St. Louis and more summer updates 2015

What a busy summer!  Chloe tolerated the Cardinal's baseball game pretty well

Forest Park bike trail...this fabulous park in the middle of St. Louis is bigger than Central Park in NYC.  There is more
than one trail, bikes were on this path and most walkers stayed on a limestone path.  The place was packed on a Sunday morning

Chloe going by a roller blader...she said she wants to take her pack of dogs and skate at the cemetery in Birdeye

Chloe was the liturgist on Father's Day.  We had a guest pastor that day from Rhodes College in Memphis, Margo Richardson, she is a senior there and gave an outstanding sermon that day that literally made me burst into tears as
I thought about Braden Bradley's family. (He was a classmate of Chloe's that committed suicide a few weeks ago).
Her sermon was about waves and the ocean and about Jesus in the boat with his disciples when a storm blew up.
How could Jesus be asleep in times of distress?  Actually, she said, He is always in the boat with us during smooth
seas and times of storms.  Man, that sermon hit the spot.

Chloe and Anna Claire Burrow in 2007 and last weekend 2015 in St Louis.
How they've grown!!!  I'm laughing because their smiles are exactly how they were 8 years ago!!!

Look what we picked up in Benton, Missouri at Boom Land on our way home.  We stopped to get some fireworks Sunday
and this loud kitty was screaming under some cinder blocks out front and the staff said they'd found this kitten in their
air conditioner unit that morning.  They gave me a box and I had planned to have it put to sleep because I thought it was
so sick but turns out this kitten is healthy, 6 weeks old and now named Boom Boom.
She's living in a crate in the play room for now and she looks much better!

Chloe and Anna Claire are in the back and her twin Conner up front with her other twin brothers Brooks and Bryce
The Burrow's are a great group of kids, no back talk, no serious fights, they get along so well.

I took Chloe to meet mom and Audrey and there was a 30 mile parking lot going West
bound on I-40.  We got off at Brinkley and ended up meeting her near Hazen.

Boom likes to strut around the dogs, she better be careful, those dogs like to mouth her

When we got to St. Louis, two of our bikes' chains were off....Jackie got all frustrated about my seat height and the time
it took us simply to get out of the hotel garage.....Look at Chloe LOL!

Chloe after the Fourth of July 4 miler Saturday.  She did great, ran two full miles
then we ran/walked the last two.  She did remark that she hates running....I'm
surprised to hear that, she's actually a good long distance runner.  I'll have to
encourage her on...

At 14 in Arkansas you can get your permit, Chloe got hers a few weeks ago after two tries.  She does good, drives slow and
is very cautious.

It's hard for me to believe that with Cooper next door for two weeks and over at our house a ton, that this is the only
photo of him.  Left to right (this is after the pool a couple weeks ago) Julia Shepherd, Stella, John B Shepherd, Cooper,
August and Chloe.  I think this is the day Whit went to read on the couch at his dad's office.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Whew, what a busy summer!  We are just back from St. Louis where we saw the Cardinals play, ran a 4 mile race Saturday and had planned to ride the Mississippi River Trail but it was flooded so we rode bikes in Forest Park Sunday.  St. Louis is such a cool town, we had a great time being there. Chloe loves her new bike, it's a Specialized Ariel and it goes FAST, in fact, at one point I thought she was juicing Sunday morning.  She went so fast on the Forest Park Trail that she passed the car lot.  LOL!  We met up with Jackie's high school friend Colley Burrow and his family in St. Louis and enjoyed being with them.  I don't have a photo, but Chloe's been taking golf lessons and is doing really well.  The golf pro Rob said she has a really good swing!  Cooper Stovall, Chloe's cousin from Richmond, Virginia was here two weeks so we had him over a ton watching movies, swimming and playing a new card game called Continental Rummy.  Chloe and I became very good at it.

Chloe and cousin Audrey leave for Ferncliff on Sunday for the week.  Chloe's been down all week because she gets homesick every year.  But every single year she says how much fun it was.  That's the reason I keep sending her.  When she goes to college, she needs to stay there and not leave at semester.  I'm a homebody and so is Jackie but we didn't mind camp and stayed at college.  So we'll see.  I'll post funny things next week about camp.