Lambert's Cafe - Home of the Throwed Rolls

On the way home we stopped for the last time at Lambert's Cafe in Sikeston, Missouri. This is a fun place to eat and they have the best rolls. But the best part is they come out and yell "hot rolls!" and you put-up your hand and they throw you a roll. No, it is not toss you one, they throw you one. It is so much fun and we wanted to stop there one more time. We got there at lunch time and so we stopped and had some lunch.

The family getting ready to dig in and enjoy some lunch.

Having some lunch.

There are some wood train pieces out front that the kids like to play on. Here is Brett in one of the cars.

Jared, Brett and Ryan playing.

Ryan on the train.

Jared, Brett and Ryan playing on the train.

Brett and Ryan.

Jared looking out the hole.

Cahokia Mounds

We decided that we would split the drive home up more evenly between the two days and rather than sitting in a hotel in Arkansas in the evening we decided to visit Cahokia Mounds the morning we left Illinois. Cahokia Mounds is near our house in Illinois and some of the members of our family have been there. When Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen visited they went there with the kids. I also went there with the kids, but for some reason Lori had never made any of the trips and Ryan was just a baby, which is probably why Lori had never been there. It is interesting how when we believe that we are going to live somewhere for a long time (our hope was our move to Illinois was long term, at least 10 years if not permanent) we do not make as much effort to go see all the local attractions because we feel like we will have plenty of time to do those things. Since we came to Houston on "temporary" assignment we have been working hard to make the most of our time here and have gone to see as many of the local attractions as we could squeeze in. Now our move to Houston is permanent, at least I hope it is and I want to retire in the house we bought here. So, we made a last ditch effort for everyone in our family to go see what was in our backyard in Illinois before we hit the road for the long drive home.

Brett and Jared in front of on of the displays in the museum area. The Indian is gutting a deer in the background. That's always cool.

Ryan, Jared and Brett in front of some artifacts. The new digital camera that we bought because we forgot our good camera is not great in low light, as we learned from these pictures.

Brett, Jared and Ryan on top of the main Cahokia mound, known as Monks Mound. The stairs with the handrail are not part of the original design by the Mississippian Culture but were added later.

Jared, Lori, Brett and Ryan on top of the Monks Mound.

The St. Louis Skyline from Monks Mound.

Brett and Jared on the trail on top of Monks Mound.

Everyone heading back down the stairs to get into the mini-van and start the long drive for Texas. Since we spend most of our available vacation time and money to visit family in Utah, the reality is we will probably never get back to that part of the country again. I am glad we took the opportunity to visit Cahokia Mounds one last time. It was much better than watching TV in a hotel in Arkansas.

Goodbye to our Illinois House

On our last day in Illinois before we had to start our long drive back to Texas, we said good-bye to the house and neighborhood and the kids were able to say good-bye to Kelsey. Kelsey's dad, Randy, was there and we were able to say good-bye to him. They were the best neighbors ever and we really miss them. That neighborhood was one of the best we have ever lived in and we will miss all the people there. This is my good-bye post where I shed a few tears.

The front of the house. Lori just left and going through the house one last time. So many memories were made there.

The back-yard. I am very glad that we installed the retaining wall because it kept the basement dry, but we will not get the money we invested in the wall back out of it. So, we are just going to have to be thankful that we could enjoy a dry and mud-free basement while we lived there and while we did not. I have never made money on a house. In fact, we have lost money on every house we have owned. But, it looks like this one is going to set a new standard in money lost. It just does not pay to put in upgrades like retaining walls, sprinkler systems or finishing the basement.

The back of our house. I love the big back yard even though much of it is taken by the hill and retaining wall. It was a nice place to live.

The side yard. To the right you can see the cover of the nice, egress window we had put in for a downstairs basement. It turns out that was a mistake as nobody ever got the chance to use that room before we had to move and we will lose all the money we invested in it.

Kelsey's house. What great neighbors they were. We really miss them.

Looking down the other-way on the double cul-de-sac. We will not be living on a cul-de-sac in our new house in Houston and we will miss that. It was a great place for the kids to play and ride their bikes with very little traffic. That was a great place to live and have kids.

Another view of the neighborhood. We will really miss the neighbors there.

Our side of the cul-de-sac in front of our house there.

The house next to ours. We do not know who lives there now because the people that lived there when we were there have moved. We saw kids though so I am sure our kids would have liked having kids living next door if we would have been able to stay.

