Good 'ole MO

We had a wonderful time visiting Travis' family in Missouri this past week. The weather was beautiful (even with a couple days of rain) and it was great to see all of his family. We stayed on his Aunt Edna Mae's farm on the outskirts (and yes, the outskirts) of Columbia, MO. Ella loved being on the farm and couldn't get enough of all the creatures she could see. We ate lots of good food (including the ever famous "Steak and Shake" for all you mid-westerners), saw lots of animals, and Ella had a blast playing with all her cousins. Thanks to everyone back in MO for making our trip so memorable.

Ella loved being on the plane....Travis - not so much :)
She was all smiles the whole time and when we landed she shouted, " We made it!"

You can't go to St. Louis without having Steak and Shake - truly delicious!

This is the house Trav's cousins, Shaun and Cynthia are building near his aunt's house -

it is awesome!

Ella loved this pond...as many creatures (frogs, turtles and fish) all live in it

One of the calves from the farm

Ella was searching for the goats

This was in Columbia at Grandpa Elmer and Grandma Faye Mantle's house - g-pa elmer was showing Ella a bird's nest on the house and she just looked straight up

Travis' cousin, Nikki, took all the great pictures from the graduation party and this is the only one I got of Ella and her cousin Xander - they were inseparable the whole time.

On Monday, we went to Uncle Mark's farm and Ella enjoyed every bit about it

Here is Ella and her Great-Grandma Faye feeding the goats

These goats are called Fainting Goats and when startled, they keel over and faint for like 5 sec., it is hilarious

She could have sat on this tractor all day

Uncle Mark's house is over 100 years old and he and his wife, Cindy, have been renovating it for 16 years now...it is really cool.

This is stamped into the front porch....I guess it is also an old danish sign for peace or something like it...it came with the house

One of the many frogs near the pond

I hope I am getting this right but I think this is Ella's Great-great-great-great grandfather, John Murphy, who was from Ireland. We visited this old Catholic cemetary in Centralia.

Not a great pic but this is Ella's first and LAST tick bite - lovely! I was freaking out. We had to put chapstick on it to suffocate it and then Greg took it out - Ella was not even bothered.

I guess, it is not a trip to MO without a tick bite!

This is the house Mary grew up in (though it was a lot smaller back then) but it is seriously out in the middle of nowhere.

And this is the one-room school house Mary attended from 1st-3rd grade....crazy! There is even an outhouse in the back.

Side view of the schoolhouse...it was covered in poison ivy...scary!

Go to Missouri and you become a world traveler - we went to mexico and paris all in one day!

Travis' cousins (and cousin's kids) fishing in the pond

Cutie!

Ella and Bailey -Bailey is 5 months younger than Ella but a good 3 inches taller - they had fun copying eachother all night

this huge frog jumped right towards Ella as her dad and I jumped the other direction -

good parenting, I know!

Garrett and Ella

She loved messing with all the fish tackle

And real worms....

Ella pet this fish....yuck!

She is pretty brave when it comes to touching animals...not like her mom.

The fam on the farm!

We came home on Wednesday night and Thursday was Ella's first day of swim lessons for the summer...we will go strong until the end of July!