Hannibal, Shelbina, and Cuf's disease

Last Saturday we took off to the great town of Shelbina, MO, for a Cuf's disease fundraiser. Basically, you go north to Hannibal and take a left. I had not been in this part of Missouri (I haven't been in many parts of Missouri!), so we decided we'd stop in Hannibal for a short visit. Hannibal is the hometown of Mark Twain, of course, who is very popular in these parts. It is a quaint little town with antique shops and lots of Mark Twain '"stuff". We did a quick tour around town and I grabbed some great touristy photos!

Here's Mark Twain the steamboat captain. The name "Mark Twain" comes from the the sounding of 12 feet deep water, which was safe for navigation.

Here's the mighty Mississippi...it is so wide and so slowly flowing that it looks like a lake.
The entrance to the Mark Twain steamboat tour rides.

Lots of beautiful historic buildings in downtown Hannibal.

The Mark Twain Museum.

Supposedly, this is the actual fence that Tom Sawyer convinced his friends to whitewash for him.
And here is the historic building of Shelbina, Missouri, population 2500.

We were invited to the Cuf's disease fundraiser hosted by the Fry family of Shelbina. Cuf's disease is a form of late onset Batten disease, which hits someone in the prime of life and has the typical devastation of all the other lysosomal storage disorders. Tracy Bryant, the organizer, has lost her brother, sister, mother and aunt to this disorder. Tracy has several nieces and nephews who are not yet to the age of onset. This was the third year of the fundraiser, and it involved a "poker run" for Harley riders, a silent auction, a BBQ dinner, and just a lot of fun and friendship. We met most of the family tree of the Fry family, and ended up staying for the evening at the one and only bar in Shelbina, Billadeb's (all tabs must be paid on Friday!). Can't wait till next year!

South Carolina Visit

Desperately needing an Emery fix, I tried to book a cheap flight to Greenville for a visit. I quickly found out that there is no such thing anymore! However, the cheapest flight was to Atlanta on September 11th, and I booked it, flying back home on Sunday. My mom decided that she would come up and bring Anna for the weekend as well, so she volunteered to pick me up at the airport. Flying out on September 11th was odd, the airports on both ends were almost completely empty! I suppose a lot of people are superstitious, but it didn't bother me at all. We made a late arrival in Greenville and quickly hit the sack. Saturday we simply hung out and talked and played with Emery the entire day, although we did go out for a wonderful dinner at Bone Fish Grill. After Emery went to bed, we played cards and watched the Bulldogs game online (meaning that we watched the updated score on the MSN website!). Sunday morning we went to the Falls Park, my obligatory place to visit while I am there. We had hoped to get pictures of Emery in the beautiful landscapes, but they didn't have many things blooming at the time, and Emery was about ready for a nap! She humored us for some photos, but we decided to bail out pretty quickly before she got fussy. I tended to focus more on playing with Emery and spent less time taking pictures, so I didn't get many great ones. I also had a setting wrong on my camera which messed up some of the other pictures. I'm still learning!

Emery is definitely growing and changing and learning more and more every day! She's babbling, laughing, sitting, and just about ready to crawl. She's completely fascinated with her Hailey, and her eyes follow Hailey around the room every chance she gets. She's sleeping less during the day, but still sleeps for long stretches at night, and is just absolutely flourishing! She's a very happy baby who only fusses when she's hungry or tired, and Sara has gotten to be the expert on which one is which. Things are going well in the Glenn household!

On the picture front, here's the best of the best from the weekend....

Ryan, Sara and Emery on the Falls Park suspension bridge.

Anna on her first visit to the Falls Park.
Anna and Toby on a smaller bridge.

All the girls together!

There wasn't much blooming at the park, but this hydrangea was blooming it's little heart out! On one of the pedestrian swings.
Emery and her Boppy! We have finally settled on the names Boppy for me, and Poppy for Mark...just in time for her to learn them!

An indoor photo of the girls... All the rest of the pictures are the many faces of Emery!

Here she is being gansta' and cheerin' for her Dawgs!

Emery does not like many foods beyond rice cereal. Here she is trying bananas. It misses the sound effect, which was her hissing and growling!! Hilarious!