And because 2 vacations in one month isn't enough...

We went to St. Louis, Missouri for a family reunion. It's not your average, run of the mill reunion. This was a family reunion/business meeting.

That's right. Business meeting. My Dad's grandpa and his 9 children got involved in the convenience store business a while back and long story short, my Dad is general secretary for the company of lots of stores in Tennessee.


So, once a year the shareholders/family members meet somewhere in the USA- often in a location with cool stuff to see and not too far for most to travel. This year, you guessed it, Missouri was chosen. Nice thing about it being a business meeting, the company pays for it! (Well, for the officers anyway. The rest of us pay our own way- but the meals are covered :) )


I haven't been in years because, well, a big family is expensive to fly, unless you are related to an airline pilot, which we now are. (cue the applause)


Because of vacation #2, we arrived in MO a day late and missed the St. Louis tour that the rest of the family (like 50 or so people) went on- you know- of the arch, and stuff. Sigh.


Still, besides seeing ants, uncles, cousins that I hadn't seen in forever (yes, I know it's "aunts", I was just seeing if you were paying attention :) , we swam, ate out, played poker- well, some of the adults did- it's a family favorite (oh the things you don't know about me), and had a generally good time.

The last night we had a banquet in the hotel. Afterward, we all played bingo. Everyone goes in at $10 a card. My sweet aunt bought a card for each of the kids. Yes she did. She's the spoiling type! There were several prizes for $100 and the big prize was $400, cash! My daughter was soooooooooooo trying for the big money! My sweet aunt next to her said that if she won, she'd give the $ to her. But alas, no luck this time.

Afterwards, freebies from the stores were given to all (like new candy, or merchandise with the store logo on it, etc.) (Growing up I always got to try the newest thing on the market- candywise. It was one of the perks of a family owned business. )

Of the 9 children of my great grandfather, 5 are still living. Aunt Norma is the oldest at 84.

Only my dad and his sister and their posterity are LDS, so after the reunion, we took a day trip out to Nauvoo to see the sites. What I most looked forward to was to see the rebuilt Nauvoo temple.

I was awestruck.

I felt so happy to be there. I thought of the history, of the saints and their efforts, of the fact that there was a working temple there again. I came 14 years ago when there was just a corner stone and a model of the temple, and now, here was the real thing.

Unfortunately we came on a Sunday and the temple was closed, but I was content just to walk on the grounds. There was a wonderful feeling there. Even the kids felt it. Although we had so much yet to see and do, we all dragged our feet, wanting to stay there just a little longer. The rest of Nauvoo was cool, with the smithy, the store, the printing press, etc. all like it was in the 1830's,

but the temple was definitely the highlight.