Besties in St. Louis

(Thos white dots on the grass...those are people. Does that give you some perpective on how high we were?)

I need to backup. BEFORE the half marathon was our somewhat annual Besties reunion. There are 10 of us that were roommates at BYU and amazingly enough we're still friends and we've been able to get together for reunions almost every year. This year it was thrown together last minute when Miriam (who lives in Australia) said she was going to be in the states at her parents house and said parents were willing to hang out all weekend at her sisters house so we could use theirs. This is the first time all 10 of us were able to be there. Epic.

This is the view just out of Seattle of Mt. Rainier. Gorgeous. And lots of clouds. That's what makes Seattle so pretty BUT when I got to Denver where I had a layover



THIS is what I saw. Do you think it's a sign? In the airport I got myself a Tasty Turkey from Einsteins. I'm SURE that's a sign.


First thing on the agenda for Friday was to go to the Arch. I had no idea how breathtakingly beautiful the arch would be. It's HUGE and BEAUTIFUL. I guess I thought it would just be a big metal structure, but it felt like a wonderful piece of art. I LOVED it.


From left to right: Kristy, Miriam, Karen, Jenn, Moo, Hil, Jennie, Shelley, Wieda.





After going up in the arch and walking around the gift shops inside we headed downtown to lunch. When the truckers were honking at us on the freeway we thought we must be pretty hot stuff until we realized we're old and most of us were pregnant or holding a baby at all times. We're not college girls anymore. When did that happen?

We found this great little restaurant and tried really hard to not make a scene. I'm sure we still did but really, we're not trying to be so obnoxious, it just happens when we're all together.



At some point in our day out (or was it the next day?) we got some Ted Drewes. It's famous frozen custard. yum.


Here's just a great picture of pregnant Jennie holding Wieda's baby. I just thought it was pretty so needed to post it. It's so fun to be at the reunions without your kids because there's always a baby or 2 that needs to be loved on. He's only 2 months old I think? Jennie and I were room roommates. Love her to pieces.



Kinda last minute a bunch of us decided to get tickets to a Cardinals game. The internet showed there were still tickets available so we just headed to the stadium. We parked, walked a few blocks and then found out the tickets would be $25 a pop for standing room only. What? Standing room only? We have pregnant women with us! For actual seats we'd have to pay $40 which none of us could afford so we were afraid we just paid $20 to park for 10 minutes :) On our way back to the car we stopped one of the scalpers on the street who sold us 6 tickets for $20 each with MOST of them sitting together. Since the area with most of the tickets was flat benches we just sat together and hoped for the best. The rule follower that I am I could NOT enjoy the game till the 4th inning or so when I was confident no one would kick us out of our seats :)

Man alive was it a FUN game! Those cardinals fans are hard core. Seriously, the entire stadium was in red. I love it! We sat with some funny boys that of course flirted with Wieda the whole time and thought we were all sisters. It was awesome.





Since luck was on our side, it also turned out to be fireworks night. The firework show was awesome and I'm pretty sure Shelley cried. The music was loud, the lights on the stadium were out and the fireworks were cool. What a perfect night.



Our last night together (a few girls had already gone home?) we had a fun family dinner together. I love these girls. There's so much love in this room and it's just so special. We're all very different. VERY different in so many ways but we have a special relationship that we all feel lucky to have. We always sit around by the end and marvel at how we can be together ALL weekend without hurt feelings, or cattiness or back biting or judging. It's beautiful.



This is REALLY what we did all weekend. Sit around. Hold the babies. Rub the pregnant ladies feet. Text our men. Talk. Cry. Nap. Eat. And it was oh so wonderful.




Since we had some time before Moo and Shelley's flights left we chilled out in the hotel lobby of the Marriott by the airport until it was time to go :( Ba-bye to the next group. For those of you that have heard me talk about my roommate that married Todd's roommate, well this is her. Shelley, world, world, Shelley.



That left Mim, Hil, Karen and I. We stopped at the temple on our way back to Mim's and took some pictures. Gorgeous temple. It felt like a good Sunday activity.


When we got home from the temple we walked in on Mim's parents playing Dr. Mario together on the Wii. Really!? I love it! I love that they play video games together! That night Mim's mom played some train board game with us too. Oh, and we caught fireflys in jars. I like St. Louis!!! Thanks for a fun weekend girls. Love you tons and tons.