Back from Missouri

We're back from a whirlwind emotional weekend, although most of the drama was related to getting there in the big snow storm Friday. We ended up leaving Thursday night and driving about half way, and spent the night in Indiana. Then we only had four and half hours to do the next day, which should've meant an easy peasy day.
For the most part it was, but about 40 miles away from Great Grandma's the snow began to fall. It was real icy and hard to drive in once we got to her actual town. We almost got stuck in her driveway and then again on the street. The car just could not get up any kind of incline. We couldn't even find the driveway into the hotel at first. The clerk told us it had been five years since their last snow storm.

At one point the memorial service was cancelled, because it was thought no one would be able to get there in so much snow! Our travel was pretty easy compared to Jeff & Jody and Norma, who all flew into St. Louis and then had to contend with a drive that should've been three hours but ended up being five. They didn't arrive until most of the restaurants were closed, and were lucky to find anything edible. Luckily, even though southern Missouri might not be used to snow, they were able to dig themselves out pretty quickly.
This is the beautiful display Brad's Aunt Cheri put together. She made the lovely quilt that has pictures of her family on it as part of the design.
I really enjoyed seeing pictures of Grandpa Norman throughout the years, especially this high school graduation one. The most moving part was when everyone had an opportunity to share a memory of Grandpa Norman, several were quite funny.

ER was really good throughout the trip, we told her we're on an adventure, and out of everyone she probably had the best time. She got to watch movies on her DVD player in the car, played with a new toy from her Happy Meal, crawled around on the indoor playground at McDonald's, and got to swim in the hotel pool. Being surrounded by so many people excited to see her, like Aunt Jody and Uncle Jeff, didn't hurt either!