mcculloch's kansas city adventure

for the past few summers my mom has hosted a sleepover for my cousin's daughter mcculloch. they usually go swimming like twelve times, watch movies and go on a little adventure. she is easy to please and is always gushing about how great her sleepovers are. this year my mom decided she wanted to go big with the adventure and bring mcculloch to legoland in kansas city. so they took their sleepover on the road and we spent a few days having fun together.

along with the visit to legoland, we made art at kalidescope, swam at a water park, had hamburgers delivered by a model train, ate some questionable jelly beans, and were wowed by donald's light saber pizza cutter. it was definitely action packed, but the best part was hearing the hilarious things that mcculloch says.  so in no particular order, here are my top ten mcculloch-isms:

1. are you jealous of my comedy?

2. [as dag is licking her] this is the old school way to wash your hands

3. i feel like a real gamer now

4. that was harder than spreading cheese on a rotten cracker

5. you guys have the coolest objects [referencing the tv remote you can talk into, but needless to say she was very impressed with all of donald's toys]

6. this is like a water wonderland!

7. we're such an amazing couple [re: shelly & mcculloch]

8. oh no, papa sir knows nothing about fashion

9. having kids is a fun and hard job

10. the funnest part of today was just being a family

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a record setting reunion

we set an attendance record this summer with our largest crowd yet at the meinhardt reunion. it was great to have so many of us in the same place at the same time, and by the sheer power of our numbers we managed to claim the resort pool as our own for the afternoon. this was also the year of the rum bucket, as dave and lynn granted the requests of a few second generation cousins to bring back the rum buckets of yore. we enjoyed some special meinhardt themed treats, the mini golf tournament and a few hilarious games of headbands. i think we make a pretty great family.

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an open apology

i would like to convey my deepest and most sincere apologies to my faithful blog reader, and favorite uncle, michael harry meinhardt. at our recent family reunion i incorrectly stated that he had participated in the miniature golf tournament at the previous reunion. i was mistaken. upon further review of the photographic evidence it became clear that the golfing foursome i had remembered playing with was merely a threesome. the only explanation i can offer is that i was simply remembering things the way i wish they had been, as opposed to the way they were.

i humbly offer this public apology in hopes that he will not hold it against me and make no effort to collect the agreed upon wager of one thousand dollars. i also hope that he will one day consider reentering the sport of miniature golf and will at that time agree to play on my team.

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hanging from the rafters

our most recent family reunion was a special one for me because it was the first time donald came too.  though he had already met almost everyone it was fun to officially have him there as part of the family.

as usual we had fun talking, laughing and just being together.  typically the same stories get told year after year, but this time we put a new spin on one of those old classics.

back in the good old days, when the six original cousins were considerably younger, they spent a lot of time in grandma and grandpa meinhardt's basement.  in that basement there were some exposed beams.  legend [and video evidence] tells us that when they got a little crazy my grandpa harry and great uncle bob liked to hang from those rafters.  so imagine our delight when we discovered that our new reunion destination had an exposed beam as well. naturally our family stepped up and honored our elders in the only appropriate way...

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i heart grandparents

grandparents are great. i think it's because they have developed a reputation for spoilage. kids like that kind of thing. though two of my grandparents passed away before i was born, i still managed to acquire a good collection of them. in honor of grandparents day, these are the ones i was lucky enough to know...

grandma williams

edna williams was my dad's mom. i was only three when she passed away, so i don't have a lot of memories of her. she lived in bartlesville, oklahoma, which is where my dad grew up. for some reason what i do remember is that she always had bananas on her kitchen counter, which is a weird thing for me to remember because i don't even like bananas. also, she was quite a small lady so i got to play dress up with her clothes and costume jewelry, which i liked a lot.

