Birthday at the Gateway

My cousin Jeneca and her husband Kyle were living in Arkansas for the summer, and invited Isaac and I to spend the Fourth of July weekend with them in St. Louis Missouri. It was the perfect chance for one last fling in the Midwest before we moved and the perfect way to spend my birthday weekend. Here are some of the highlights of our trip:

• A session at the St. Louis temple. We weren't able to make it to Jeneca's and Kyle's Wedding in Utah so it was nice to spend time with them in the Lord's house and a good way to start off the weekend.

• Eating the best barbecue EVER at Pappy's. It was this tiny hole in the wall place that Jeneca and Kyle had seen on Man vs. Food. There was an hour long line out the door just to get into the building, but we beat the heat and made it to the front of the line and it was so worth it. Pulled pork, ribs, fried corn on the cob, sweet potato fries, and baked beans. Oh man, I am drooling just thinking about it.

• Sweating, (again), while waiting in another line to get into the arch museum.

• Watching an airshow on the steps outside the arch. This may or may not have been Isaac's favorite part. Bonus points if you can name every airplane pictured here.

• Making it out alive of a really sketchy part of town we drove through on accident when our GPS took us a strange route.
• Cheering the Grizzlies (baseball team) on to a win against Washington and then oohing and aahing over the firework show at the end.

• Going to the zoo and getting completely SOAKED from the rainstorm. We weren't prepared at all for the rain, but we weren't going to let us deter us from going visiting every single exhibit. There weren't very many animals out due to the rain, but we laughed a lot and had a good time. (I thought that the owl in this picture reminded me of "pig", the Weasley's Owl in Harry Potter)

• Eating microwaved lasagna in the hotel room after the zoo that tasted surprisingly delicious.
• We said our goodbye's Monday morning and parted ways to go back home. Before we left St. Louis though, Isaac took me out to eat at this super cute cafe called the Mud House for my birthday breakfast. I had banana pecan french toast and hot chocolate. The cafe was on antique street which made it even better as we got to walk around through some of the cute antique shops.

• Stopping in Amish country on our drive home. We bought some baked treats and cheese curd at the store to snack on during the drive. It was a very enlightening experience and we decided that on the whole they seem like a very friendly people with good moral values It did feel like we had stepped back in time though, it was a little surreal.

We capped our weekend adventure off by going to the firework show in Mahomet once we got back home. They shoot the fireworks off over the lake making it extra beautiful. Patriotic music blaring, fireworks booming, fireflies buzzing, and Isaac's arms wrapped around me as we laid on the grass taking it all in was the perfect ending to an amazing birthday weekend. Happy Independence Day everyone.