Ninth Annual PIG Trip

Six little piggies went to St. Louis.

The seventh piggy had to stay home :(

These little piggies laughed, ate, and shopped.

These little piggies had fun.

Then they went wee, wee, wee all the way home.

Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis

Connie playing the roll of the queen.

Are those PIGS riding on sheep?

It's hard to tell which flowers are the prettiest.

Blueberry Hill

How many PIGS will fit in a photo booth--apparently 5 with only 3 actually showing in the pic.

Rooftop at our hotel

And after that, Debbi can win the backbend contest

Historic St. Charles, Mo.

Cindy peeks out from under chairs and packages in the third seat

after a day shopping with Carol, Deb, and Marcy more comfortable.

Pi (the math sign, not the food) Pizza in Delmar in the Loop

Marcy thinking we might need these since

we might not be able to fit everything and everyone in the car

to announce the location of trip number 10 in 2010, let's review

Years 1, 2, and 3 in Nashville, Tennessee with side trips to Franklin and lots of shopping

Years 4, 5, and 6 in Chicago, Illinois right along Michigan Avenue including a train ride to Michigan City to shop at an outlet mall the first year and some went to plays every year.

Years 7 and 8 in St. Charles, Illinois at the historic Baker Hotel providing transportation to all locations including the train station for a short ride to Chicago for the day and to the Outlet Mall in Aurora for good shopping. Notice the common thread here?

Year 9 was this year to St. Louis with trips to the Missouri Botanical Gardens, Historical St. Charles (we are considering doing a tour of cities named St. Charles since the 2 we have been to have been very nice), and surely you can guess..........shopping.

DRUM ROLL, PLEASE

The tentative plan for year 10 will be a return to St. Charles, Illinois with a train ride into Chicago for a day and a trip to the Aurora outlet mall. All our trips have been fun filled and full of laughter, but the serenity of the Baker Hotel with its lovely outdoor dining and convenient transportation provided by Lee bring very relaxing times. Add the outstanding Outlet Shopping, and easy transport into Chicago for a day, and you have reason for a repeat visit.

Year 11 will be decided later, but year 12 may be NYC to celebrate a milestone birthday

Darby Daily News

Helping Maggie find the annoying horse fly. We are not horses. Well, maybe Maggie is.

The Darby Daily News will be published 2-3 days a week now due to budget restraints. The editor will be on a 4 day leave and the editor of audio media will be taking over news during that time. (Translation: your daddy will report over the phone)

The fight is on

I'm winning!

and now we are really tired

and Maggie makes a really nice pillow!

Darby Daily News

Me in the Land of No Leashes called Grandma's and Grandpa's

And they had steak for dinner. Yummy!

The Chase is on.

And we really didn't hear the "no" when we headed toward to water to cool off.

Darby Daily News

As we are taking care of our daughter's dog while she attends training in Michigan, I will post the Darby Daily News (well, it may not be daily). The co-star in the pictures is our Maggie. Here are today's pictures:

Hi, mom. I got a belly rub for posing so cute here.

Our sniff walk on the way to see the chickens.

Snack time

My Adopted Family--expanded by a sidetrack years ago

I have an extended family that became that way through another sidetrack. I started out making a very good friend in high school, who became a college roommate for the year we were away at the same school, then we were in each others' weddings, and we are godparents to their son (our church did not do godparents, or they would have served that role for us too). It turns out that her husband and mine also hit it off immediately and are good friends. She is also an only child like I am, so I have often felt we are sort of like sisters. I even expect that I get on her nerves like a sister occasionally does, but she still loves me. Our family has almost always been able to drop in on at least part of their holiday celebrations, so we have known the whole family for many years.

Over 25 years ago, we got a phone call from this friend's sister-in-law (sister of her husband). They were wanting to buy the house 4 doors down from where they currently lived and wondered if we might want to buy their house. We had not really thought about moving, but they did have a swimming pool--very appealing. It turns out my uncle was there real estate agent, but I don't recall who suggested they call us. We did some quick looking at other properties to compare, some quick thinking, some quick math, and decided to make the move.

As a result of this move, we became neighbors and developed a very close friendship with who I had previously just thought of as the sister-in-law and her husband. We also became the godparents of their daughter. We may have never gotten to know them so well without spending so many years in this close proximity, having almost daily contact.

Another gain in this new neighborhood was a couple about my parents' ages who became an extra set of grandparents for our kids and became family and friends to my parents, aunts, and uncles as they got to know them at our holiday gatherings. They are the crossovers that attend both our family get-togethers.

This completely unplanned, sidetracking move, blessed us with wonderful new lifelong friends and relationships. Our kids grew up playing together and still keep in touch to differing degrees. It is a joy to get to spend time with the kids since they are all out of town now. This past weekend, we got to see some of them. It is a fun time right now because one of the girls just had a baby and 2 are due in the next 7 weeks to 4 months. I love these people and am also so thankful to all the things that brought us all together. It is probably unusual to be close friends with all the siblings and in-laws in a family. It is fun to see in retrospect what blessings occurred because of being sidetracked from our own original plan.

Final Recipe Report--for now

I was all ready to make the french breakfast puffs for a lunch/brunch when I saw this new recipe post:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/rec

and the site where Pioneer Woman reviewed it and added her photographs as she made it.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/07/stop-the-presses/ipes/desserts/pineapple-zucchini-sheet-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting/

It was delicious. I think better than the chocolate cake. Those of you who know me, know I am a fan of most all chocolates. Substituting carrots for the zucchini turns it into an awesome carrot cake. I have to admit that I bought Cream Cheese Frosting. Traveling with the cake made it seem more sensible to frost after arrival, and time was a factor.

My daughter reported the lemon baked pasta to be worthy of adding to the meal rotation, but that flavors blended and softened the lemon taste the next day.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/baked-lemon-pasta/

She also made apple dumplings and my husband said they were one of the best things he had ever had. I had heard of this recipe before--uses Mountain Dew, so you know it has to be good. They are also quite easy.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/02/apple_dumplings/

For dinner, I modified the barbq into a meatloaf recipe (see earlier post) and made the creamy mashed potatoes.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/11/delicious_creamy_mashed_potatoes/

Can you tell what the secret ingredient is? Don't tell my husband. This is made for holidays--5 lbs of potatoes and can be refirgerated for 2 days and warmed in the oven. (Double check what she says on that) Smashed taters are labor intensive and mess making when you have company arriving, so it is appealing to me to do them this way. I doubt my husband will have any of it though because it is not the way we always do it.

He liked both the meatloaf and potatoes and had seconds. This meatloaf modification was from the same meatballs he said were appetizers instead of a main course. I guess its all in the presentation.

With school starting soon, this will probably be the last multiple report on recipes. As I try something from time to time, I will let you know how it is. This was one of my summer projects. The sewing I never got back too, but here is the one dress I made.