The first day of Brandon's National Guard annual training fell on our first anniversary. Apparently, the United States Army doesn't care so much about our anniversary.
So we had to settle for a trip to St. Louis the weekend before our anniversary. We still had a great time!
The first night we were there, we visited the St. Louis temple and tried some local foods - toasted ravioli and St. Louis style pizza. I liked the ravioli. The pizza was ok. I wasn't so into the cheese (provel, I think it's called), but Brandon liked it.
I hadn't been back to the St. Louis temple since I went to the open house as a kid. We stopped by to see it as we drove through the summer before, but this was the first time going for both of us. The workers were so helpful and kind (as always), and we really enjoyed our time there. I love being in the temple with Brandon.
The next day, we visited the arch. They were doing construction so we weren't able to get too close, but Brandon managed to get this upward-facing selfie without giving us double-chins. Quite a talent.
The Great Mississippi!
We walked around a bit and explored the beautiful old courthouse.
We checked out some famous St. Louis barbecue at popular Pappy's Smokehouse. Brandon loved it. Me, meh. I'm not super into barbecue, so I'm not sure I'll ever be too impressed, but those sweet potato fries were everything. We had to wait in line for a long time, but it's a cool place and there were tons of celebrity autographs on the walls to keep us entertained.
A pretty big rainstorm came through, but afterwards we visited Grant's Farm, a zoo-type park owned by Anhueser-Busch. Because of the rain, most people had cleared out so we were able to move around freely and see all the animals there. The admission is free, but you have to pay for parking. But we found money on the ground when we got inside, so it counterbalanced that!
This is the location where they train the Budweiser Clydesdales, too, so we were able to check them out close up. Most of them were very young so they weren't full-grown, but still quite impressive in size!
To finish out the night, we went to the hotel restaurant to try out another local dish - gooey butter cake. Loved it! It had the consistency of a lemon bar, but the flavor of custard. The berries on top made it delicious. The hotel we stayed at also had fresh, warm cookies at the front desk that were AMAZING. That's probably my favorite food memory from this trip.
Not a bad view from our hotel room!
Sunday morning, we attended the Pagedale branch - the same branch we went to the summer before when passing through. It's the cutest, tiniest little building with a wide variety of people. We really enjoyed visiting the year before, and loved our time this year, too. And some of the people even remembered us!
After church, we drove through Forest Park before heading home - it's a huge public park in the middle of St. Louis - bigger, even, than Central Park in New York City!
The night before our anniversary, we celebrated by eating pizza and our wedding cake, which was SO GOOD, by the way. Just as good as the day of the wedding, because I wrapped it in about 10 different layers of plastic wrap and foil. I don't mess around with cake! I love being married to this guy and am so happy he's chosen to spend his eternity with me.
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