St. Charles and Friendly Neighbors

The St. Johns brought us a homemade meal of ham and potatoes au gratin, salad, green beans, roll, and cherry cheesecake tonight.  We're getting to know them a little better, and their hospitality and warm welcomes have made it easier to begin settling in here.  After dinner, we took a very long drive out to Saint Charles in search of a refrigerator.  The appliance outlet we thought we were going to turned out to be a tiny, hole-in-the-wall shop filled with the smell of cigarettes, broken tiles on the floor, and two grungy guys who we weren't even sure noticed we were there.  Life never stops being an adventure in the Moore family!  After walking around for a grand total of 2 minutes, we quickly slipped out, checking the Premium Appliance store off on our list of places never to visit again.  On our way home, we decided to drive through the quaint town of St. Charles.


There was a fair going on, so Main Street was closed off.  Everyone seemed to be enjoying the warm summer air and the yummy smells of carnival food.  Although we wanted to park the car and join in on the fun, we decided we would head home and come back another time.  We drove past tiny shops, bed-and-breakfasts, and even the old Municipal Water Works building.  It's as if the town was frozen in a time period from long ago.  We decided that a family weekend stay in St. Charles is on our list of vacations to do.  Another unique thing in the town is the trail head of the Katy Trail, a 237 mile trail stretching across most of the state.  It used to be a railroad line, and is a scenic trail for hiking, running, biking, and horseback riding.  Since I didn't know we'd be seeing such interesting sights on our refrigerator trip, I didn't bring my camera, so the pictures of the Katy Trail are from the official website. :)

On our way home, we stopped at Bed Bath and Beyond and Target for some things for the new house.  Ben bought a mountain bike, and he couldn't wait to get home and take it for a test ride around the cul-de-sac.  The rest of our evening was uneventful and relaxing.  And that was our Thursday here in Missouri. :)

Life In The Couldesac

1406 Ridgetree Trails Drive

The house

 

Side driveway

More boxes!

Ben...

and Dad playing football in the front yard

Backyard- we're at the base of a small hill

Back of the house- my window
is the first one on the
second story (to the left)

Back deck and gazebo with walking
area, patio, and chiminea underneath

Clover- another Midwestern thing!

Hard to see, but the little white spot in
the middle of the picture is a seed
from the poplar trees- they're blowing
everywhere right now, and they look
like tiny cotton balls. :)

The hill behind the driveway that Ben purposefully fell down on his scooter

The St.Johns' house across the street

The St.Claire's house next door

The other neighbors across
the street and one house down

More Exploring

Thursday began with Dad, Ben, and I heading to the YMCA to work out together and then swim for a while.  By the time we finished, it was lunchtime, so we headed home to eat with mom.

Just as we pulled into the driveway, our neighbors from across the couldesac, the StJohns, came over to meet us.  Scott is a year older than Ben, and happens to have just broken the same bones in his foot (other foot though) that Ben broke a couple of weeks ago, so the similarities couldn't have been closer. :) I think they'll become really good friends.  There are two girls, Courtney and Lindsey.  Lindsey is currently away on a missions trip, but I'm looking forward to meeting her when she gets back.  She'll be a sophomore next year.  It was encouraging to meet such sweet neighbors that are Christians too, and i think we'll do lots of things together as families.

More unpacking followed that afternoon, and then out to El Maguey for some mexican food.

After that, we walked the dogs as a family and then headed back to the house for an evening of burning.  This may sound a little confusing, but we were going to burn our old house plans.  Some reading this know the story of the house, some only know bits and pieces, and some know nothing at all.  To make a long story short, our intentions 3 years ago of remodeling our FL house didn't end up working out for certain reasons, and we never moved back into that house.  Our journey of moving 5 times and staying in 4 rental houses in the past 3 years has brought us closer together and has even brought us here to Missouri.  The plans were a small representation the whole experience that our family has gone through.  Since we didn't need them anymore, we wanted to burn them as a small but tangible act of closure, both for our family and for the end of that chapter in our lives.

The plans

Conveniently, there's a little chiminea on the back patio of the house, so we grabbed the rolls of plans and the lighter and headed outside as the sky faded.  One by one we rolled up the sheets and dropped them in, each taking turns.  It was a pleasant, cathartic time, and it was nice to be outside with the smell of the fire and the lightning bugs all around.  After we had finished burning the last piece, we all thought s'mores sounded yummy, so we toasted marshmallows over our house-plans fire and all enjoyed the treat.  In mom's words, it was "a sweet ending". :)

Dad lighting the fire

Mom's plans

The part of the plans that shows
where my bedroom was

Me burning my room plans

All the ashes blowing across the yard

We all put the last piece of
the plans in together

All burnt up :)

Dad and Ben :)

Marshmallows!

The perfect s'more

Ben before he knew I was taking his picture-
you can see the lightning bug in front of his face
and the other one in the upper right-hand corner

Enjoying his s'more

Mom- the master of the skewers :)

It was the perfect end to our day :)