St. Louis Gateway Arch and bungee jumping in Mills Mall

These last two days have been full of adventure! Yesterday, we went inside the St. Louis Arch, and yes, it was very intense! As we stood in line for our way up, I actually realized how small these little carts are that we had to ride up. The ride up the arch was only 4 minutes, so how bad could it be?? There was seven of us going up, but only 5 could fit in one cart, so Mike and I broke away from the group, which is always kind of awkward because you have to make friends for 4 minutes while you creep up the arch in a cart that is about 5 feet wide and 5 feet tall. So we get in the cart, or "tram" as they call it, and here we go! There was us two and another couple in the cart and right before we left to go up, anarch ranger" hopped in our cart wih us. The ranger told us that he had been working there for 16 years, and he usually goes up the arch once or twice a week, to do a 2 hour shift up there. He also made us guess how many stairs there were going up the arch. The answer: 1,076 stairs to go up the arch. He was a very nice guy, making the ride up there with the strangers a bit less awkward. Then when we get up to the top of the arch which was 630 feet high, we get out of our small cart and go into the observation deck, which wasn't very big either. There were very small windows that you could look out of to see the St. Louis side, which had an amazing view of Busch staidium where the Cardinals play, and you could also see the Illinois side from the other side of the arch. One of my favorite things that you could see was the shadow of the arch from the sun shining on it! It was so much fun, you can spend as mich time up there as you want, and then just catch the next tram back down. Here are some pics from the exciting day! It was so much fun!

Today, we went to the St. Louis Mills Mall. Our little cousin Morgan, as you can see in these pictures is so adorable. She was telling us all about the bungee jumping in the mall, and the glow in the dark miniture golf. So we went, and Brittainy and I got talked into going on the bungee jump in the mall. All I knew was that I wanted to do some flips! I had never been on one of those things, and I will tell you what, THAT IS A WORKOUT!!! Especially doing some flips! Here is some pictures of us all, and of me doing flips on the bungee jump! Watch until the end, because I didn't quite make the third jump, I couldn't get my legs over fast enough!!! It was totally fun though!

Christmas in St. Louis and Mike as Santa Claus!!!

So, here I am sitting in the basement of Mike's grandparents house in St. Louis! It has been so much fun! We drove up here the day after Christmas, leaving at 6am and we actually arrived around 630pm! Even though we did gain an hour, we still made the drive in less than 13 hours! When we arrived, we hung out with family, and just relaxed. The next morning we woke up with good smell of breakfast coming down into the basement suite, which is where Mike and I are staying! All the family came over, and then we did Christmas with them. Mike's 2 cousins, Ryan and Morgan, who were in our wedding this summer were over and it was fun watching them open all of there gifts. Mike and I recieved a $25 gift card to Olive Garden, $25 gift card to Chili's/On the Border, and 2 $25 gift cards to McDonalds(one for each of us!) from his grandparents, and a few sweaters and jackets from his aunt and uncle! We made out pretty well this Christmas with the date night giftcards!!! Yay!!!After opening presents, and then taking an afternoon nap, we headed of to mike's mom's entire family get together at the Senior Citizen hall in Illinois. It was VERY Interesting! There was a water fountain at the Seniors hall that had a sign above it saying "PLEASE! This is a drinking fountain!!" We don't even want to know what people thought it was in order to put the sign out on it! Maybe someone used it as a bathroom one time!?!?! haha! Anyway, every year Santa Claus comes and gives presents to all the children there. It is usually one of the older men that dresses up in the Santa suit, but this year, somehow Mike got talked into being Santa Claus! haha it was so funny! His job was to come through the front door saying "ho! ho! ho!" and ask the children if they have been good this year, and then give them the present that is in the big red Santa bag! So, he did, Mike came through the door with a big "A Christmas Story" "HO! HO! HO!" He came and sat in the Christmas chair, and called out the names on the presents and the kids came and sat on his lap and received their presents. After all the presents were gone, a little girl came up and gave Santa a present that she had made. It was a book full of clippings of Santa Claus, it was so sweet.

