STL or Bust!

We had a great weekend in St. Louis with our family! After having a stressful week, it was good to be with our family. We were going to St. Louis for several reasons. We had a Fragile X seminar, my Grandpa's 90th birthday party, and a BBQ with our St. Louis Fragile X chapter.

We got to St. Louis on Friday afternoon. The kids did great traveling. I went to the store to grab a few things for dinner and we got them fed. Later that evening my parents kept the boys so we could meet our mentors, Tom and Rhonda Hufty. Tom just left a position at our alma mater to be a pastor right outside of St. Louis. He married us and has been a great influence to Nate while in ministry. Rhonda has been that for me as well. She is one great gal! She has tact, spunk, and organization to her. They have served in larger ministries and understand it. We went to this little chinese place and enjoyed a nice dinner. Afterwards we went back to their house and had cupcakes from The Cup. I failed to bring my camera. Grr!! We finally made it back to my parents house at 1:00 a.m. We were exhausted!

On Saturday I attended a Fragile X seminar. The seminar was taught by Dr. Marcia Braden, Dr. Ave Lachiewicz, and Mrs. Cindi Rogers. It was so encouraging and helpful. The thing that I took away from this seminar is that we are doing things right. The topic was "Behavior from Three Perspectives." I got to see a lot of my friends from the St. Louis chapter as well as Eric and Kristie Meyer from Ohio! That was a nice surprise. We met at the Fragile X conference several years back and it was nice to see her again!

Right after the seminar I headed over to my Grandpa's 90th birthday party! My grandparents are still living. My Grandma is not doing very well and they are thinking about going to a nursing home soon. Time will tell. My Grandpa is healthy as a horse with a few minor things. My Grandpa has been a retired pastor for over thirty years. They have been a huge impact on my life and I will always be grateful for the wonderful, close relationship we have. I could write a whole blog post on them sometime. Love them.

On Sunday we got to go to our St. Louis Fragile X chapter's BBQ at Mike and Ari Howard's house. They have a swimming pool so the kiddos got to enjoy that. We had a wonderful time socializing with our friends we don't get to see very often. Liam stayed with my parents and napped while we attended and took Landon. We are so thankful and grateful for these people in our lives.

Beautiful Elise and I. (She has Fragile X)

Landon and Logan...3 weeks apart...both have Fragile X.

Me and Kim

Landon and Nate

Grandpa and Grandma

Grandpa on the portable potty. Yes, he is proud of it!

My Dad and his Dad. Age 60 and 90.

The whole Bales Family.

Grandpa, Gigi, Liam, and Landon