Matthew Rings: Midwest Friends and Family Tour

Well, it's been a few weeks since our "Friends and Family Tour 2007"... we are now recuperated, and can share the great pictures and memories of the trip in September. It was a whirlwind, and over 2500 miles of driving: but a GREAT TRIP!!!! Every night was a great reunion with loved family and dear friends. To everyone we stayed with "thank you", and know that you are cherished and prayed for often.

Love,
Matt & Toni

Guess where we are? What a beautiful downtown, and a great place to spend a sunny afternoon.

At the Gateway to the West, an engineering marvel.

Glen and his bride, Audrey... our lovely hosts in St. Louis for an evening and for a morning. Arapahoe!

The same picture of the brothers that has been taken in this same spot for 60 years...now in color. Toni's dad Jon on the right, and Uncle Robert on the left.

Hanging out at the Denison homestead, now just a memory of generations past.

Toni and her dad at the town square in Denison, Iowa. She played on that same monument as a small child.

The Shadle family: Aunt Kathy, Jon Ebner, Uncle Rick and cousins Andrea and Matt.

Cousin, Paul Shadle and his lovely family.

Cartman, the "Lion Cat"... Roar!

Hangin' out in Dakota Dunes! Oh, to have a basement again!!!!

Toni with her dad, Jon Ebner, in his beautiful backyard... where the deer come out in the morning! Thanks, Dad, for all the great food and good times!

Toni at her childhood home on Briggs Street, in Omaha. She moved here at age three, and lived there up until we started courting each other when she was nineteen. We would sit out on the porch on those Summer nights in 1986 and talk, and talk, and talk till I was almost too tired to drive home. Ah, Amore!

Matt's childhood home from High School through College in Omaha. I started dating Toni when my parent's still lived here. It was great to see it agin, and the traditional eagle my father mounted over the door is still there, just as Dad left it in the early 1990's.

Pacific Street house where I lived during Medical school with Pete Szczepanski and for a time, my brother, Seth. Look what $350 a month used to get you: a two-story home with a nice basement, garage and yard.