Meet Me In St. Louie, Louie...

I realized when I logged into the blog that I haven't blogged since Tuesday!

Unheard of...for me at least...

I have no excuses!

Sorry.

This last weekend, Nick and I attended a wedding in St. Louis, MO...SANS KIDDOS!!

Yep...we left the kids to fend for themselves with Lt. Brown (who drove up from CT) and Miss Emiliee (our house guest from the beginning of the summer) at our home.

They were in excellent hands, and it gave Nick and I peace of mind knowing that we could relax and enjoy our weekend without worrying about our kids...too much.

One of my best friends, Becca and her husband (who was stationed with Nick and deployed to Afghanistan together twice), is from St. Louis originally, and through them, we met the bride and groom, Jen and Charlie (who was also stationed on Camp Pendleton when we all met).

Charlie eventually finished active duty and joined the reserves, and moved out to South Carolina where he found a job, and Jen followed him across the country.

Obviously, they eventually got engaged which brought us to our weekend in St. Louis.

I'll sum up our weekend in photos...

Of course, Becca picked us up from the airport!

And of course she came bearing fresh homemade "Sarah's Brownies" (as we named them).

These caramel filled brownies became a famous and popular staple at all of our BBQ's when we all lived in California.

They're named "Sarah's Brownies", because she was the first to make them and bring them to a BBQ.

Rehearsal Dinner pics.

It's seriously been like 3 years since we've seen each other in person, but it was like we had never been separated!

We're not drunk in this photo either!!!!!!! 

We seriously can laugh for days together!

Nick, the groom, and the groom's friend whom Nick and I decided to nickname "the Wolverine".

Leaving the hotel for the wedding...gorgeous day!

Nick was asked to be part of the sword arch.

Of course being the only drill instructor of the bunch, he dusted off the old drill manual to execute a flawless sword arch detail.

Here's the video of the official sword arch.

Absolutely gorgeous church.

Nick and Becca's husband drinking a beer before the wedding outside the church...

yep...check that one off the bucket list...drink beer outside of catholic church...CHECK!

They were so happy to be able to hang out again together after being apart for so long.

(Becca and Steve are now stationed in Alabama)

The boys in the limo on the way to church.

The gorgeous bride and her dad walking down the aisle.

The happy groom waiting on his bride :)

So after the wedding, the bride and groom had a trolley (in true St. Louis fashion) drive the wedding party around St. Louis to take photos in front of some of the famous landmarks around town.

I was actually hoping that I'd get to see the famous Arch before leaving St. Louis, so I'm SO glad that we got to see it!

It's bigger in person!

Trolley ride.

And because we're in St. Louis, we had to drink their native beer...

I absolutely love this photo!

It's St. Louis' 250th birthday, and to commemorate the occasion, the city put out 250 of these these giant random cakes throughout the city!

And of course the wedding reception...

I don't know why Charlie looks so disgusted to have two beautiful women kissing him on the cheeks!

Always so serious, these two...

So we got to our table at the reception, and I was thinking, "why isn't anyone sitting down?"

And in true gentlemen fashion, these fine Marines told me that they were waiting on the ladies to sit down first...I forgot that we had left Massachusetts and were in the friendly midwest :)

Post wedding fun and dancing.

The gorgeous bride and I.

I sure do miss our wine nights at Becca's house in San Diego, and hanging out with all of our friends!

And this lovely gal...

I sure do miss wine nights at YOUR house when our guys were deployed, and ALL the BBQ's you used to host.

I miss your comfy guest room bed, and home made cinnamon rolls for breakfast in the mornings at your house! 

Maybe we'll be stationed together again one day and resume our regular BBQ's!

The wedding was beautiful, St. Louis was a blast, and Nick and I soaked up every minute of being "kid free" for an entire weekend.

By Sunday morning, I was exhausted beyond words, but I couldn't get to the airport fast enough to be home with my babies again.