Another great thing here in St. Louis is the famous QuikTrip convenient store. They have anazing slurpies and drinks all for great prices! If you haven't been to one, you need to go!!! Here are some pictures from all the festivites here in St. Louis, and I'm sure there will be more posts from here in St. Louis later!

enjoying life to the fullest

So, it's been a while since I've given anyone an update! Here's what's new: I finally got a new car and I absolutely love it! Here is a picture of me with my new car! It's a 99 Honda accord, in a dark purple color. It really looks black, until the sun hits it at the perfect angle and then you can see the purple tint. It feels so nice to have a car that will actually run well for me, and not give me any problems. It has a sunroof, which I absolutely love! Oh, by the way, did you realize that yesterday was when I took this picture, and yes, it was in the 80s on December 19, and I was wearing shorts! The weather has been like this for the last week, and it has been so wonderful! Last night, my stepdad Mike, has his work party at the festival of lights, and we all went! It was really fun, Mike and I ate at the shelter, with Brad, Beth, baby Jack, my mom and Mike. It was our 4th oyster roast that we have been to this Christmas season, and I don't even like them. Good thing there was other food there! Then we rode through and saw all the lights. Here is a picture of Jack with his little head out the window enjoying it all. He loved it! At the very end, I love taking a picture of the Happy New year and getting the next year in there, The last 4 years I have gone, I have gotten all of the years, so here is this years! Happy New Year 2009! I can't believe it's already going to be 2009!
So, another party that I went to this year was what we called our "girlfriends" party with all the kids and babies. Once a week, a few of my friends and I all get together and have lunch. It is normally at one of our houses, or we will go out to eat somewhere, and just enjoy life together. My sister in law Bethany and baby Jack were there, Michelle and baby Stone, Christina and baby Olivia and Ella, and Allison & I all got together to have our little party! We decided to have a gift exchange and draw names, so we did and it was fun! Here are a few pics from the day, mostly of the kids:

Our 1st Christmas Excitement!

I love Christmastime, and I love decorating for Christmas! I was so excited this year to have our own apartment to decorate. I kept on asking Mike when we could start decorating in early November, he then told me that their was a rule that you weren't allowed to decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Well, the days kept geting closer, and I finally talked him in to getting our tree (it was in my parents attic, their old one) about a week before Thanksgiving. It wouldn't fit in either one of our small 2 door cars, so we just put it on top!

We FINALLY put the tree up 2 days before Thanksgiving, because we decided that we would be with our families at their houses on Thanksgiving, and the day after, and of course, I would be SHOPPING on black Friday! So we did, I got to use all of my new decorations that I had bought last year on sale after Christmas. Here are some pictures of our tree, decorations, and even some wrapped presents under the tree!

Our Tree

The wreath on our door that I decorated

New cute table runner and centerpiece that I put together

Stockings with our initials on them!

The final tree! It is so pretty and colorful!

The Ornament we got on our honeymoon

Pretty presents and new tree skirt

Christmas in the bathroom!Our mini tree is on the table when you first walk in!More decorations on the Kitchen counter!

I don't have a picure, but we put colored and white lights on our porch! It looks so festive!

New Blog: here are some starting thoughts

As most of you know, I recently got married to my wonderful husband. I had a "bride blog" before this one, but I decided to start a new blog with my new name just to make it easier for me! If you would like to see my old blog, with my wedding updates on it, here it is: http://www.hilaryisthebride.blogspot.com/.

I am almost done with school, exactly one more year left for me, and believe me, this is the most exciting thing (besides getting married) that will happen to me! Well, maybe not the most exciting because I would like to have kids in a couple of years, so that will probably be more exciting, but you get the point! Graduating College for me will be a big deal!

I'm a big countdown person, I like counting down the days until birthdays, Christmas, or any other special holidays or events that will happen! So, speaking of countdowns, here is my first one: there are 27 days until Christmas!!!

Since this is my first year of being married, I told my mother-in-law that I would like to cook a casserole for the big Thanksgiving meal tomorrow! I cooked a broccoli casserole and some rice krispie treats! My apartment was smelling so good tonight!