Saturday, July 24 - Chesterfield Mall

On the way to the O'Fallon Farmers and Artists Market this morning, we drove through the Starbucks drive-thru for the required morning lattes. The staff will definitely know us by name and drink choice by the end of the week.

The fresh produce and baked goods at the outdoor market looked and smelled quite delicious, but we were doing more looking than buying. Mary chose a Monkey pendant necklace and we found some gift ideas as well. Thank goodness the vendor from Hannibal with the handcrafted Adirondack furniture didn't charge us rent for lounging on his samples.

Pam gave us a little tour of O'Fallon and we stopped at Wal-Mart for a couple more items before heading back to the house to pick up Matt.

Seventeen years ago today, Pam and Matt exchanged wedding vows, so Olive Garden was the lunch destination of choice to celebrate their anniversary. Traveling over the Missouri River, we entered St. Louis County and set our sights on Boone's Crossing where not only Olive Garden awaited, but our first round of shopping. Pam was excited to take me to Fleet Feet to experience the very personalized shoe fitting opportunity that she herself had recently enjoyed. I was very impressed and purchased my first really good pair of walking shoes in a long time. Then it was finally time to indulge in the tasty cuisine at Olive Garden. We gorged ourselves on breadsticks and salad, packed away the entrees, and then ordered desserts which we devoured in record time--amazingly enough.

The excessive heat advisories and warnings didn't keep us from our next round of shopping at Chesterfield Mall. We hit some of Mary's favorite stores collecting some awesome buys, and then wandered around the store entitled "I Don't Want to Kiss A Llama," before heading back home.

In the conditioned air back at Pam and Matt's, we relaxed and watched Matt and Pam's wedding video. It was especially fun for Mary to see her 20-year-old brother as the 3-1/2- year-old ringbearer!! We then fired up the Wii for a few rounds of Just Dance before the thunderstorms rolled in and knocked out the power temporarily. Several rounds of Wii American Idol were played after the storm threats moved out of the area and we finished the night with Pam's "homemade" chocolate chip cookies.