st. louis, missouri

I am finally getting around to blogging about my trip to visit Tristan and here is the short story as to why.
First thing I did when I got home was go to upload my pictures, that was when tragedy struck. Basically I lost the first 2 days worth of pictures plus some from the 3rd day. I don't really know how. I uploaded them to iPhoto and when it was finished it asked if I wanted to delete them off my sim card. I said yes, as I always do. I looked through them and everything, they were there. And then all of the sudden they weren't. They completely disappeared. For awhile it didn't even show that they ever existed. Eventually, Tristan got it to the point where they show up in iPhoto but they are just black boxes. I was holding out hope that he'd save them before I blogged but last weekend he bravely told me that he won't be able to do anything about getting them back until he is home from the summer. So I've given up waiting but am still praying that he will be able to fix it.
We mostly just don't talk about it because it's the one thing that will bring on the tears faster than anything else these days.

So. Back to St. Louis!

There just aren't words for how excited I was to see Tristan when he picked me up from the airport... who knew you could miss someone so much, right? He took me to get lunch and then we went back to his apartment. I had worked five days in a row before hopping on a plane to see him so quite honestly, I was completely exhausted. So he let me take a nap, gosh he just knows me so well. It was perfect though, he snuggled with me until I fell asleep and then he was able to do some work. Win-win for both of us :) That night we went on a walk around the complex. They live in a pretty location and I loved how green it was! It's not east coast green but it's definitely a lot greener than Utah. And of course I got to meet all the guys.

Our first official day was spent at the City Museum! These are the only two pictures I have because they were on my phone not the camera... but it was a.m.a.z.i.n.g! Once I get our video put together, you will see :) Basically it is a giant playground. We crawled through everything and went down a million slides (including the 10-story slide pictured above) and explored as much as we could. Man did it make this pregnant lady feel old though. :) You'll just have to take my word for it for now (iMovie won't upload my go pro videos anymore... someone please save my technological struggle-some self...) but I absolutely loved it!

That night we went to see Avengers with all the guys. It definitely took me back to all the summers when it was just me and all the guys. It's weird that I actually miss that.

Sunday was spent sleeping in, making breakfast, trying to go to church (apparently it was stake conference that week) then having a bbq at the lake. Tristan had fun teaching the office how to play spike ball on the beach and it was just a pretty and peaceful evening.

You can't visit St. Louis without getting all the views of the Gateway Arch :) So that's what we did on Monday. We went across the river for this view...

Then we got our view from underneath it. Someone was saying that the arch wasn't even really that neat but Tristan and I thought it was pretty impressive.

Then did a boat tour on the Mississippi for this view. We have the worst luck when it comes to construction. The entire Gateway Arch park is under construction so it was kind of ugly. When we lived in Maryland, the Washington Monument in DC was under construction so there was scaffolding all around it. And when we were in France, the Pantheon was under construction so we couldn't even see the amazing dome. Like I said, we have the worst luck.

Then we took a ride in a tiny box 630 feet to the top of the arch for this view. It was a little bit disappointing once we got up there because you just look out tiny windows. How cool would it be if it was ceiling to floor windows? Or even better, what if the floor was glass too!? But the view was pretty incredible and it was a fun experience so I'm glad we did it. I probably wouldn't need to do it again though.

And finally, the view from the City Garden. I absolutely loved the City Garden! I was a huge fan of the modern sculptures and the gorgeous greenery in the middle of a city. Plus, without getting too sappy I just loved taking our time walking through it hand in hand. It's funny how distance makes you appreciate the tiny things like holding hands.

Tuesday we decided to go visit the St. Louis Temple before heading to the zoo! It was actually one of the best zoos we have been to! We took a train from stop to stop because it was so big. My favorite was how you could see the hippos swimming in the water, the lion (he looked right at us!) and the baby kangaroos, they were so cute! 

Wednesday was the day we had to say goodbye. We got breakfast and went baby clothes shopping before he had to drop me off at the airport. It was a good last day but I miss that bearded man of mine (oh, the beard was a surprise. he has always had scruff but apparently he decided to grow it out. it took a minute but I ended up liking it :).

I miss you Tristan Nicolas!