Mae Days in Missouri

Go Springfield Cardinals!

Most of you out there are likely wondering what the title of this entry means. Mae was Brian's grandmother's name on his mom's side, and so the reunion was named in her honor. Since I took over 100 photos, I decided to post just a few here. I'll try to put an album on my Facebook site.

Meanwhile, we are now back from our week-long trip o' fun, family, sun, family and, well, more family. Sydney met five of her dad's cousins - Deanna, Deb, Denise, Diane (whom she had met a few months ago) and Donna - along with their mom, Georgiana. She met the cousins' eight children - Chloe, Cooper, McKenna, Kellen, Emerson, baby Leighton, Sierra and Maddux - (would that make them second cousins once removed?), four of the husband/significant others - Tony, Matt, Kevin and Mike - and of course, her Auntie Toni and cousin James. Whew! She also remembered and saw Uncle Dennis and cousin Anna who had visited last year.

Sydney's went to her first official baseball game - the Springfield Cardinals. She had fun dancing and eating and clapping. Once she saw Auntie Toni's popcorn, she was gone.


Sydney got to play with more kids than she bargained for. Here she is goofing around with McKenna, Kellen, and Chloe.

We all stayed at a condo called Paradise Point which overlooked Table Rock Lake, which was slightly flooded. Here's Sydney and Brian kickin' back in a paddleboat on the lake. You can see the trees on the shoreline partly under water. (We didn't venture too far.)

The condos had a nice pool in which we spent some good time cooling off. The temperatures were always in the 80's-90's and the humidity was up. It goes without saying that Sydney absolutely loves being in water, whether it's the bathtub, a pool, or the happy little water fountains you see that bloop up from the ground. Here she is bonding with Uncle Dennis and Anna. Diane (one of Sydney's favorite cousins) is in the background holding Cooper.

Sydney and Mom.

Sydney loved hanging with her newfound cousins, especially Chloe and Cooper. Here's two of them at the Butterfly Palace. Chloe was like a new big sister to Sydney. She's had lots of practice with Cooper, it seems.

The Butterfly Palace had a 3D movie about the life of a butterfly and a mantis (which ended abruptly when the mantis sliced up the butterfly and the wings floated down a stream.) It was ironically sponsored by Terminix. Anyway, here's our group in the first two rows.

We went to a cute little theme park called Silver Dollar City (which was dubbed Steal-yer-Dollar City after we got out of there...) Here's Sydney in a nice moment with Emerson, one of the four two-year-olds at the reunion. They had a love-hate relationship due to the sharing issue. Emerson was also feeling a bit under the weather and also very protective of her things due to an older brother and sister. And Sydney is working on sharing and taking turns but NOT grabbing. (I think I said "No grab" and "Share" about 500 times a day when they were together.)

Sydney spent much of her time at the water bloop area.


Another little outing we did was to the local fish hatchery where we got to feed lots of trout. Here's Cooper and Sydney looking cool in their shades, ready to feed more fish.


Sydney's cousin James likes playing his Nintendo DS, which Sydney was very interested in. She had fun tickling him and being chased around the condo.


Here's the stoic Pederson family portrait.


A trip to Missouri wouldn't be complete without a stop at Bass Pro Shop, the most enormous, overwhelming outdoorsmen-related store you have ever seen. Sydney wanted to pet the bear.


After two flights home and only a 20-minute nap, this is Sydney shortly after we got home.