We closed on our new house today so now we are financially responsible for this house in Illinois, the house we have been renting for the last 22 months in Houston plus our new house. We are working through some repairs that we needed to have done and then it is likely that we will have to take the corporate buy-out because houses are not selling right now. That is a bummer and someone will get a really great deal on a really great house. What makes this even more sad is the amount of money we are losing on this house. From a purely financial perspective, taking the new job and moving at this time was not a good decision. Hopefully, over time we will see that it was a good move.

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial

The National Park Service is getting into the Disneyland Act and taking and selling pictures, so I thought I would share what we bought while we were there.

A picture of the Arch on a day that was much nicer than the day we were there.

A picture of the St. Louis skyline on another day that was much better than the day we were there.

A picture of all of us before we went to the top of the Arch.

Spring Break - Gateway to the West Arch

In March we went back to Illinois to finish our move from that house and to say goodbye to so many friends. It was a sad and very intense time. Karen Lane was so great to help us as we sorted though our things and got rid of so much. We are very thankful to her for all of her help. We are done having babies now and so we gave away the crib, cradle, changing table and all the clothes. We were not ready to do that when we moved to Houston on our 2-year “temporary” assignment, but now that we are making the move permanent we decided we could let go of that stuff and give it away. It is sad to realize that part of our life is over forever. In some ways it is good (we can normally sleep through the night) but it is sad to realize we are getting old. So, we sorted, packed and moved out of the house over Spring Break. The kids were really happy see their friend Kelsey and they spent all the time they could with her. We were also able to see many of our friends and say good-bye, although we feel bad that we were not able to see all of them. It was an intense week because we had to drive about 1700 miles round trip so we spent much of the time in the car.

We were able to spend one evening with Kathy and Steve Dever. Since we were moving and not going on vacation, Lori and I both spaced it and left home without any of our cameras. That was not a very smart thing to do. Right before going to dinner with Kathy and Steve, we stopped by Circuit City and bought a cheap, compact digital camera. It sure is nice that I can say both “cheap” and “digital” when describing a camera. The kids were experimenting with the new camera and took this picture. All of the pictures in the post are due to the new camera.

We were able to squeeze in a little time for some fun before we had to drive back to Texas thanks to the fact that the movers decided they wanted to pack and load us on the same day. That gave us an extra free day where we had the time to go to the Gateway Arch one more time despite the cold, wet weather. Kelsey was home from school and she was able to go with us. Here is Kelsy, Jared, Brett, Ryan and Lori by a very full Mississippi River.

This is the statue that everyone was in front of in the previous picture. By the time we left the hat on the left was under water.

This is everyone freezing by the river with the Arch in the background.

This is looking up-river and you can see that the river has reached the road.

This road just goes into the water. While we were there some river's over-flowed their banks and there was flooding due to all the rain. The good news is our house in on a hill and the yard is graded so everything stayed dry.

Ryan, Brett and Jared by the Gateway Arch.

This is the area where we waited for our trip to the top of the Gateway Arch. This is a balance to weigh things. It can also be used as a teeter-toter.

Kelsey and Brett on the teeter-toter.

Jared pulling the steamboat horn.

Jared riding the balance.

Brett pulling the steamboat horn.

Kelsey, Brett, Jared, Ryan and Lori in the car to go to the top of the arch.

Kelsey, Brett and Jared in the car on the way to the top.

Lori, me and Ryan on our way to the top.

Brett looking out the window at the top of the Arch.

Jared looking out the window at the top of the Arch.

St. Louis from the top of the Arch.

The new Busch Stadium where the Cardinals play. It looks like we will never see them play here now that we have moved.

Ryan, Jared, Lori, Brett and Kelsey at the very highest point of the Arch.

Ryan looking out the window at the top of the Arch. Hopefully Ryan is old enough he will remember this experience.

Jared sitting at the viewing location at the top of the Arch.

Everyone at the top.

Waiting to take the car back down to the bottom of the Arch.

Brett and Kelsey making faces on the way down.

Ryan, me, Jared and Lori making faces on the way down.

Lori making a funny face on the way down.

Jared, Ryan, Lori, Brett and Kelsey by the bear at the bottom of the Gateway Arch. I had my picture taken here when I was a kid.

Ryan by the buffalo. Actually, it is really a Bison.

Jared, Thomas Jefferson, Brett, Ryan Lori and Kelsey.

Ryan, Jared, Lori, Brett and Kelsey freezing as we leave the Arch. Most people go South for Spring Break, but we went North and it was cold.