Holden finished preschool this spring. It was a tough journey but he's really excited about officially being a big kid now. I was able to attend his end-of-the-year picnic at the Schuman Park. We had a morning full of games and playground fun. The parks department even came down to give the kids a tour of the Frisco steam engine on display at the park.

It seems like we've been taking a lot of weekend day trips lately. Visiting the Petra Rock Gym in Springfield has been fun and relatively inexpensive. Jen has crossed over to the dark side and started climbing too. We've helped the gym staff out at two birthday parties now and received free passes in exchange for our assistance. It's a nice gym but a poor business model. I have no idea how the place makes a profit.

Since our last post, we attended the "USO Day at the Zoo". Holden's friend Jaimison came with us. The pair had a great time. The USO continues to improve this event every year and they've really done an outstanding job. They do such a wonderful job supporting service members and their families. Their efforts are even more impressive when you consider they aren't funded by the government...



Another exciting trip was visiting our friend Lucas Robison. He was in St Louis for a wedding and we were able to spend the day with him, Michelle and his family. It was great to finally meet Michelle and his sister's family. Hopefully we'll have to get out to Seattle for a visit. We met them at the City Museum which continues to amaze me. They recently opened the roof to the public with a new ferris wheel ten stories above the city. We had lunch in the Laclede's Landing and visited the Arch after. Jen, Holden and I all were able to take the tram to the top of the arch for the first time. The views were amazing and Jen was relieved that you couldn't feel the arch moving back and forth like she feared...