Birthday Bonanza

This has been a very fun week! On Thursday my friend Laura and I got up really early and went to our friends the Bridges' house to pick blackberries. The blackberry bushes were really prickly, but we seriously had so much fun. And we ended up with a lot of tasty blackberries. I've been eating them on cereal, which is delicious, and tomorrow Greg and I are going to make some homemade blackberry ice cream! One bad things happened this week, but it turned out to be a lot better than it could have been--on Thursday evening our air conditioner died, and it was 100 degrees outside! We panicked a bit until I found an A/C repair place that provides 24/7 service, so they sent someone out that very night to fix things. We were afraid we'd have to get a whole new unit, but luckily just one part was burned out on ours, so we were really blessed!

And then yesterday was my birthday, and we had a GREAT day! Greg and I met up with Sarah, Joel, Eliza, and Leo in VERY HOT St. Louis. It was so much fun to see them! We went to the Missouri History Museum to see their new Civil War exhibit.

My favorite part of the exhibit was seeing General Sterling Price's field glasses!!! I did a lot of research about Sterling Price in college because he was a famous Confederate general who also happened to help drive the Mormons out of Missouri in 1838, so I don't like him, but I'm interested in learning about him, so it was cool to see his binoculars. The whole exhibit was really neat!

We also got to see a very cool exhibit about the World's Fair in St. Louis, and then we went to a fun exhibit about fire that had a lot of kid-friendly things to do. Here is Leo "cooking" a fish over this pretend fire. He and Eliza loved cooking pretend food. Eliza even whipped up a delicious hot dog/marshmallow souffle.

Here is Fire Chief Eliza with her trusty sidekick Leo. This fire business is serious stuff!

After our fun visit to the museum, the Agates headed for home, and Greg and I went to the St. Louis Cardinals game. We were especially excited because it was Carlos Beltran jersey night--so we both got a free jersey (but they only came in one size: XL, so mine is a little big)! Here I am with the World Series trophy.

Before the game we were able to get an autograph from former Cardinals pitcher Joe Magrane which was cool!

Here we are at our great seats on the Coca Cola party deck in the outfield! The seats were really nice--we were under a covered patio, and we had access to a delicious buffet during the game. The buffet included hot dogs (with sauerkraut!), nachos, BBQ chicken, beef brisket, pulled pork, coleslaw, and cookies. The most important part of the buffet, however, was the unlimited soda--and since it was 104 degrees, we definitely took advantage of that! 

I've always wanted to see Busch Stadium from the very top, so while we were waiting for the game to start, I ventured to the nosebleed seats to check out the view. It was amazing! The view of the field and the Arch was great. And you can see where Greg and I were sitting--we were under the black roof beneath the Coca Cola sign in the middle of the outfield.

Here is the view of the plaza from behind our seats. You can see Joe Magrane's daughter, Shannon, singing there on the Prairie Farms stage. She was one of the top competitors on "American Idol" this last season. She came in 11th place. She's a really good performer!

Unfortunately the Cardinals got CREAMED by the Pirates, but it was still a really fun game to be at. The highlight of the evening was seeing Carlos Beltran get his 2,000th hit!! It was so exciting! The place went totally crazy. It's funny that he ended up reaching such an important milestone on the night that they handed out his jerseys to the fans. When they planned the jersey promotion at the beginning of the season, who knew that they would pick the perfect night for it! We had such a fun day in St. Louis!! We were especially glad that we could meet up with the Agates!  

Today when I got home from work, Greg surprised me with this GIANT cupcake that he made! We are going to eat this cupcake, along with our homemade blackberry ice cream, tomorrow night with our friends Rose and Chris. I can't wait because it looks delicious! Yesterday was a wonderful birthday, and I'm grateful for all of the birthday wishes and kind things that everyone sent. I have the best family and friends in the world!