Ryan and Carrie came to town!

Wow! What a blur of a weekend. I don't even know where to begin. Mitch's dearest friend Ryan, and his wife Carrie came to visit us this past weekend. You might recall we went to see them in October 2013 when Mitch was the best man in their wedding and Leah and Bug were precious little flower girls. They got in very, very late on Thursday night/Friday morning....hence the picture of Bug snuggling with her dad in bed. That Friday afternoon we went to the surf club so they could play and swim with the girls. And that evening we had a babysitter and the grown-ups went to dinner at the beach house ( I had the red snapper, it was amazing).

On Saturday morning we had another babysitter, and we were one the road to St. Louis by 10 am. It was a hot one in St. Louis...95 degrees with a heat advisory. The feels like temp was well into the hundreds with nasty humidity, but we braved the day anyway. We started with lunch at Bailey's Range...a gourmet burger place with 30 beers from Missouri Brewerys on tap...Awesome! After that we tried to tour the Anheuser Busch facility but it was crazy busy.

So we thought we would give the arch (Jefferson National Expansion Museum) a try. It was equally as busy. We were going to have to go up the arch at 5:20 and at the ball game by 6:15...we figured that wouldn't work. Not even that, but the museum was closed for renovations too. It was kind of a bust, but we made the most of it.

We headed to Ballpark Nation, and then over to Busch Stadium where OUR Cardinals were playing Ryan's Mets! We won 12-2, Grichuk hit two home-runs and there were lots of fireworks. My kind of night!

On Sunday we had a low key day at home. The highlight was when Ryan and Carrie gave the girls hula skirts they had bought for them in Hawaii...so cute! Later that night there were sparklers and smores around a campfire. Monday we were back on the Road to St. Louis. Ryan and Carrie were flying out early evening so we decided to spend the day at the zoo. But first we had lunch at famous Fitz's. They are known for their root beer and cream soda's. They bottle their own. After that we had 2+ hours to stroll the zoo. The baby elephants were a big hit, always are. And the girls love the penguins too. Around 5 we headed to the airport and said our good-byes. I was not prepared for what happened next. Tears...lots of tears. Kiersten and Leah sobbed because they didn't want Ryan and Carrie to leave. And when Hattie woke up, she cried too. I guess that means we will be making a trip to Utah again in the near future.