Birthday Trip to St. Louis

Well, we just spent this last weekend in STL for a quick, one night stay to celebrate my birthday. It was AWESOME! Totally had the time of my life! We asked some friends of ours, from church, to go to with us. I don't know if they came along out of guilt or pity, but I'm sure glad they were able to make it. I knew it might be a little of a challenge since both of us have kiddos at home, but we (and them) are blessed with great parents who sacrifice their weekend so we could get away for a little bit of a break. We left Saturday morning, and were on our way. Its so nice to go away with a couple you have a lot in common with. The drive didn't seem that long and we had a great time. We got in town just in time for lunch. We tried a new restaurant that none of us had ever been to before, but Ryan heard its was a great burger place called, Five Guys. IT. WAS. AWESOME. I would highly recommend them, if you ever come across one of them. Next, we were off to do a little bit of shopping. This weekend was filled with a lot of "firsts" for me and Ryan. We went to new stores, ate a new restaurant we had never been to for EVERY meal and we got to see parts of STL that I had never seen in my 3 years of going to school up there. We went to a store called Whole Foods. It was a really cool grocery store that had lots of fresh meats, fish and produce. We really enjoyed looking around in there. We came across their bakery and found these...

They were so good. The little shells were filled with custard, topped with fresh fruit and a glaze. It was a nice little treat.

We were very excited about these, if you can't tell. Next we were off to our hotel. We had gotten a good deal through Priceline and were able to stay within a mile of the Chesterfield Mall. That evening we had decided to do some shopping, go to a movie and eat a nice restaurant. Everything worked out perfectly! There was a 2 hour wait for the Cheesecake Factory, which was SO worth it! So while we waited, we shopped! It was nice to go in and out of stores without have kids screaming (well our kids anyway) and not have to worry about nap times, snacks, diaper bags and strollers. By the time we had done our shopping we were ready to eat. It was SO good! Can't wait to go there again!

All of us at dinner.

After dinner we made it upstairs to catch a movie. We had such a fun day. We were so tired by midnight, when we got to our hotel rooms, but we knew we could sleep in in the morning.

On Sunday we checked out of the hotel and headed to the Science Center. It was a lot of fun to look around at what they had, I hadn't been there since I was a kid.

Here's a picture of Ryan building the Arch.

I had to give him a hand on the other side.

Here's the finished product. We were so proud

of ourselves. Forget the fact that school aged

children were doing the same thing.

Matt and Mandy worked on their own

tower. We were so proud of them!

Their finished product. They seemed

angry at the results but me and Ryan

were proud! :)

After the Science Center, it was on to lunch. We were going to this little area in STL known for their Italian food, known as the Hill. We were right around the corner from there, so we thought we would give it a try. Well, wouldn't you know it, they were closed! I did, however, get to take a picture of this restaurant on the Hill. We didn't eat there, but liked the name.

We ended up going to P.F. Changs for lunch, and they were so good. We had never been there either. After a little more shopping at Crate and Barrel, we headed home. Even though it was a short trip, we had a blast. Mandy kept asking us what our favorite part of the day or the trip was and I would say, that they opened our eyes to new places to shop and eat. I loved the fact that we tried all new things this weekend. I'm very much a creature of habit and not big on branching out and trying new things, but maybe I'll start trying that in my next 30 years.

Thank you Ryan, Matt and Mandy for an awesome 30th birthday trip. Its something I will remember always!