Granite City/Elsah/Grafton/St. Louis

Nate and I got back last Sat. from a week long trip to visit his family and friends in IL/MO. We arrived on Wed., the 8th & Nate's best friend, Steve picked up us from the airport. We made a run to White Castle on the way to Nate's mom (Jan's) house, but I did not partake in the White Castle "deliciousness"... Nate enjoyed it though:) After that we headed to Granite City to his Jan's, and hung out there for a bit efore heading to have dinner at his sister & brother-in-law (Heather & John's) house. They have a 4 month old baby named Colton and he is by far the best baby I've ever been around! He's adorable and has a cute little dimple too! After dinner we went back to Jan's house and enjoyed a small bonfire with Steve and his wife, Katie.

I had been bugging Nate to get a pumpkin so we could carve it, so on Thurs. we went to a place called Relleke Farms where you can buy pumpkins to decorate with or carve. We took his little cousin with us too so we had fun walking around looking at pumpkins and feeding corn that had fallen on the ground to the sheep. After we dropped off his cousin, we went back to Jan's and carved our pumpkin. We had a carving kit with cool designs to copy and we spent 3 hrs. carving our pumpkin! It turned out really well though:)

Fri. we took a ride to a couple of small towns in IL - Elsah and Grafton. We walked around and the weather was absolutely beautiful. The leaves aren't changing much yet, but there were a few that had changed. We enjoyed the weather, ate some lunch and ice cream and went back to Granite City. That night we visited Nate's cousin, Kari's house and just hung out and talked.

Sat. we went to the St. Louis Zoo and it was incredible!!! It's free to visit and it blew the San Diego Zoo out of the water! The weather was amazing and all of the animals were out. We stayed most of the morning into the early afternoon, then went to the St. Louis Art Museum because it was right up the hill from the zoo.

On Sun. we went to church with Jan, and after that she drove us to Heather & John's house for a bbq. John and Heather did a phenomenal job with the grilling and the food was wonderful! Nate's grandma, Grandma Faye, made a delicious strawberry cake also and it was a perfect ending to a tasty meal! We played a game of wiffle ball - Heather, John & Brad (Nate's dad) against Nate, me and Nate's 2 uncles. They destroyed us so that was awesome, in a not-so-much kind of way;) I'll practice for next time so I can actually show that I am athletic! I pitched alright, but my batting skills didn't work to my advantage. Maybe next time we'll play a game of outdoor volleyball or basketball...:)

Mon. was mostly a clean up/get ready to leave day so Nate helped his mom with some stuff around the house, while I cleaned the kitchen, did laundry, and packed our suitcases. Jan made dinner that night so I helped peel potatoes and i put together the fruit salad. It was a great meal and we just spent time talking and what-not.

We flew back to San Antonio on Tues. and Nate is leaving tomorrow for Hawaii until next Fri., then he is leaving again the following Sun. until Oct. 31st. Work is keeping him super busy so hopefully he'll be able to get some rest when he gets back! Please continue to pray for us and for our relationship to glorify the Lord in everything we do! Please pray for our time apart and that Nate will have safe travels as he travels the next 2 weeks. Until next time...