Saturday, May 27, 2017

Grandson's Graduation

O'Fallon, IL    Hi 75 Lo 50  for the week we were in Illinois.

Our grandson's Kyle and Kendall both had their graduation ceremonies this past week in OFallon, Illinois. Kendall graduated from eighth grade, and Kyle graduated from high school. O'Fallon is one of the few places we've seen that has a graduation ceremony for 8th grade changing districts.

We flew on Allegiant Airlines from St. Petersburg/Clearwater into Belleville, Il, which is next to Scott AFB and less than 10 miles from our family's house. We picked up our rental car, an Infinity SUV to drive for the week. I can't say either of us was impressed with the Infinity, but it was a free upgrade from the compact we signed up for, so we're not complaining.



Our other son Rick came down from Chicago with youngest grandson Jack to be with us for the weekend. Jack is a soccer player so the kids played basketball and soccer in the back yard.




Playing with several balls, one or two always go into the neighbor's yard.


Sunday was the graduation party for both boys. Angie, our daughter in law, did a great job with decorations, including a board with pictures of Kyle from his past school years. (Click on pictures to enlarge)

Kyle.


Kendall with cookie basketball court. A friend of theirs made the cookies. Kendall is a basketball player.


A few pictures of the party.




All three grand kids, Kendall, Jack and Kyle


There were 225 graduates at Kendall's ceremony on Tuesday evening. Here's Kendall getting his 8th grade graduation certificate.


Kendall, Dee, Jim


Frank, Kendall, Angie, Kyle


Kyle's high school graduation was today (Saturday), We couldn't stay through this weekend, so we watched it streamed live on the internet this morning. It's great that we could still see it.

Screen shot of Kyle getting his diploma, from the internet live feed.


The end when they throw their hats in the air.


The rest of the week we stayed busy. We had lunch with Steve, one of Jim's good friends from his working days in the Air Force.

Steve


On Thursday we went to downtown St Louis for a tour of Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals. It's a beautiful setting with the arch in the background.

View from the radio announcers' booth.


Some overall pictures of club areas and around the stadium.




These pictures show the evolution of the Cardinals' "bird on the bat" emblem.


Kyle and Kendall


Notice the seats under the Cardinal Nation sign. That grandstand is on a building in "Ball park Village" across the street, and they sell tickets to watch the game from the rooftop.













Jim in the Cardinals dugout. He was like a kid in a candy store!


Kyle, Frank, Kendall, and Jim


Statue of Stan "The Man" Musial is in front of the stadium. The greatest Cardinal of them all.


Jim got to try on a 2006 Championship ring.













Jim's favorite Cardinal is Ozzie Smith, who retired in 1996. There were several game-used bats you can handle, and Jim chose Ozzie's.




The central atrium at Ballpark Village, across the street from the stadium, where you can eat and watch the game on a huge screen.


We took a drive along the riverfront in front of the Arch. The water level of the Mississippi River is very high. These steps normally go down to the wharf where you can park. It's all under water.




They are renovating the whole area around the Arch grounds, including the museum.


Our return flight left Belleville around 6 pm. I thought I'd have a great view of the St. Louis area but it was too cloudy.

Each end of the very small Mid-America Airport terminal, which has only one gate.













The airport terminal, as we were climbing into the air.


I watched where we were from the GPS on the phone. This is over Tennessee.


Sunset just before we landed in St. Petersburg, Fl


Coming in for a landing


This concludes another trip. See you next Saturday.

No comments:

No WIFI - Painting - Yard Cleanup - Pensacola

 Shalimar, FL  (Hi 79   Lo 61)  We changed to daylight savings time on Sunday. Moving up an hour doesn't bother me as much as moving bac...