James and I take a trip

James and I went on a trip. On Friday we flew out of Spokane (James' 1st time on an airplane), and met up with my parents and my sister Talitha in Denver. They we all flew together to St Louis. We rented a car, which was a huge fiasco. They tried to put all of us in the smallest car, even though we rented a medium car. From there we drove about 100 miles to Rolla, Mo.







On the way we stopped at Meramec Cavern, an incredible cave, it was huge! Here is a link to their web sight, if you want to know more http://www.americascave.com/. They next evening my dad received his PHD from Missouri S&T. It was neat to share that special experience with him. My Grandma and Grandpa Swift , and Uncle Mark, Aunt Angela and my cousin Kristen came too.
On Saturday we drove about 360 miles to my brother Joshua and his families house in Stillwater, Ok. they are living there while he is getting his PhD in Psycology. En route we stopped in a couple of small cities in Missouri. The first was Cabool, Mo. where my Great Great Grandparents on my dad's side were buried. We made some gravestone rubbings, it was a neat experience.
The second place was Mountain Home, Mo. This is where my Grandpa spent most of his years growing up. We went to his old home and also to a memorial park. It had big slabs of stone with the names of the graduates from each year. My grandpa had moved his Junior year so his name wasn't there, but is was neat for him to see the names of all his buddies on the stones.







Then on to Tulsa, Ok where we stopped and my Uncle Mark and Aunt Angela's. They are building a beautiful new home, which we toured. I hope I get to see it when it's done. Then finally we made it to Stillwater. It was wonderful to see Joshua's family. They have a new baby Ethan, who was only a week old. Ooh, so tiny!. The weather was warm, something we hadn't had in Spokane in a while. We went for walks, toured the college, played games, went to church, and went out to eat at Eskimo Joes. It is a famous place in Stillwater. They have a gift shop where they sell the 2nd most souvenir shirts after the Hard Rock cafe. It was nice to see everyone and their homes. On Tuesday we were on our way home again.