Girls' Weekend Recap

I am back from a whirlwind weekend .  Well it was not quite a whirlwind, but it's now Tuesday and I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep (mentioned the girls' weekend trip here and here).  We decided that for time and money reasons the best place to travel to was a place close to home.

On Thursday, after we ate some delicious sushi at one of my favorite restaurants in town, we drove to Branson with the goal of seeing Christmas lights at Silver Dollar City.  However, after buying out most of the stores in town, we decided to skip the cold weather (Christmas lights) and head back to town for drinks with friends.

Friday is when the trip really began, we drove to Kansas City.  We had such big plans of sight-seeing, but once we were other ideas came up.  First up, dinner at The Cheesecake Factory (OMG! this was sooo delectable). 

My Red Velvet Cheesecake ... it changed my life.

We also went to Argosy Casino just to try our hand at the penny slots (I'm too cheap to do anything more expensive than one cent!).  The goal was set at $10 to spend and after losing $8 I lost interest and decided to cut my losses. 

 The best part of going to Argosy was seeing the gigantic Christmas tree in the main lobby... It is so big that I literally had to plaster myself against the far wall to get the whole tree in the picture.  Plus, the ceiling was just gorgeous so I had to take a picture of it as well.

This cute pooch is my friend's Chow.  His name is Beece and he was a great travel companion!

Sunday, I drove home to the folks' house to pick up Maggie.  They were nice enough to dog sit for me.  Maggie had a blast this past week, the reason I know this... she is still recovering!

I'm sorry, it's been far too long!

Oh my goodness!  Where has the time gone?  It has been forever since my last post, and for that I'm sorry. 

Plus, this post is going to be short and sweet - no pictures or anything!  I can't believe I don't even have time to post pictures - I always post at least one picture!

This past weekend was my girl's trip that I talked about here. Because of the time frame and $$ we decided to stay close to home. We spent a day shopping in Branson, MO and then headed over to Kansas City.  We ate at the Cheesecake Factory and walked around the Plaza for awhile.  It was a blast! 

I'm home and will be working on loading pictures on my computer, but the pile of laundry is calling my name first.  Plus, my sister is in town for the weekend and that never happens!

Sorry for such a short post, there will be much more soon!

Oh no! No camera!

In all my glory, I left my camera at the folks house this past weekend.  I'm really depressed about it too because my camera goes with me everywhere - I mean everywhere.  So, for this week I will have to share photos taken with my iPhone.  The quality may not be as good and I can't do that many fancy tricks with the Photoshop App as I can with the full blown program, but it will have to suffice.

Maggie on our way home from the folks house... she was soo sleepy.

Weekend Teaser

I have a few pictures from this past weekend.  The boy and I headed to my hometown for a few days to visit my folks. 

On Saturday afternoon we went to the park and played on the jungle gym - I have to admit that we had a blast. 

 

This one is a little blurry, okay it's a lot blurry and you can see my reflection in the background.  But this is Maggie with my Dad's dog Zella.  She has grown sooo much since the last time we saw her.  Maggie and her had a ton of fun playing the whole weekend.  The poor girl was exhausted on the way back home.

There are more pictures to come, I just have to sit down and download them from my camera.

Destination Ideas

 

My friend and I are planning our annual girls trip for early December, we're both excited.  Last year's trip was to Memphis.  We visited Graceland, went sight seeing, shopping, and basically, we had a blast.  One thing that we are doing different this year, flying.  We decided that instead of wasting time driving to our destination, we would just fly.

I love to fly, I don't know why.  There really isn't a reason for my love of flying, it just exists. 

Now here comes the dilemma... we don't know where to go!  We need suggestions, desperately. 



Credit.

 There's always Denver.

Credit.

Or Atlanta.



Credit.

 Even Houston.

Decisions, decisions. Do you have any suggestions?



My Travels: Old St. Charles, MO

This past weekend the boy and I headed to Historic Main Street in St. Charles, MO.  It is one of my favorite places to be, ever.  The old buildings, their history, the shops, and being right on the riverfront is unbelievable.  Unfortunately, I was too wrapped up in shopping to take too many pictures this trip.  I did get two - both of the boy.  They do speak for themselves.  I asked Kyle to stand my Daniel Boone to get a picture, so he casually leans on him.  Well of course the metal statue burned him, so then we tried again.

One of the must-see stores is the Flower Petaler, they have great decorations at reasonable prices and the best part ...a ton of inspiration!  I made a table centerpiece out of Christmas ornaments and I made a ribbon-weave for my tree last year from ideas I got from FP; and this year I am going to make a new centerpiece for Christmas with what I saw this past weekend.  Also, I will be making a couple of Fall decorations that were inspired from the store.

Things to do and see: St. Louis

Found here.

