On November 23, 2019 we baptized Gabriel Christopher Delaney into the Catholic Church. We even flew in the priest that married Chuck and I from New Orleans. Father Charles Latour or Father Charlie as we like to call him, has been such a guiding light in our family. Father Charlie has married my sister and her husband, has married both of my brother-in-laws siblings, he has married us and has baptized all of our kids. He even flew in to do the emergency baptism of my nephew when he was born with CHD. He is a remarkable man and a blessing to have served over Gabriel's baptism. Surprisingly, Gabe was probably the happiest child I have ever seen be baptized. He giggled and laughed and splashed his way through the ceremony. It was such a joyous occasion.
We left Holiday World and headed straight to Chattanooga, TN with Uncle Chris and Aunt Terri. We went to the top of Lookout Mountain. We rode on both the incline railway AND the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. We went to the Civil War museum and the Tennessee Aquarium. But as you can clearly tell from the number of pictures, Ruby Falls was among the most amazing things we saw. It is an underground waterfall and it is huge and so beautiful. I will add more pictures in the weeks to come as I gather them from others.
The Summer of 2019 was full of adventures. We took 14 people to Holiday World in Santa Claus, IN this year to play in the sun. It was hot but the water helped to cool us down and I promise to find proof that I was actually on this vacation and not just Fiona.
We live so close to the St. Louis Zoo and Fiona loves the animals. She periodically even asks if we are going to see the animals on random errand days. It has been a membership well loved and enjoyed by the kids each year.
We are so blessed to have access to the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis. The time spent wandering the gardens is amazing and they put on so many amazing programs and activities during the year. We love to spend our spring and fall weekends walking the gardens and we often play in the Children's Garden all summer long.
Each year, my family visits Lake Geneva, WI. My father has a yearly conference there and as kids, my sister and I always traveled with him and my mom to enjoy the area. Now as adults, we show up as a gaggle of 12 to the hotel waterpark. My dad attends his conference meetings during the day and we all get the benefit of family time in the pool. It is a vacation that we have come to love and expect each year. The biggest issue for 2020...the conference is being held here is St. Louis and we have no excuse to travel to Lake Geneva. My dad is also retiring in 2020, so I am not sure if we will be continuing the tradition or not but time passes on and the world keeps changing. Guess it might be time for a new tradition to form.