I Like Thursday #122

And here we are again with another Thursday to talk about things we've liked this week. There are quite a group of us that share on Thursdays. You might want to check some of them out on LeeAnna's blog (link at the end).

I'll start by telling you how much I liked our recent visitors. My niece and her fiance came out to the area from NC so the niece could introduce her fiance to some of her MO family that hadn't met him yet. We were honored that, even though we'd met him, they spent a couple nights with us. We decided to show them a bit of IL by going to Grafton, a fun little town. We did the SkyTour at Aerie's Resort. We could have gone up in a gondola but we chose the open chairs. It was such a beautiful day!

Chris & Jenn Loaded Up

Me, Mom, & Fred Going Up

Chris & Jenn with Quite the View!

Once at the top, we had some refreshments while sitting out on the huge open patio, enjoying the view of the river.

Chris opted to try out the Alpine Coaster. There's also a Zipline that one could do if they'd like.

Fred noticed some metal artwork on the way up. Of course, I liked the dragonfly!

After returning to ground zero, we went over to the Loading Dock. We had lunch right on the river and looked for barges to go by. There were so many when my daughter visited but there wasn't even one that day. We did enjoy talking with tourists on a river cruise from Dubuque IA to St. Louis MO who were taking in the sights that day of Alton & Grafton IL!

Chris & Jenn Down by the River

Looking Up the River

All too soon the visit was coming to an end. Time for a few family pictures.

Group Photo

Mom with Chris & Jenn

On their way back to Jennifer's other grandparents in MO, they stopped by the St. Louis Arch -- Gateway to the West.

Did you know that the Arch is 630 feet high AND 630 feet wide at the base? I learned this fun factoid on 6/30 (aka Gateway Arch Day in St. Louis)!

View from the Top
 With Busch Stadium on the Left

One more note about the visit: One of the evenings we played Parcheesi, of course. I'd like all to know that Fred won. Why is this memorable? Out of all the times we've played over Christmas visits and more, he has never won so this was A FIRST!!! I liked that a lot!

As for TV Likes this week: We enjoyed watching Wimbledon, the Men's Finals in particular. We've also been watching Suits on NetFlix since there's not much entertainment on summer TV. We're into Season 3 and getting kicks out of watching Megan Markle on the series. Of course we've been cheering our St. Louis Cardinals on and feel pretty good about winning our last 5 games. Nolen Arenado has really been putting on a show lately. Our season isn't looking good this year but at least we've hit a bright spot!

The only new recipe I tried this week was Cinnamon Sugar Donut Hole Muffins by The Kitchen is My Playground. Very tasty! Probably won't make again as they were fussy to brush with butter then roll in the cinnamon sugar mix. We all devoured them, of course!

One last Like for the week: I'm sewing with friends at Itch'n to be Stitch'n Quilt Store yesterday & today. Most of these friends hail from up north around the Springfield IL area. I haven't seen them since February when we last got together. I do enjoy sewing with this group. Probably even more so since I haven't touched my machine at home for the past few weeks due to the company and the sewing machine furniture construction which is still ongoing.

I hope you've had a good week and can look back on it with a smile. I'll be sharing with others at LeeAnna's blog Not Afraid of Color. Bet you find some interesting stuff there!