Anniversary #4 (Missouri)

So at this point we are on our way to St. Louis. We have now driven through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, ending in Missouri.

We pulled into St. Louis and parked on a side street downtown to Priceline a hotel. The one that came up was the Crowne Plaza right downtown across the street from the Arch and Busch Stadium (The Cardinals). So here we are walking into the lobby to check in with our backpacks, dirty hair and dirty horse clothes. I'm sure people were staring! We checked into our room and then headed back down to the parking garage to get our cooler and food. We couldn't leave it in the car, and we had to keep refilling the cooler with ice...so up it came. We hauled it from the basement parking garage up to the 21st floor. We had to walk through the lobby with it and then ride the elevator up. We were laughing so hard at what this scene must look like to others that we could barely carry the cooler/food bin.

On the balcony off our room

View from our balcony- the State House and Busch Stadium. A game had just started.

The Arch and Mississippi River from our balcony.

Our new campsite. It was a suite so we had a fridge and microwave.

It was such a relief to walk into A/C. The weather was also much cooler in St. Louis.

We showered and then headed out to find a Target to get some supplies for the weekend. Please note below that Scott packed hair putty. He was planning on doing his hair in the woods, as we THOUGHT we would be camping this whole weekend :)

After Target we spent the evening in the room watching the Oregon football game. It was the first for the season, and didn't end well. They have since made up for it. Since we had our camp food and a microwave we ate the Sloppy Joe's we would have had in the woods. The irony of the entire weekend was just too much  :)

After dinner and the game I beat Scott in Phase 10. He was all talk before and during the game...but it didn't really work out that well for him in the end. 

Lowest score wins!

Sunday we spent the day walking around the base of the Arch, attending a Cardinals game and picking up souvenir Cardinals shirts and poking around downtown. There is a park called Citygarden right downtown that is full of sculptures and wading pools for kids to play on/in. We also walked to the Wainwright Building which is credited as on of the first skyscrapers in the world. It was 10 stories tall and made of brick. Can you imagine when a skyscraper was 10 stories tall?!

The Wainwright building. The original building is the brick  building that is 4 windows wide. The rest was added on much later. 

Detail of the building

One of the sculptures in the Citygarden. The arms all moved (slowly).

For some reason I thought I could stand on the curved portion of the sculpture. Scott caught my attempt on camera.

It was such a cool place right downtown where families mingled. Downtown St. Louis seemed so safe even at night, it was  amazing. 

Pinocchio was there!

That night we went to The Hill (the Italian District) for dinner. When we arrived there was a bike race going on so we stopped to watch that for a bit before going to the restaurant. Lorenzo's was where we ate and it was amazing. We had beef tenderloin with Arugula and truffle oil, Chicken Pesto Pizza and a Meat Pizza. St. Louis has their own type of pizza (like Chicago or New York). They consist of a thin crust, a really sweet, light tomato sauce and a cheese blend that has no Mozzarella. It's called Provel and it's a mix of Provolone, Swiss, and Cheddar. It was DELISH!!

Italian house in The Hill

Later that night we went up to to the rooftop pool. It was way too cold and windy and there was no hot tub (what?!) but we did get a good view of the Arch from up there. 

Monday we went and did the Arch tour and headed back to Collierville. Next time we're in St. Louis we'll be going to Six Flags, a Blues game, the zoo and City Museum. It was a great weekend and such a fun city!

Anniversary #4 (Kentucky)

I've been dying to go to Florida since we moved here. Destin is only an 8 hour drive and Orlando is only about 12. I want to go to Disneyworld so bad! I thought I could convince Scott to go to Florida if I agreed to camp instead of get a hotel, not to mention I think it would actually be really fun to camp on the beach.

I looked up campgrounds where we put our tent in the sand, had it all planned out....but then we decided not to take the Thursday off before the long weekend, and we had to be back at work on Tuesday so it wasn't worth the drive for just Fri-Monday. Back-up plan: backcountry camping at Land Between the Lakes, KY. 