grandpa harry

harry meinhardt was my mom's dad. i'm not sure if you're allowed to pick a favorite grandparent, but i'm going to anyway. i pick him. it probably didn't hurt that i was the only grandchild for a long time and i was the apple of his eye. [those are my own words, but i'm pretty sure they are true]  i remember that grandpa was very funny. he made trumpet noises with his mouth, which i found quite entertaining. on sundays my mom taught sunday school and both my parents sang in the choir, so my grandpa always picked me up from my class and every week he brought me a safety pop from shoney's. one week he brought me a shoney's teddy bear. that was an extra good week. speaking of church, the man sat in the same pew, in the same seat, every week. legend has it that when he felt like the sermon had been going on too long, he would make a big show of bringing his arm up to pointedly check his watch. his spot was down front so it was nice and noticeable. i remember his plaid christmas pants, playing at his apartment, and his extensive stash of toilet paper [a roll of which still makes the rounds at christmas from time to time]. he also had a really cool adding machine and one of those cork pencil holders shaped like a ball.

lee & pauline yardley

these two fall under the category of 'acquired' grandparents. the short version is that i adopted them when i was in college. most of my memories involve spending all afternoon at their house playing cards, my favorite was hand & foot, but we went on our share of adventures too. one time when we were out pauline shut her finger in the car door. they were both convinced that the obvious remedy was to stick her finger in gasoline, so we drove out to someones farm to get a cup of it. long story short, we ended up at the hospital where the doctor gave them a stern lecture about how sticking fingers in gasoline is not medicinal and gave me what i perceived to be a disapproving look for letting them proceed with their 'treatment'. not especially funny at the time, but it's pretty funny now. they were also avid sbu lady bearcat basketball fans [pauline played back in the day at southwest baptist college] and i always knew right where to find them in the stands during a home game. lee passed away in 2005 and pauline followed last summer. i miss getting to visit them and chat on the phone, but i managed to squeeze in almost fifteen extra grandparent years, and i'd say that's a good thing.

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someone is seventy

happy birthday mom...we love you!

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oh canada : the travelogue

last year our mother/daughter road trip took us to the east side of our neighbor to the north, so this summer we decided to explore the west. we rented a little blue fiat, piled in our luggage and headed up the sea to sky highway...

whistler : british columbia

this quaint little ski town was not only the host mountain resort of the 2010 winter olympics, it was also my favorite stop on the trip. there was quite a bit of hiking involved as we explored the capilano suspension bridge, as well as the beautiful lakes and waterfalls around the mountain. and since we needed to relax after all that fresh air and activity we indulged in an afternoon at the outdoor scandinavian baths.  

vancouver : british columbia

the first two stops in vancouver were especially fun. first was the olympic cauldron from the 2010 winter games, because i LOVE the olympics! and second was a visit to the meinhardt store, discovered a few years ago by another member of the meinhardt clan. after lunch and a stroll though the granville island public market we headed over to stanley park for the rest of the afternoon. my mom took a horse drawn carriage tour of the park while i rented a bike for a ride around the seawall.

victoria : british columbia

after squeezing onto the early ferry as the second to last car we sailed over to vancouver island, where we stopped at butchart gardens on our way down to victoria. we checked out the float houses at fisherman's wharf, took a water taxi across the harbour and visited miniature world...because i love miniature things!

seattle : washington

a little more ferry luck took us back to the good ol' usa and olympic national park where we took a drive up to see the mountains. in seattle we rode to the top of the space needle before visiting chihuly garden and glass. mr. gott introduced me to this glass blown art in college and i've loved it ever since. then we headed over to the pike place market to watch the fish throwers before having dinner at the crab pot and capping off the trip with a ride on the great wheel.

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we're cheering for the umpire

kim and i have had quite the string of house guests lately, the most recent being christy (my second cousin), tommy (my second cousin once removed) and my mom (still my mom). my house was the halfway point on our journey to visit matt (christy's brother) and watch him work. but before we headed north to cheer on our favorite umpire, we had a little fun kansas city style. since tommy is a big fan of all things lego, we hit up the new legoland at crown center. we played, built, rode and watched...my personal favorite was miniland. lots of kansas city buildings and icons made entirely of legos. it was pretty sweet. once we had partaken of the full experience we headed over to fritz's for hamburgers delivered by train.  

christy . tommy . lego conductor man . donald . shelly

saturday  morning we loaded up the car and headed to omaha for a weekend filled with america's favorite pastime. it was a fierce rivalry between the omaha storm chasers and the iowa cubs, but we were more interested in the guys in black and blue. matt worked the plate on saturday night and third base on sunday afternoon. it was by far the best umpiring i've ever seen. as an added bonus we had wonderful weather...it was cool and breezy all weekend long. (that's not true)

mom . me

mom . matt . shelly . tommy

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for the love of meinhardts

such a good looking family we are.  and we're funny too.

