We spent this past weekend in St. Louis with my parents visiting my brother and our sister-in-law. Mike and I flew out Friday after work (since my parents were driving up early Friday morning and we didn’t want to use a vacation day just for driving)…but I wish it was just that easy! As many of you know, we got slammed with a snow storm on Friday afternoon that delayed our first flight (meaning we would miss our connecting flight) and ended up completely rerouting our flight itinerary. So, after back-tracking from Pittsburgh to D.C., we finally made it to St. Louis very late Friday night! Saturday, we started off with breakfast at Benton Park Cafe (and a lot of coffee). Then, after shopping most of the afternoon, with a stop for dinner mixed in, we all attended the show my brother was in, Jackie and Me. It was such a great show, and it’s always nice seeing my brother on stage! He grew up doing a lot of plays and musicals and went on to attend the University of Michigan for theater. While in school, he met his lovely wife, Rachel, and they got married and moved to St. Louis shortly after! They both work at a great church out there (The Journey), but Adam (I just realized I haven’t mentioned my brother’s name) continues to perform in a handful of plays each year!

Sunday morning, we woke up for church, grabbed lunch with Adam and Rachel, and then hit the road back home with my parents (and Elly – oh yeah, we forgot to mention that she drove up with my parents for some quality time with her “cousin” aka Juliet, Adam and Rachel’s dog who she is kinda quite scared of)! The 9 hour car ride turned into almost 11.5 hours and mostly consisted of sleeping, reading, and chatting with my parents! It wasn’t until just after midnight that we got home and finally went to bed, but it was all worth it…nothing trumps spending time with the family!

 Friday afternoon’s snow fiasco!

Sunshine and coffee! A great way to start any morning!

Sleepy Elly and her solution to being thirsty on the car ride home (window condensation)!