We planned our trip, were all excited to go "backcountry" camping and on Friday morning we packed up and headed 3 hours north to Kentucky. Let me just say two things: 1. it was SO hot, like 100 degrees and 2. backcountry camping is pretty much just regular camping to any Canadian/Oregonian. It wasn't really the rustic, serene, put your tent on the lake shore kind of camping we were excited for. 

So, day 1. We are in Kentucky and have checked in/paid for our permit ($10 for 3 nights) at the main house. We have our maps and begin driving around checking out all of the "backcountry" camp spots. The park is huge and is surrounded by 2 lakes (Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake) as it straddles the Tennessee/Kentucky border.

While out looking for campsites we stopped to fill up our drinking/cooking water jug. There was a tap in the bathroom  just a few feet away, but as you can imagine, it was disgusting looking. I'm sorry, but I can't drink water that I saw come out of that tap. Instead, I filled up our water jug using the water fountain. It was hilarious and took forever. The fountain would run out of steam and we'd have to stop and let it rest and then start back up again. The best part- we dumped the whole jug out the next day.

We drove around and found ourselves driving down this dirt "road" that we were sure would lead us to the best, private camp spot...the one from our dreams. WELL...Lets just say we learned the the Honda Civic can actually become an off-roading vehicle when necessary...and we'll never travel down any road marked "141" again. We weren't sure we would make it out with our car still in one piece. After we finally maneuvered our way off road 141 we just went back to the first camp spot we had come upon and set up camp by our neighbors. 

Our camp on Lake Barkley

As I said before, it was hot! And our food needed to be cooked over a fire. Scott decided to go for a swim in the lake. I wanted to join, but the lake was stinky, had lots of bugs swarming around AND a really muddy bottom. It wasn't the swimming section of the lake. Scott didn't mind though and he was off. He swam across the lake to the other side and back while I waited for our fire to die down so we could roast our potatoes and sausages. 

Scott swimming across the lake

Scott got back from his swim and was already asking if we were really going to stay out here all weekend. Yes, I said. It was our anniversary and we have never done anything fun for it and so yes, dang-it, we'll be staying out here all weekend! He said okay.

We roasted our potatoes and sausages and sat down to a lovely camp dinner. 

I had forgot to pack s'more stuff, so after dinner we had ourselves a game of cards and got ready for bed. We set up our beds in our little tent and laid down to read. Our camp neighbors in our "backcountry" camp ground had a generator. Yes, a generator. Hooked up to their trailer. (In fact, besides one other site, we were the only ones with a tent. Everyone else had a trailer/ 5th wheel.) So, needless to say it was a loud night as we laid in our tent, under the stars and listed to the frogs, the crickets....and the generator.

It was a long night. It was so hot! Even without our rain fly on, it was still so hot. There was no wind and therefore no breeze blowing through the mostly net tent.

Day 2. We woke up with the sun (what I think is a great perk to camping) and again, Scott asked if we were really going to stay. He kept reminding me there was a lodge a few miles away :) I thought about it, and yes, it was really too hot to camp, and certainly too hot to do anything outdoorsy during the daytime.

Camp on Saturday morning.

We pushed the thoughts out of our minds and went on to eat breakfast. I had bought this camp toaster at Wal-Mart and it was only a couple of bucks, so Scott was making fun of me for getting it. He was certain it wouldn't work. I showed him!

Cooking breakfast- eggs and English muffins.

Toasted perfection! Well worth the $2 and change. 

After we finished eating we continued our discussion on staying out the weekend. I said it was our anniversary weekend and so we could pack up camp, but we weren't going home. I casually mentioned that St. Louis was only about 180 miles away...and Scott replied "why wasn't I informed of this yesterday!". I was shocked (and thrilled) that he so quickly agreed to drastic change of plans, without any pre-planning or pre-budgeting. It was spontaneous and just what we needed.

We had a horseback trail ride scheduled for that morning, so we quickly packed up camp (and by packed up I mean we took the tent down and threw it in the trunk along with our sleeping bags and sleeping pads. We had no time to pack everything away properly before having to be at our horse ride!) and headed to ride horses.

The horseback ride was a lot of fun. Scott's horse had a mind of it's own and kept stopping to eat. We were told by the guide that we weren't allowed to let them eat, so Scott kept getting called out by the guide to "stop letting Twobug eat!"...and his horse didn't want to stay on the trail so Scott spent a lot of the ride fighting his horse.

