Missouri Trip 2016

Happy Fourth of July everyone, a little early! We have another busy weekend ahead, so I probably won't be blogging much until next week. Last weekend we took a little trip down to Missouri to see Trent's family, then had a Dave Matthews concert on Tuesday (more on that in a future post!), so it's been an eventful week!

It had been a while since we visited the Missouri family, but Trent's aunt Nancy's 60th surprise birthday party on Saturday was reason to visit again. We were even able to take Saleen along, on our first mini overnight vacation with her! Her allergies have been bad again this summer, but she got through it and seemed to enjoy the fresh air, and even the long car rides.

We went down Saturday morning, then had the surprise party in the afternoon. The party was in the small town of Laclede, Missouri. Trent's aunt was so surprised and happy to see everyone there, and we all had a really nice lunch and got to catch up with the family we don't get to see very often. 

After the party, Trent and I walked Saleen down to the General Pershing house and statue. We didn't know much about who this guy was, but the statue was pretty cool!

There was a nice war memorial wall around it, and when you get closer, you can read a little about who Pershing was. I'm pretty sure this might be the highlight of the whole town of Laclede!

Saturday night we checked into our hotel in Brookfield, watched TV in the room for a while, then went out for dinner at The Brickhouse Bar and Grill. It was a really nice restaurant for a small town, with a bar area on one side and a dining room area on the other. 

The food was awesome, too! I got the fettucini alfredo, and had so much leftover. The portion size was crazy, and you get fresh bread with the best cinnamon butter. We thought it was a pretty cool little place that we hopefully will get to come back to next time we're down there.

Sunday, before we headed back home, we stopped at the cemetery in Marceline where Trent's grandparents and great-grandparents are buried to leave flowers.

Saleen got to see them, too. She was just a puppy when Trent brought her down to Missouri the first time! That was about 12 years ago now.

We left flowers on the gravestones of Trent's grandma and grandpa Wilma and Elmer, and his great-grandma and grandpa Wesley and Bernice.

On the way home, it looked like it was going to rain, but we had a little window before we ran into the storm to stop at the Thomas Hill Reservoir and take a little walk by the lake.

It was a pretty area, and Saleen got her exercise for the day while we explored a little on our walk.

It looked like it would be a nice calm lake to go boating or kayaking on...maybe in the future!

The trail was kind of on a hill and was a little steep in some places, so we didn't go too far, but it was kind of woodsy and cool looking!

Of course we ended the walk with a little photo op. Just look at that storm brewing in the sky! Such a cool backdrop for a photo, we couldn't resist.

It was a fun little trip - always is when we get to explore in Missouri! Happy Fourth everyone! 

Burlington Day Trip

A couple of weeks ago, before our Columbus, Ohio trip, we made a little day trip down to the Burlington, Iowa area. Our reason for the trip was the Kayak demo day at Gladstone Lake. Gladstone is a little town on the Illinois side, just across the river from Burlington. Every year, there's a boat shop there that does a "You can paddle" day, where you can try out different kayaks and canoes and find the best one for you. We were excited to try out different kayaks, and it was a great opportunity to find our next boats.

We got kayaks last year around Trent's birthday, but ended up selling them in favor of more stable ones. Instead of jumping into getting them this time, we've been looking around and researching different models, and this time we were set on trying them first before buying.

I tried out a few different kayaks, and ended up finding the perfect one! As soon as I sat it in, I knew it was the perfect fit for me. It's the Perception Conduit 9.5. I loved this one, and am pretty sure it will be my next kayak!

I didn't buy it that day, but we've looked around a little since, and it looks like I'm probably going to have to special order it. It's not sold in a lot of stores around here, but I think I can just order it at the store, and they'll get it in for me. Trent didn't find his perfect one yet, but we're still looking. I'm hoping we can both find our new kayaks this summer. Then we can do a little boating before the summer is over.

While we were in the Burlington area, we made a few stops before heading back home. We stopped at Snake Alley in Burlington. It's a very crooked street that was built as a shortcut to get downtown several years ago!

This place brought back a few memories. We visited Snake Alley back on one of the first trips Trent and I took together, when we were first dating. That was 8 years ago! I had to do a side-by-side. :)

It's a pretty cool place, and such a unique, wind-y road to drive down if you are ever in the area!

Burlington is a river city, and there are some great sights to see in the area. The bridge is also pretty cool-looking. We stopped down by the river to take in the view.

On the drive back, we ended our trip by stopping at the Warren County Memorial Park in Monmouth, Illinois, to visit a couple of gravesites of Trent's family.

