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!

Aunt Susie

Last Thursday we received the sad news that my dad's youngest sister, cute Aunt Susie, had passed away. She was such a sweet person, and unfortunately she had battled health problems her entire life. She was very courageous clear to the end. I feel so bad for her cute kids and her husband, but we can at least take comfort in the fact that she doesn't have to suffer anymore; and of course the plan of happiness brings great comfort as well. Mom said that her funeral yesterday was very nice, and I am grateful that we will all be able to see her again one day. But she will be missed!

On a happier note, Mom, Dad, and Rich had a fun visit to St. George/northern Arizona with the Barretts this last weekend! Mom sent me some fun pictures on the phone. Here are the girls at our ancestor Anson Perry Winsor's grave in St. George.

And here are Rich, Dad, and Mom with the girls. Anson Perry Winsor built a fort in northern Arizona that is today the main landmark at Pipe Spring National Monument. Part of the family trip this last weekend included a visit to Pipe Spring.

And here are the girls with Grandpa at the St. George Temple. It is such a pretty place and I'm glad that everyone had a fun trip! I wish we could have been there too! :)

Around here things have just been pretty usual lately. We had a fun outing to a Springfield Sliders game last Thursday with our friend Rose. We are so excited that Rose and her husband Chris have just moved back to Springfield from St. Louis! We've had so many friends move away, so it's fun that some of them could come back :)

Here is that cool "Mormon War" cannonball that we discovered at work the other day. It is about five inches in diameter, but it is REALLY heavy! I wish that we had more information about where/when exactly it came from because the "Mormon War" is a term broadly applied to the last couple of years when the Mormons lived in Nauvoo and were being harassed by their neighbors in surrounding towns. But I'm guessing it came from sometime around 1846 when things got really heated and the Mormons were forced to leave the city. My boss says that if I can find some things to go along with the cannonball I can do a little mini exhibit about the Mormons, so I'll get right on that!

And here is a picture of our newest kitchen decoration: an "Enjoy Bacon" sign made to look like the Coca Cola logo. Mom and I saw it at a store when Mom, Dad, and Rich were here for a visit, and we thought that it would be the perfect sign for Greg and me--since Greg loves Bacon and I love retro Coca Cola stuff :)

Cool Museum Stuff

I've been meaning to post these pictures that were taken a couple of weeks ago at the museum--we do have some neat stuff there! Here I am with a VERY scary looking weapon called a boarding pike that was used by the Confederate Navy during the Civil War to deter Union soldiers from boarding their gunboats. Can you imagine boarding a boat full of guys carrying these? But apparently someone did because this particular boarding pike was captured from a Confederate gunboat on the Cumberland River during the Battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee in 1862.

And here I am with our #2 most famous artifact at the museum (#2 behind Santa Anna's leg): our Abraham Lincoln target board! In 1863 Christopher Spencer brought a new gun he had invented to the White House for Abraham Lincoln to test fire. The cool thing about the gun was that it could shoot seven bullets before being reloaded instead of the one bullet that most of the Civil War guns could fire. So Lincoln and Spencer went out behind the White House, and Lincoln fired seven shots at this very piece of wood! Then he gave the piece of wood to Mr. Spencer, and somehow it ended up at the museum. (Lincoln liked the gun so much that he had the government buy a bunch for the troops--they were called the Spencer Repeating Rifle.)

And, yesterday I was going through some old card catalog files trying to find some information about a mysterious cannonball that my boss and I found in the artifact vault, and I discovered that the cannonball was from the "Mormon War" in Nauvoo! I was so excited. We don't know who fired it, or even what year it is from, but probably somewhere between 1844 and 1846. Good times at the museum!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to Dad!! While I am sad that I can't be there to celebrate Father's Day with him today, I'm glad that I could at least see him this week. He is such a great dad and is one of the most wise people that I know. Poor Dad has had to overcome some serious health struggles, but has always been positive and courageous. Thank you, Dad, for always being so loving and encouraging and for always giving good advice. You are a wonderful example to your whole family! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful dad. I love you, Dad!!!

And I can't believe that tomorrow is my niece Camden's 10th Birthday--Happy Birthday, Cam!! You are growing up so fast and are such a sweet, wonderful girl! 

Bonus Trip!

Last night I returned from a fun-filled BONUS trip to Utah! I had the wonderful opportunity to fly to Salt Lake City on Tuesday for a job interview at the Church History Museum for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Wednesday. Since I flew back to Springfield on Thursday, it was a quick but VERY FUN trip! After Mom picked me up at the airport on Tuesday, we had a yummy lunch at one of our favorite places: Archibald's at Gardner Village! Later that afternoon we had a fun visit to the Barrett's, then a fun visit with Grandma, and yummy Thai food with Dad later in the evening. 

The next morning we got up bright and early, and Mom drove me up to Salt Lake City for the big interview. It was actually a series of three interviews which spanned three hours, but the time flew by because everyone at the museum was SO NICE, and I felt good about how everything went. Since we were already in SLC, Mom and I decided to have a little fun.  

It's harder than you might think to take a picture of yourselves and get the Salt Lake Temple in the picture too! By lunchtime things were pretty busy downtown, but Mom and I went up to the Garden Restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and had a wonderful lunch with a great view of the city.

After lunch we headed back to Utah Valley and stopped to see Grandma one more time.

And that evening we had the Barretts over for a fun dinner and movie night. Dinner was extra tasty and featured, among other delicious items, lil' smokie pigs in a blanket dipped in J Dawgs sauce. Yummmmmmmm.

The movie night movie was, very appropriately, "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian."

On Thursday morning before heading to the airport, Mom, Dad, and I went for a nice Flag Day walk. Here are Mom and Dad with some of the flags in the background.

And here are Mom and me with some beautiful flowers.

And Dad and me in the cool neighborhood gazebo. It was such a beautiful day! As always, it was sad to leave, but I was so grateful for the opportunity to be there--even just for a couple of days (we sure fit a lot of fun into those two days!)--and to have the job interview at the museum. I should find out about the job within the next couple of weeks. Please keep your fingers crossed for me! On my way to and from Utah I flew through Dallas--so I was there on Tuesday and Thursday; and I just found out today that on Wednesday they had tornadoes in Dallas--yikes!!