By Steve Hill

Every now and then children need a little refinement, and that’s when we take them to a place like the Missouri Botanical Garden, set them free and let them try to find a replacement set of parents.

The kids didn’t find any new folks on our recent trip to St. Louis, but they did to see some wonderfully inspiring art, a great deal of beautiful plant life, and some old friends in an outdoor setting that was perfect for a relaxed, slow-paced reunion.

Our friends Tere and Jorge had agreed to meet us in St. Louis with their sons Alejandro and Victor, who were both born around the time of our kids. Alejandro had been Sam’s best friend in Kansas when we lived there before moving to Wisconsin a decade ago, and Victor came along about the time we had Lorena in Wisconsin.

We thought the garden would be the perfect spot to while away our last day together after having spent the previous one at the St. Louis Zoo in Forest Park, which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.

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