My horse. Her name was Cowgirl. She had a bit of an attitude.

Scott and his buddy Twobug.

Helmets were mandatory and we had to be concerned about the ticks. Hence our sweet outfits of helmets and high socks!

After our horseback ride was finished (about 10am) we refilled our cooler with ice and hit the road. We were St. Louis bound with no plan, no hotel, camp clothes and minimal toiletries. It turned out to be the best weekend....

Summer Vacation 2011

This year Scott and got away from the Memphis heat and spent about 10 days with family in Coeur d'Alene, ID. We met my family at my grandparents house and enjoyed a week of boating, goofing around, shopping and great company. Besides the concussion that Jared got one day at the lake, there were no injuries :)

The boys did lost of golfing, and we spend lots of time laying out and playing on the boat. One day we spent just a day with the Biggs' family and went into Spokane. We ate lunch at this old diner "Wolfy's" and then did some shopping. Shelbie came downtown later in the afternoon and took some family pictures for us. It has been years (summer before my grade 12 year) since we had family photos taken, so it was nice to get some updated ones. As soon as I get them from Shelbie I'll post them. I know there were some great ones! We ended our family day at PF Changs. It was DELICIOUS! We polished off 2 apps, 7 entrees and rice....and they had to roll us out of there. It was so worth it though!

One day was also designated as our Silverwood day. I LOVE amusement parks, and this is a good one. We got there before it opened so we could be the first in line. It was important because there is a water park as well as a roller coaster park and we wanted to get good lounge chairs in the water park portion. Dad cut in line and we ran like fools and got great lounge chairs for all 15 of us right in front of the wave pool! We looked (and felt) ridiculous, but having lounge chairs to come back to when the place is packed makes the running worth it! (Not to mention lots of other people ran too...)

The boys and I spent all morning riding the roller coasters. We even got Sam on all of the same rides that we did! We were so proud of him! We ate lunch and then spent the afternoon at the water park on all the water slides, tube slides and in the wave pool. We vowed to stay there until it closed, so after Kathy, Kris, Kylie, Kira, Shelbie and Gma/Gpa left the rest of us (mum, dad, Scott, Jordan, Jared, Spencer, Sam, me) went back to our favorite rides of the day and did them again. We got mum on all the coasters....even the worst of them all (aka, the best!). She was a trooper and we even bought the photo they take of you because all of our faces were hilarious!

It was such a fun trip, but as always, way too short. We can't wait to get home for Christmas!

Jared fell asleep in Grandpa's chair with sparky.  We all laughed because he looked like an old man!

Sam and Kira on the tube.

The family all relaxing on the beach.

Dad getting ready for a boat ride.

Scott's Birthday

August 19 was Scott's 28th birthday. We kept it low-key (that's what he likes) and even though that was hard for me to do, I did it and it was a great night.

On Friday (his birthday) I ducked out of work early and got home before him to get his presents ready and finish cleaning up the house we had been house sitting that week. Friday was the last day we house sat (and kid sat), so I went over there and took our sheets out of the dryer and remade the bed and finished cleaning the house before the parents got home.

Scott got home from work and I had our house-sitting duties finished and his gifts wrapped on the table. He opened them up, and then we got in the car to head to dinner. He didn't want to go anywhere fancy, but I wanted to go somewhere out of our usual circuit. I ended up choosing Central BBQ in Memphis. I drove so that he wouldn't know where we were going. We had to drive through some ghetto to get there, so he was somewhat confused for a while. In the end, the BBQ was fantastic and we can't wait to go back there again.

We ended the night with a redbox and some Oreo cheesecake. Happy 28th birthday, Scott!

That Stinker...

Scott stops by periodically to see me at work (he does have to pass my "office" on his way home...). On one of his more recent visits he thought it would be extra special to take a picture of me in "my element".

 

I guess this is what "my element" looks like. Notice the water bottle (most likely Crystal Light) and apple peeler. That must mean I'm a snacker (which I am) and that I'm a healthy snacker (which I am. Not).