A Perfect Fall Saturday

Oh what a perfectly beautiful day I had today! I'm worn out, but it was so worth it! Dale was gone again for the weekend hunting, and as you know, I've become a "deer hunter's widow" as of about two weeks ago. Dale has some hunting land leased about 2 hours south of here and he enjoys getting to go down there on the weekends and hunting. So...that's given me A LOT of free time on the weekends do to some exploring.

Today, Gentry and I slept in and then left the house around lunchtime and went over to St. Charles, MO for the afternoon. St. Charles is a suburb of St. Louis and is about 20 miles north of St. Louis. I had done some looking online earlier in the week and decided to take a day trip over there this weekend.

So, me and my buddy headed out on our excursion. I saw on the internet that they have a quaint, historical downtown shopping area right on the Missouri River. There is also a park on the river called "The Frontier Park" where they were having a fall festival entitled "Life is Good". So, with my handy-dandy map on my lap, off we went to have some fun...just the two of us. :) When we arrived at the park, the first thing Gentry saw was all the balloons and he got so excited. He knew this must be a place to have fun. They had a lot of inflatable play stations like the trampoline, slide & obstacle course. Gentry is always so timid at first, but after a couple of minutes of coaxing, he finally pulled his shoes off, and he was off and running and playing his little heart out. His favorite one was the inflatable slide. He loved climbing up and then tumbling down the other side. They had face painting, all sorts of games, a magician and juggler, live music and a bubble machine that Gentry thought was amazing. He was running all over the place popping those bubbles. I was trying to snap pictures, but he was too active having fun that I didn't really get any good ones of him at the park.

When we got done at the park, we walked a block over and made a loop down and around the historical downtown shops. Oh my goodness!! It was MY KIND OF SHOPPING. They had lots of ecclectic boutiques with home decor, clothing, sweets, antiques & holiday shops. Gentry wanted to touch everything he saw, especially in the Christmas shops. He thought the reindeer and snowmen were just SO COOL! He made me a little nervous because I could just see him breaking things everywhere and me coming home with LOTS of broken merchandise I really didn't want to buy! But, once he got the rule down that he had to hold mommie's hand in the stores, and just look, well, he was the best sidekick I could have asked for! The weather was just gorgeous and we took our time strolling down those old cobblestone streets. There were trolley cars and horse-drawn carriages and it just made you feel like you'd stepped back in time.

We found a candy store and stopped in and got some taffy, peanut brittle, & a popcorn trail mix. YUMMY!

After we'd shopped to our hearts were content, we headed back home, stopped by Cold Stone & got a shake for the road and then stopped by St. Louis Bread Company for a sandwich and warm bowl of broccoli cheese soup...the perfect ending to a perfect day.

I do wish my sweetie could have been with us to share our day, but I realize that before too long, Gentry will be old enough to go hunting and I won't get these mommy/son days as much. So, even though it was just the two of us today, I LOVED spending the day with my angel. I asked him when we got back to the car, "Did you have fun with mommie today?" And he put his arms around my neck and squeezed really tight and said, "Uh-huh!" I mean, it just doesn't get much better than that, my friends!

Enjoy the pictures I snapped from our day today. The name of the festival we went to in the park was titled: "Life Is Good"...and that about sums up the way I feel about life today. Hope you're enjoying these beautiful fall days as much as we are.

Love & Blessings - Mel