain to get to Jonesboro, but otherwise the weather on the trip was beautiful.
While we were there, we shopped, lounged around, and played some games.
On Monday, we drove on up to Bunker Hill Retreat for an annual family reunion with Mark's mother's side. Before we left, we also got a scary call from my Dad about my sister, who was in the ER. We found out over the course of the next few days that she has a condition called cavernoma. She was released from the hospital midweek, and is now getting back into her regular routine. The doctors hope this will be a one-time event, but they'll have to monitor her. My parents encouraged me to continue on with our plans, so we went ahead to Bunker Hill and checked in on my sister as best we could from there. We're thankful that she's doing better now!
At Bunker Hill, we got to see all of Mark's aunts and uncles on his mom's side, his grandmother, and quite a few of the cousins, as well as Mark's brother and his wife. We shared a cabin with Mark's older sister and her kids (like we did last year), and generally had a great time. As always, we played a lot of games, ate too much, and spent some time exploring outside. This year, we even had ribs for dinner, which had been cooked in a big outdoor smoker all day. They were delicious! One of my favorite activities was the canoe rides with Hannah and Zach--for the first time I ventured both down and up stream a bit. Hard work, it turns out, but we had quite an adventure!
On Thursday morning, we all parted ways after breakfast, with some of the family heading home, and others (us included) heading to St. Louis. On the way, we stopped at Meramec Caverns, which was cool (though not as spectacular as Carlsbad Caverns).
In St. Louis, we met up with a cousin who lives there (but was unable to come to Bunker Hill) for dinner, and we also got to spend more time with Gran, who lives there, too. On Friday, some of us visited the zoo, which was free!
Later that day, at various times, we said some more goodbyes. Mark and I made our way back to BG on Saturday, stopping in Indianappolis to visit the Rhythm Discovery Center.
Saturday was my birthday, so we went by South Side Six when we got back in town to have a free birthday dinner. Yum! Overall, we really enjoyed the trip and spending some time with family.
Now that we've been back for a couple of days, I have laundry and unpacking done, and I'm trying to set my priorities for the rest of the summer. I can't believe June is almost over already!
1 comment:
Hey, I remember back then! Good times.
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