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Aunt Linda's House

May 1st and 2nd, 2002

Warning: Over 30 pics.  Slow Loader.  Read a book or something while the computer works.  Thanks.

Last night we (9 people) all piled into Eric’s minivan and headed up to my aunt Linda’s house. We talked and joked and aside from one fight (Mary and I) and a pair of wet pants (couldn’t find a rest stop for one of the kids), it was an enjoyable trip.  When we arrived, Linda graciously welcomed us and invited Eric and Jamie to stay the night and journey back to Bertrand in the morn.  But they have problems with job schedules and the fact that they don’t really like to be too far from home... so they drove all the way back at midnight.  They are good people. I’m gonna miss them.

Everybody in the Minivan
My Family and Eric’s

After a good nights sleep

We woke up in a nice bed feeling all relaxed and happy. The only dark cloud was that tomorrow the trip will be over. So we resolved to have fun today.  Fortunatly, Aunt Linda who always makes us feel welcome and loved, never seems to run out of interesting things to see and do.

We started off with breakfast of cerial and toast. Then spent a couple hours catching up on the family news and such.

 

Good Morning

Piano in the Livingroom

Aunt Linda
Upstairs Kitchen

Which one to choose?

Breakfast time
Downstairs Kitchen

Catching up with family news

One of the things I had to do today is mail my cell phone to Joe.  He wants to use it while I’m out of country.  No harm in that I suppose, if he’ll actually do it. I bought my brother and son cell phones for christmas and what did they do... ran the bill up and distroyed the phones.  They actually broke them, I’m guessing in some kind of frustration when they stopped working due to non-payment of the bills.

Hufff huff, sigh... back to my story... As I was saying I have to mail my PRE-PAID (this time -learned a lesson, thank you very much) phone to Joe. It has email, voice mail and all kinds of neat features. All for a minimum fee of $10 per month.  If he doesn’t flake, I should be able to call my brother or email him anytime I feel like it.  So in good faith (I seem to have an endless supply, don’t I) I sent him my kewl phone.

Mailing my Phone to Joe

Super Electronics Store
similar to Softmap

Educational Fun for Everyone

Look! I’m recycling.

Next we went to Best Buy so I could get a bigger battery for my new DVcamcorder. The small one that came with it runs out too fast. I was gonna go to Best Buy in Carbondale, but it doesn’t open until the day after tomorrow, and I’ll be in Japan by then.
You know, this new DV was really cheap... I’m kinda worried about the quality of the video.  Guess I’ll find out when I run it through Adobe Premiere.

Shopping done. Time for family fun. We went to The Magic House. It’s a big children’s museum in St. Louis.  We spent about 2 hours there exploring the exhibits and experiencing the world of edutainment.

Check it out: www.magichouse.com

 

Later, everyone (Danny and Austin, Joanne and Chris, Don came home) got together for an Easter Egg hunt.  This was Austin’s first hunt. He was originally from Russia and just recently joined our family. This was my first time to meet him.  Chris is still into Pokeymon and we had an indepth conversation about character cards and such. I learned alot.

Austin finds a blue egg

Dusty and Kyler

Kyler feels frustrated
not finding enough eggs

Even JoAnn got one

Counting the Eggs

This photo has no bearing on the story.  I just thought it was cute so I threw it in.

Sitting down to Eat

Chris loads up
plastics have a prize inside

Cousin Danny and his new Son

Uncle Don
Peeking out the window

Inside the eggs where game numbers.  The person with the most eggs would get the most prizes. All the kids were trying very hard, but Chris was the fastest and strongest. He got the most eggs.

Opening the game prizes

Austin and Aunt Linda

Dinner time. Danny got a stomachache or something... He looks great, in shape with a successful businessman air about him... but I think he is in poor health. Mary and I were talking and we think it might be job stress. I’m sure he has alot more to deal with everyday than I do.

Sorry, sorry... anyway after Danny and Austin left we all gathered upstairs for dinner.

We had a nice meal of good american home cooking.  Not a piece of raw fish in sight. I filled my belly guite full.  The kids (as usual) were picky eaters and ate lots of snacks and easter goodies.

American Home Cooking
Yum!

“Would you like an Easter Goodie?”