Baby Jax

Our trip to Missouri was only a little eventful - apparently they don't always "top off" the tank before leaving Seattle (Gerry thought maybe they didn't want to fill up at the neighborhood station and were hoping to fill up at the cheaper "Costco-like" station in Denver). As we approached the Denver airport our pilot explained that while Denver had been foggy with limited visibility it had already cleared and they were trying to get all the stacked planes down so we might have to circle a couple of times before we could land but it shouldn't take too long. Then we arrived somewhere above the airport, circled maybe once and then the pilot came on saying that well folks we'd give it another 5 minutes and then we would have to head off to another airport to take on some fuel. FIVE MINUTES??? That's all the spare fuel we had??? Fortunately the ploy worked on the tower folk as well (well Gerry's pretty sure that's the tactic the pilot used) and we were down on the ground in less than 5 minutes!

But of course the highlight of visit has been seeing (Jenny, Travis and) JAX! He is such a mellow not-so-little guy (12 lbs. as of yesterday) and just mastering "the smile." We seem to spend a lot of our time (and all of his awake time) trying to coax a smile. When we are successful it is really worth the effort!

Today and tomorrow we are staying at World Mark's Lake of the Ozarks resort. Since this is the Labor Day Weekend holiday we were only able to get a room for two nights (Thursday and Friday) and we had to "settle" for the 4-bedroom penthouse suite. OH MAN!! We have a beautiful lakeview 2-story suite. There are 2 large bedrooms (each with a king-size bed), a dining room, living room, 1 smaller bedroom with 2 twin beds, and kitchen...upstairs. Then downstairs there is an enormous living room with a large screen tv that Gerry thinks is actually bigger than ours at home, another bedroom with a king-size bed and a large "game" table. Both levels have a deck - the upstairs one has our own private jacuzzi! Definitely pretty deluxe accomodations...and each of the adults can have their own bedroom! :)

Today we are going to hit the links for a little putt-putt golf and then if it warms up (or maybe not - those guys will most likely not care if the water is a bit chilly) Gerry & Travis will head to the lake to go jetskiing and Jenny & I will take the little guy to the outlet stores and try to get our holiday shopping started.

later, tw