Meet Me in St. Louis

Last weekend I went to St. Louis for a Shields family reunion and to celebrate Grandma's 90th birthday. Due to having just a personal item on the flight, I didn't have room for my camera, so all of these pictures are from Heather and Nathan.

Photo credit: Heather

I flew out of Eugene and Mom and Heather flew out of Fresno, but we all happened to be on the same flight from San Francisco to St. Louis.

Photo credit: Nathan

Friday night we kicked things off by getting to meet Laura's partner, Al, and having dinner at his family's restaurant. It was delicious. We filled up about half the room.

Photo credit: Heather

Photo credit: Heather

 Mom, Heather, and I stayed at Uncle Dave's house in their basement suite. Heather and I shared this huge bed. It was just a normal king size, but we're both used to sleeping in a queen.

Photo credit: Nathan

Saturday we hung out at Dave and Brenda's and the rest of the family gradually arrived to visit and help make Thanksgiving dinner. It was a great way to get to spend time together. I felt like I had a good chance to talk to almost everyone and it was particularly fun to meet Al, Laura's partner, and Anna, Micah's partner.

Photo credit: Heather

Among other things, Laura and I helped make salad.

Photo credit: Nathan

The kitchen was crowded, but we had fun working together.

Photo credit: Heather

Photo credit: Nathan

We all managed to sit down and eat together, and what a delicious meal. After dinner, Aunt Alma read some of the memories that people had contributed to a memory book for Grandma's birthday.

Photo credit: Nathan

Photo credit: Nathan

We had cake and pie for dessert and Grandma impressed us all by blowing out a large portion of her 90 candles with the first blow.

Photo credit: Nathan

The group.

Photo credit: Nathan

Mom with her siblings.

Photo Credit: Heather

Sunday morning we had brunch, catered by Laura's friend, Loren, along with a few additions.

Photo credit: Heather

Photo credit: Nathan

The kitchen was full of people and food again.

Photo credit: Nathan

Photo credit: Heather

Photo credit: Heather

And what food it was! Heather's plate is a little less crowded than mine was, but it was all delicious and the presentation was beautiful. After the brunch, we relaxed and visited some more and people started leaving to catch flights.

Photo credit: Heather

Our flight was in the late afternoon, so we arrived in San Francisco in the dark and got to see the city lights. Unfortunately, my flight back to Eugene was delayed and then we hit a bunch of turbulence as we descended because it was raining pretty hard. I'm guessing it was normal for the pilots, but it was by far the most turbulence I've ever experienced and was pretty wild. Needless to say, I was glad to be home again. But it was a good trip and fun weekend and I was glad I got to go see the family and celebrate with everyone.