Hi, Again, St. Louis :)

ah, the arch....

Joe's manager from Atlanta is still in town helping out at the St. Louis store. The two of them were up and out early to slay another day's worth of work. I stayed back in efforts to clean the house up and get some chores done. I timed it right; they rolled back in just as I was finishing up. After showers and a rescue call to Kallie & Sandy to come and watch Sydni for the evening [thankyouxmillions, girls!!!], we were off to St. Louis.

the dubliner

Since Josh hadn't ever been to St. Louis, our first stop, naturally, was the arch. We parked up by Laclede's Landing and spent the next few hours just roaming our way around downtown: Past the packed stadium [Josh thankfully left his Braves shirt for another day ;), haha], all the way up 8th, and halfway down Washington until we found ourselves at The Dubliner.

hangin' out downtown
the arch | the city | the stadium

josh & joe outside the dubliner

We laughed our way through dinner and spent some time getting to know Josh a little better before we picked our way through the sidewalk crowds for two blocks to the Gelateria. Until tonight, Josh had never tasted gelato, so we were all in for a treat :).

mmm.. gelato!

Once we had some tasty gelato on our tongues, we meandered up to the City Museum, if nothing else than to just show Josh the lobby and the outdoor mazes that comprise just a portion of what that crazy place has to offer. Next time you're here, Josh, we'll take you for a visit.

strange little statue..

The walk back to the car was much quicker than the walk up from the garage; of course we realized once we'd made it all the way back through our self-devised labyrinth trail that Washington was a straight shot. Hah. Oh well.

Joe dropped into a snooze on the way back, leaving Josh and I to discuss the undeniable levels of talent of musical artists [Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas.... Reba? haha..] and face the standstill traffic mess that was 64, down to one lane. As psychotic as that was, we finally made it back. I got the sitters back home and now I'm calling it for now..

Mother's Day is just around the clock ;)
[sorry 'bout the minor backdating.. hah]

xo | cmd 

And Now, For the Tour [& Christmas Part II!]

fiona's | eds.ville

We realized this morning as we were getting moving for the day that we have done this sort of standardized tour for all of our visitors. Seriously. We thought back to Eric, who was the first to come and visit our new house, then JB, Lynn, Tim, Heidi, Paul, Jonathan, my parents, and now Joe's mom & aunt. We also realized that after this visit, unless KP & Sam make their way out in the near future, we should be just about done with our quick version of the IL-MO tour.

In honor of our last tour, we thought we'd spice it up a bit. First, we took them on base to show them where Joe works. We even made a pitstop by the Babots for a quick second, and they were able to see what base housing looks like. From there, we took a turn off the beaten path and  headed up to Edwardsville for a brunch at Fiona's. Now, keep in mind that up until today, I've only heard rumors of the superior quality of this little dive. Meagan and Rob frequent this place seemingly every other time he's here for her lunch hour, and Nancy speaks highly of it as well. So, we thought we'd give it a whirl. We were NOT disappointed. It was quite scrumptious, and at the very end, we ran into Nancy and Karen, who'd been there entire time we had, neither of us noticing the other party. Funny things. 

sandy. syd. joe | shadow of the arch from atop the arch :)

From there, we trekked into Saint Louis, being very mindful to avoid Soulard [mardi gras]. We found ourselves at the arch, and, at the request of our visitors, journeying up into the arch. We'd done that once before, the first time when Eric visited us. It's a nice chance to catch an aerial view of the city, and I suppose it's a must-do for any tourist not planning a trip back anytime soon. 

syd gazing out over st. louis

By the time we'd finished at the arch, we headed back home, ordered pizza, and got down to opening Christmas presents.

Wait.. what? 

merry [part II] Christmas!



Yeah, that's right. We weren't able to make it back to Ohio as originally planned over the Christmas holiday, so we had a very late Christmas here at our house tonight with just the four of us and Sydni. She made out like a bandit, and of course we all got exactly what we'd asked for during the pick-a-name drawing we do each year with his family.

It's been a great day. I hate that it was so short, but we are blessed to have our family.

xo | cmd

Cicada Picnic | St. Louis

What a day! 

reading with sydni & tessa

We started off by swinging by the Sandven residence. They were having a picnic to celebrate the graduation of Joe's weather class. We couldn't stay long since we were headed to St. Louis, but it was nice to see them all and of course drop off our cornhole set for them to use for the day. Plus, Sydni got to see her daycare buddy Tessa, which is always fun; Tessa's adorable.

Our first order of business was eating, which we had planned to do on the greens at the arch in St. Louis. During the base tour we gave my parents, we ultimately ended up picnicing in a more secluded, peaceful manner at the lake on base.



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cicada shell

Today couldn't have been any better for a picnic, in terms of the weather. The only downside to picnicing out by the lake was that we were confronted by cicada shells just about every direction we turned. It wasn't a big deal for us; they are after all just shells, but Sydni didn't quite understand that she wasn't allowed to touch all of them, so that lent to more than just a few applications of hand sanitizer by Nana. We don't mind bugs :)

Off then it was to the arch!     

the arch | st. louis

We tried to coerce Mom to go up into the arch, but jokingly, because she's both claustrophobic and afraid of heights. It would've been a sight to see though, I'm sure. No big deal; we were all completely content to view it from ground level, and we took a tour of the museum beneath. With such limited time for a visit, we opted not to drag them all over the city in one trip. We'll come back :) 

stylish travels!

Tomorrow I join the praise band on stage and my parents will see our new church home!

xo | cmd

Clydesdales, Grant Farms, & Gateway Arch

Hello, busy day!

We got a bit of a later start than planned, so we skipped making breakfast here and instead made a pitstop at Bob Evan’s [healthy, yeah, I know]. We drove across the river from IL into MO and traversed through some quiet suburbs until we hit Grant Farm, which is a large component of the Anheuser-Busch operation. The world-famous A-B Clydesdales are housed there, along with a menagerie of other gorgeous wildlife.



grant's farm & budweiser clydesdales
eric & joe with a budweiser wagon | cori in the carriage house

Sydni got a full run of exploring as we strolled through the Grant Farm and saw all the animals: Clydesdales, bison & buffalo, goats & kangaroos, peacocks & bald eagles, lemurs, elephants, and a slew of other zoo-like creatures.

st. louis gateway arch

Once we’d checked off Grant Farm, we hopped over to the Gateway Arch, the iconic landmark welcoming all to St. Louis. I’ve only ever driven through the city itself, so this was a new adventure for me. Joe, Eric, Sydni & I got our tickets to the Jefferson Memorial Museum and the North Tram. The North Tram is the term referring to an elevator of sorts. I say of sorts, because this sucker was t-i-n-y. There were 5 seats mounted in each of these little bubbles, and that was literally all the space available. Each little bubble took roughly 4 minutes to get from the ground to the top of the 630-ft arch overlooking Missouri, Illinois, and bits of Kansas in clear weather. It was an interesting experience with a fascinating view from the top.



630 ft high overlooking st. louis & surrounding area

Our last stop after the arch was an impromptu dinner at Caleco’s, a classy little spot we found just walking through some of downtown. The conversation piece there was an exquisite saltwater fish tank complete with baby starfish and a puffer J [because I love some cute puffer fish].

baby star fish | puffer ♥

With our bellies full, we headed back home and rounded out the evening with a stroll around our townhouse community, until we found a grass patch behind it that led straight into Towerview’s parking lot. I told you our church was closeby!

*Yawn. It’s movie time, now, so until tomorrow!

xo | cmd