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happy birthday

...to my faithful 3am reader and most favorite uncle!

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the family i love

this was the year for the fourth bi-annual meinhardt clan family reunion...and it was good times. in telling other people about this reunion of ours, i've realized how special it is that we both want and are able to spend a weekend together at the lake, just because. the 'elder' generation started with six cousins [one of them being my mom] and at this point we are adding members to the family on a pretty regular basis. we are all quite different, quite the same and somewhat amazed at how much we still like each other!

lest you think we are a boring bunch, i'll have you know that though we do spend a fair amount of time just talking and laughing together, we can get pretty serious about our fun. not only did i really enjoy the splash ball fight in the pool, but i participated in the most intense marshmallow fight i've ever experienced. the little kids brought their single shooters, but my uncle would not be outdone. he brought out his rapid fire marshmallow gun and really let them have it. you can just see the intensity on his face [and all the marshmallows on the floor] even though you can't see the gun.

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the accordion on christmas

shelly trivia: i own and play an accordion, but i only play one day a year.

that day my friends, is christmas day. the most wonderful day of the year. last year i gave a glimpse into the fabulousness that is our christmas sing-a-long, and this year i'm doing the same. you may notice my playing seems to be getting worse instead of better...but i guess that's what happens when you only practice once every 365 days. my uncle mick is the dashing gentleman heading up the percussion section with his washboard and the new addition of a kazoo. my cousin heather is on the piano with the daunting job of trying make what we're doing sound like something resembling music. prepare to be impressed...

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welcome to the family

my 'cousin' matt with his new wife lindsay



christy . matt . shelly



the senior meinhardt delegation
jackie . bob . paula . donna . rich . marilyn . mick . linda

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we love the umpire

my cousin matt is an umpire for double-a baseball in the southern league. he's been working his way up the ranks for a few years and has one more level to go before he gets to the big leagues, which is pretty amazing. my mom and i were anxious to see him in action, sot we hopped in the car with christy and her three year old son tommy to head to jackson, tennessee.

the game wasn't exactly filled with thrills, but we were much more interested in the guy behind home plate, so it didn’t matter much. the second game was rained out, but matt was able to take us in the umpire clubhouse and out on the field instead, so that kinda made up for it.

matt working the plate

mom & tommy at the game [it was not raining]

mom & me on the field

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a very merry christmas sing-a-long

when i was little, we always had a crowd at our house on christmas night. after all the presents were unwrapped and the dishes were cleared it was time for the music to begin. we had stacks of song books, lots of singers, a piano, and some trumpets. it was a good time.

a few years ago we decided to start recreating this great tradition. i brushed up on my accordion skills, my cousin monte very wisely decided to marry a professional musician, and my uncle mick was put in charge of the percussion section. 

and here is my uncle and i in a piano duet...

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take me out to the ball game

i'm a little ashamed to say that until tonight, i had not yet been to the new busch stadium. i know, i know...how can i even call myself a st. louisan? but lucky for me my fabulous aunt and uncle came to the rescue this weekend with free seats in the best buy suite, courtesy of the casino queen. the cards weren't able to pull out a win, but they are still my favorite anyway.

me and uncle mick

me and my mom inside the suite

uncle mick . aunt linda . mom . me

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the meinhardt clan

i have the best family. i love my family.

i just got back from a weekend of family fun. every two years my mom's family gets together for a little vacation at the fabulous lake of the ozarks. we spend a few days eating, listening to the stories of the elder members [also known as the 'super delegates' during the family meeting] and then we eat some more. i made a few fun treats to surprise everyone with when they arrived, including these fun water bottles.

we have these old family movies we watch when we're together and some of the footage is of the six elder cousins bowling in grandpa's basement. so thanks to my cousins monte and heather, we set up a virtual bowling alley and introduced the old folks to the wonderful world of wii. i fear the still shots don't quite do the night justice, but we did manage to score some quality video of them!

and here's the whole, lovely family!

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