Trent's grandma on his dad's side is buried here, along with her parents. Since we've started looking further into our ancestry, we've learned more about our relatives and their stories. Even though Trent's grandma died when he was only 4 and he didn't really know her, it's nice that we're still able to visit her grave and the graves of his other family members. Trent even remembers visiting this place with his dad when he was a kid and putting flowers on their graves.

We decorated their grave markers with pink flowers. Trent's grandma was Norma June Keever. Her parents were Elva and Geraldine Coleman.

It was a perfect spring day, and a nice ending to a fun day trip.

A day full of kayaks, rivers, and making new memories! :)

What I've Learned So Far about My Ancestry...

So remember when I shared the results of our Ancestry DNA tests last month? Well, since we've gotten them back I've been doing a little research on the Ancestry website.

I've found out a few interesting things I didn't know before. I also talked to my grandma (on my dad's side), and she gave me a couple of huge binders full of information about my relatives! These things are detailed. Not sure who put all of this together, but they've spent a lot more time than me!

I discovered that, yes, I actually do have some English heritage! The Tylers on my dad's side came from England. Apparently I'm related to the 10th President of the United States, President Tyler. Although, I haven't gotten that far in my research yet to actually trace it back that far!

Yep, I'm related to this dude.

Researching a little on Trent's side, I found out that Trent also has some ancestors from England. They first settled in Canada, then came down to the United States.

Little by little I'm finding clues. The Ancestry website gives you hints in the form of "leaf" icons for each person, and these might be documents like city directories, marriage certificates, or death records. It takes a while to compile the facts, though! I'm trying to work one family lineage at a time. Of course the Tyler side of my family came form England, but I've traced the Mier, Scheuermann, and Hartmann sides to Germany. I know I have some Ireland in there, too, but I'm still putting things together.

German, Irish, now British..what else?

So needless to say, I don't think this will be just a month-long project. It might take a little time to trace my family back to every country it originated from!

Our Ancestry DNA Results

For Valentine's Day this year, I bought Ancestry DNA kits for my husband Trent and I. We had heard about them before, and it seems like they're becoming more popular these days. It's an at-home DNA kit that you can order online, they ship it to you, and you send a saliva sample back. In 4-6 weeks, you receive your results, which give you clues about your heritage.

Trent has always wondered where his ancestors came from, since his dad's side is a little foggy in places. So I thought this would be a cool gift to give him - maybe it would help lead to some answers about where his ancestors were from.

We waited what seemed like forever for our results, but we sent them in at the end of February, and got them back on Easter Sunday, so it only took a total of about 4 weeks to get the results.

I've been told for a long time that my heritage is pretty much all European, most being Irish and German. I'm not entirely sure how the DNA test results are found or how it works, but I was a little surprised when I got my results. They were not really what I had expected to see - and neither were Trent's.

Here is my pie chart that shows what my DNA matches with:

I was quite surprised, to say the least, at how much it matched with Great Britain! Does this mean when I thought I had mostly Irish and German heritage this entire time, I was actually mostly of British descent? What I thought would give me answers, just left me a little more confused. 

Looking at the map that tells me the countries I matched closest with, I saw that Germany was entirely covered, which makes sense, but Ireland is not even on the spectrum. 

I matched 99% with Europe as a whole, but Great Britain was the strongest range of all of the countries listed. 

"Europe West" was my second strongest match behind Great Britain. This covers countries like France, Germany, The Netherlands, and Switzerland. Below that it listed all of the "Trace Regions" I matched with. Ireland only took 3%!

Getting these answers made me want to research more into my family history and where my ancestors originated. I subscribed to Ancestry.com this month to start building my family tree and maybe fill in some more blanks!  So in my spare time, I've been delving into genealogy a little bit. It's actually pretty interesting, but not easy. There are way too many records out there to search through! It could take a lifetime just to find all of the answers.

Trent's DNA test was also surprising, as even though he knew his mom's side was Welsh / European, he had always thought he had some strong Native American heritage on his Dad's side.

Getting his test back, we realized he was a lot more European than he thought, especially when it comes to identifying 20% with Ireland. I thought maybe our tests got switched! Could Trent be more Irish than me? It was so strange! And he came up as 0% Native American, but small percentages (less than 1%) African and Asian! (??!)

So I guess you never know what you will find when you take these. What would be interesting to see is how our relatives match with us. That could help fill some blanks, too. 

Anyone else ever taken one of these tests? How did they match up with your expectations?