July Road Trip – St. Louis Family (2)

…coming to the end of our July road trip during which we visited our son and his family in Omaha, explored northern and western Nebraska and then stopped in St. Louis on the return trip to visit Laurie’s extended family.  The focus was on Laurie’s sisters and some of their family members…

One of our most important stops was at Friendship Village, a retirement community where Laurie’s oldest sister, Glenda, and her husband, Ken, reside.  After a very nice lunch and visit in the restaurant, we stopped in one of the lounges to take these photos. 

In the first picture, Ken and Glenda are seated with Glenda’s sisters, Bonnie, Karole and Laurie standing behind them.  The second photo of Ken and Glenda also includes their daughter Judy…

During our visit we also went out to eat with other family members.  In this case, sister Karole is with her husband Bob and the sister’s cousin Johnny is with his wife Rose.  No food photos as this meal was in a restaurant that I’ve written up several times before…

The family has a plethora of double cousins.  Laurie’s mother and one of her sisters, Laurie’s aunt Lois, married two brothers.  Between the two families, there were 9 children. 

One evening we decided to stop at Ted Drewes iconic Frozen Custard stand.  Ted Drewes Sr., a local tennis legend, opened his first frozen custard store in 1929.  This particular frozen custard stand was opened in 1941 at 6276 Chippewa Street…historic Route 66…in St. Louis Missouri.  There is almost always a line waiting for this frozen treat!

However, Laurie and Bonnie ‘let’ Bill and myself wait in the line while they watched the crowd.

We took quite a few family photos at Bill and Bonnie’s house.  In this case, it was Bonnie with her granddaughter and star athlete Delany.  During this visit we didn’t get to see Kasey, Delany’s mom.

This could be considered a ‘classic’ photo… Bill and yours truly chilling in Bonnie and Bill’s living room.  We relax/chill better than most but it may have something to do with our age and stage in life.

Kyle, Bonnie and Bill’s son, stopped by for a visit while we were there.  Kyle and Melissa posed for this photo with their sons Collin and Keaton.  A nice looking family for sure…

Another visitor during our stay was Kevin, Kasey’s husband and proud papa of Charley Kate…the family’s ‘killer’ hockey player!  But in this case, she was happily playing with an antique china tea set that had belonged to my mother.  We’d given it to Bonnie for her youngest granddaughters to play with...our grandchildren are both boys.  The girls treat the set with great care…while having some great ‘tea’ parties.

At bit later, Elliot Jane, another of Kasey’s daughters, (there are 4 of them), was dropped off so Grandma Bonnie could babysit for a while.  She loves playing with some of my mother’s dolls that we’d given to Bonnie for just this purpose.  Nice to see some of my mom’s old collectables being appreciated by the girls!

We missed seeing Judy’s husband and their family, plus Karole and Bob’s sons and granddaughters as well as Kasey and her other daughter, Avery Eileen.  Next time for sure!  Laurie has more close relatives in St. Louis than I have all across the country…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave