THE WESTMORELANDS: July 2009

This year Mason was invited to join Jason and Jonnie Ives on a road trip from Tucson, AZ to Beavercreek, OH. At first Bil and I weren't even sure we were ready to send him without us since he'd have to return on an airplane by himself and we really didn't think he'd be ready for that responsibility but boy were we wrong! We thought we'd mention it to him as we were still deciding how we felt about the idea, boy did he surprise us! As soon as we mentioned it, Mason was 100% committed, no questions asked. But we said you'll have to come home on the plane by yourself, he said no problem! So from that moment on, no matter what Bil and I were still thinking he was going! We are so glad he did, what a great experience and the change to spend time with the Ives family was a gift since Mason and Jonnie have not had the opportunity to

spend much time together since Jason and Kelly moved when the boys were about 2 and 3 years old, before the move, the boys spend 5 days a week together while Kelly watched Mason when I returned to work when he was an infant and then during our beginning playgroup activities.

Mason loved the road trip, hanging out with Jonnie and Jason was awesome! They traveled in what Mason calls the toy car from Arizona to Ohio, stopping many times along the way.

One of their stops was to a park in MO that Jason used to play at when he was a boy. As you can see it is really cool, it has running water through it as well as this cave like hole to explore.

Fun Facts about the St. Louis Arch from http://www.getawayarch.com/

1. The Arch is the tallest national monument in the United States at 630 feet; it is the city's best known landmark and a popular tourist attraction.

2. Construction began February 12, 1963 and the last section of the Arch was put into place on October 28, 1965.
3. The Arch is a structure known as a catenary curve, the shape a free-hanging chain takes when held at both ends, and considered the most structurally-sound arch shape. The span of the Arch legs at ground level is 630 feet, the same as its height.
4. Each year, approximately a million visitors ride the trams to the top of the Arch. The trams have been in operation for over 30 years, traveling a total of 250,000 miles and carrying over 25 million passengers.
5. The Arch weighs 17,246 tons. Nine hundred tons of stainless steel was used to build the Arch, more than any other project in history.
6. The Arch was built at a cost of $13 million. The transportation system was built at a cost of $3,500,000.
7. In order to ensure that the constructed legs would meet, the margin of error for failure was 1/64th of an inch. All survey work was done at night to eliminate distortion caused by the sun's rays. Since the Arch was constructed before the advent of computer technology, relatively crude instruments were used for these measurements.
8. The Arch sways a maximum of 18" (9" each way) in a 150 mph wind. The usual sway is 1/2".