Every time I go to St. Louis I drag the boy to all these tourists attractions (I know that he secretly loves it).  I have been to St. Louis hundreds of times now, considering some of my family lives there and as a kid we would spend Christmas morning opening presents and then piling in the car to head to Grandma and Grandpa's house in St. Louis.  I have spent many hours in a car riding/driving/sleeping my way to that city; however, I haven't BEEN to that many places while there.

So, I have decided to make a bucket list of sorts ... just for St. Louis and the fun things that I want to do while there.  You will probably notice that some of the items are already marked off.  I really enjoy crossing things off a to-do list and am known to put things on that are already finished.  So what?  I feel more accomplished that way.

1. Arch
2. Botanical Garden
3. Cardinals Game
4. Blues Game
5. The Muny
6. Art Museum
7. City Museum
8. Sculptors Park
9. Zoo
10. Gambling Boat
11. Boat House
12. Historic St. Charles (but I will go again, especially around Christmas)
13. Ted Drewe's
14. Science Center
15. The Hill (I sooo want to go again, the food is amazing)
16. Union Station
17. Jewel Box
18. The Magic House (Last summer I went there for a wedding reception - so neat! but I didn't really get to explore past the upstairs)
19. Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tour

-Meredith

Saint Louis, MO: We are going to rock this city

Here are a few pictures from this past weekend; my family invaded St. Louis to watch the Cardinals play and to visit the zoo.  We had a blast.

-Meredith

Life update ... so far

It's been awhile since I've had the time, or really anything to talk about on my blog.  Don't get me wrong I have been busy.  It's been almost like a tornado the past few weeks.  Let's start with the oldest event and work our way forward:

Kyle at The Lady & Sons

Kyle & I on the dinner cruise

Vacation in Hilton Head, South Carolina with Kyle's family.  It was a blast.  A week filled with relaxing on the beach, eating good southern fried food.  I did get burned the first day we were there, so in the pictures I have this red tan line from my suit.  We traveled to Savannah, Georgia one morning, and we waited in line to make reservations at The Lady & Sons (Paula Deen's restaurant).  After the reservations were made we took the trolley through historic Savannah, seeing all of the old homes and history was neat.  In Savannah they have this society in which new construction in the city has to be done to a specific code, similar to how it would of been done when the town first started.  The trolley driver stopped between two houses that appeared identical, one was built in the 1800s, the other in 1996.  I couldn't get over how every detail was identical.  I wish Springfield would have a society similar to that! 

After the week long vacation I came home to packing my apartment.  Who knows why I decided that the best weekend to move was the one right after my trip.  Luckily my parents were willing to help.  Now, I am in a bigger place with a fenced in yard for Maggie.  I have to admit that my favorite feature about the place is the garage.  No more scrapping ice and snow off my windshield during the winter.  I will be having an AHHH moment after the first snow.

I have been in my new place a little over two weeks and still have several boxes to unpack.  Kyle has helped put together shelving units for the garage, so all of my many many Christmas boxes can be organized; and he put together a bookcase in my office.  I don't know if I would call it much of an office right now, sure it has a bookcase, desk, file cabinet, and other pieces of an office; but I haven't used it much.  The main reason for that is the fact I do not have internet hooked up yet.  I've been debating internet for too long and just need to get it.  It's so expensive in Springfield and I just keep thinking that the money could be better spent elsewhere, but then I realize I have been slacking on updating this blog and have had a difficult time finding a way to pay my bills online.  I have a feeling that I will have to break down and get internet hooked up this week.

Botanical Garden

While I was in St. Louis a few weeks ago, Kyle and I went to the Botanical Garden for the afternoon.  I had never been and I wish I would of went sooner because it was beautiful.  Nothing is better than spending the day walking around a massive garden filled with different flowers, fountains, old buildings, and even ... a maze!  I wanted a decent picture of myself in the garden at the main entrance and Kyle, well being Kyle, decided that positioning me under the sunburst was a better idea.  It's sad to say that I had no idea why he kept having me move, but I was getting annoyed and just wanted him to take the picture. 

A picture of Kyle reading the map is becoming a tradition...

After several hours of walking around, my feet were ready to fall off.  I did happen to wear the worst flip-flops imaginable for a day of walking outside on gravel, grass, sidewalks, rock passages, etc...  I was nervous when we approached the maze and I think Kyle was to since we decided that I could lead the way.  We both know my sense of direction, and if you knew how I could get lost in a city in which the streets were set out like a grid, you would be nervous too.  So, to both of our surprises I didn't get lost or go down a dead end once.

the maze that I conquered...

So pretty...

I thought this was a great quote...

"No individual has any right to come into the world and go out of it without leaving behind him distinct and legitimate reasons for having passed through it." -George Washington Carver