Long Days, Summer Nights

Greetings!

July was a busy month for us, even in the middle of our summer. After returning from our trip to California, we both returned to our routines and work. Mikaela started preparing for school in earnest. She spent many days in her classroom preparing it for when the kids arrive in mid August, and she spent her nights at home planning lessons for the whole year and crafting decorations for her classroom. While she was busy doing that, Nick was going from job to job, trying to work as many hours as possible between his jobs in the mail room and copy center on campus, general labor, and his off campus landscaping job.

Thankfully, even with all that we were doing, we still had lots of relaxing time because it is, after all, summer! We found time to do things in the city. We started going to shows at the Muny, the large outdoor theater in Forest Park. There are free seats in the back of the theater, you just have to get there early enough to get in line for them. We went and saw Hairspray, The Buddy Holly Story, and Into the Woods, all full, Broadway-quality shows, completely free of charge. Another free event at Forest Park was the Art Hill Film Series. They were showing movies celebrating big anniversaries. So we went and watched Back to the Future with at least a thousand other people. And at the end of the month, we went to a Cardinals game with our friends. While the game was somewhat boring, (one run in the second by the Reds) we were there with lots of friends, so it was a fun time to socialize. It also happened to fall on Star Wars night at Busch Stadium, so that was also entertaining in itself.

Hairspray at the Muny 

Cardinals Game

Having fun at the City Museum 

We also celebrated our first wedding anniversary this month. After having spent over two weeks traveling consistently in June, we decided that instead of trying to take a trip, we'd rather just find something fun to do in St. Louis. We ended up going to the City Museum, a gigantic building that has been turned into an adult sized jungle gym. We had a lot of fun climbing through mazes and spinning around on chairs that acted like tops. We both feel like we have grown so much in the last year, and are happily looking forward to the years ahead that we will have together.

We are both looking forward to school beginning. Mikaela will have kids in her classroom on August 19th, and she is excited to be teaching again soon. Nick will be starting his second year of seminary on September 8th.

In the name of Christ our savior,
Nicholas and Mikaela Duerr