Monets and Temples and Rednecks, Oh My!

Spencer and I celebrated our 6th anniversary on August 7th. To celebrate, we drove to St. Louis (about 3 1/2 hrs away) to do sealings in the temple there and then spent the rest of the day hanging out like newlyweds (minus the vast amounts of PDA).

A huge thank you to my mom for coming up early and watching the mowglis (she was coming up to help with Ezra's surgery the following Monday).

This was our first trip to the St. Louis temple and we really enjoyed it. It's a lovely temple (as are they all), but after the nearly 9 hour round-trip drive, I can't even wait to get our own in north Kansas City a mere 40 minutes away.

As I was too absent-minded to take a picture in front of the temple, you get these instead. No, I didn't take these, but I wanted to give you a chance to see how lovely the St. Louis temple is. Go here for lots more beautiful photos.



After we got done with the sealings we picked up some lunch and headed over to the St. Louis Art Museum. It was totally Spencer's idea to spend our anniversary wandering around, looking at old paintings...does my husband know me or what? :)

Overall, I was really impressed with the SLAM. First off, it was free. I suppose they kind of have to be since they have the motto, "Dedicated to Art and Free to All" chiseled over the massive front entryway. Inside...*happy sigh*...I was in heaven. Absolute bliss. There were works by Monet, Rembrandt, Manet, Warhol, Lichtenstein, a crazy van Gogh and not so crazy van Gogh, Cezanne, Seurat, Rothko, Degas, Gauguin, Giacometti, O'Keeffe, Picasso, and just so, so many more.

It was my first time seeing one of Monet's huge Water Lilies pieces in person and it was absolutely awe-inspiring. You know when you look at a piece and you just...get sucked in. All you can see or think of is the colors and the image; you're practically breathing in the piece, drowning in it. Well, that's how it was. I walked away from the SLAM remembering why it was that I spent my entire time in college studying Art History. When I'm around art, I feel as if I simply can't live without it...but this post isn't supposed to be about art, it's supposed to be about my anniversary, so I'll now show you some pictures of my husband to even up the score.

Cute picture of Spencer in front of the museum grounds.

A very little Spencer in front of the very big museum entrance

Whitney in front of the fountains

On the front steps

After we were done with the museum we walked around the grounds a bit. While they were lovely, I'll still take the Kansas City Sculpture Park (attached to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art) any day.

On the bridge

Token kissing picture

We went out to dinner at Fitz's, a fun little burger joint that makes and bottles the best root beer (if you've ever been to the previously mentioned Route 66's Pops, I know they for sure sell it).


While I didn't get any pictures of us there, I did, however, snap one of the restaurant across the street. Apparently, it's a Mac 'n' Cheese shop. How funny is that?

This one is for, you Grey Grey.

After dinner, we started the long drive home, just enjoying the silence radiating from the back seat.

I love you, my dear. Thank you for making me happier then I could have ever hoped for.



I normally would end there. However, Spencer would be entirely disappointed if I didn't include the highlight of his evening. Seeing this beauty pull up next to us in the gas station, I'm pretty sure it was obvious to all that we were officially in Redneck Country.

While I didn't notice it at first, Spencer quickly pointed out to me the absurdity of a station wagon pulling a trailer much longer then itself. The coup de grace?...

The fact that the back wheels weren't even touching the ground.

The End.