Saint Louis & Fall in Champaign

The adventures have continued this past week. Last week, Gavin finished his first term and had his finals. Boy, was that stressful! I'm glad he's started a new term. He has new classes, a new group, and I think he'll like it. After his tests, he got a couple of days off of school, so we did a few things. Thursday, we prepared a baby shower for our friends Ann and A.J. and their new baby Aayush. The boys hung out together and watched the kids, and we girls had a great time showing Ann what an American baby shower is like! We had yummy food, a diaper cake, presents, lots of pumpkins, and fun. Her mom came, and was very sweet. Aayush was home from the NICU so he got to come too! He is so tiny at 5 pounds, but is cute as can be. 

The next day, we drove out to Saint Louis for a little weekend trip. Our brother-in-law Joel's parents live there, and they had kindly offered to host us and watch Henry while we went to the temple. It only takes 2.5 hours to get there; not bad at all. We got there early and I was nervous about leaving Henry with someone new, but he loved Heidi and Larry! He took to them so easily! He hardly knew we were gone. Heidi took him outside to collect rocks and then set him up a little station at the sink so he could wash them with toothbrushes and cloths in the sink. He was in seventh heaven splashing the water around and he brought the rocks home and is still carrying them around! Unfortunately we hit a ton of traffic and didn't make it in time to do a session at the temple, so we did sealings instead. When we got back, we went with Larry and Heidi to their ward chili cook-off contest and had a nice time. Afterward, Heidi made a yummy apple dutch-oven dessert and Larry played with Henry and showed him the cuckoo clock about a dozen times; Henry was thrilled and just kept saying "again! again!". We slept well, then woke up early to head back into St. Louis to the zoo. The best part is, the zoo is free! It was all decked out for Halloween with lights and pumpkins, and we got there before the crowds. It was a gorgeous, sunny day. We spent three hours and Henry was worn out. He fed the goats and loved it! He enjoyed watching the gorillas. We saw the butterfly atrium and one landed on him--he thought it was so funny. He liked seeing the elephant and the hippos, and mostly just ran wild from place to place. We thought he would sleep after that, but when we met back up with Larry and Heidi, he wanted to play with them more than nap! They insisted we do a session in the temple and they watched Henry again while we did. They are too kind. They stayed with him in the play area near the temple and took him to the distribution center to pick out a poster of Jesus, his own little songbook and mini Book of Mormon and a Tabernacle Choir CD. They spoiled him! (and us!) We loved the session and when we came out, Mr. Henry and his new best friends were stomping in all the leaves! We went back home and Heidi cooked us a yummy salmon dinner with veggies and then we made our way back to Champaign. It was a quick trip, but we had a great time!

This past week, we took Henry to Curtis Orchard. It's a free farm with a great pumpkin patch, playground, goats to feed, apple cider, and more. It's set up like the Wizard of Oz with the yellow brick road, the "flying monkey cafe", tin man pointing the way, a big mural of Oz, etc...He loved it! Admittedly he loved collecting rocks almost as much as the orchard, but he was very happy.
Last night, we had Gavin's new study group over for dinner. They were very sweet - one even brought me a hostess gift: a box of raspberry chocolates from a place called Fanny May's (like Utah's See's Chocolates). We really enjoyed talking to them, and they seemed to have a great time. They liked the pretzel jello salad a lot! I was surprised by how much.

Well, there is a quick overview of our recent happenings! Until next time...