City 29.....Check

January 4-7th, 2013

San Diego here we come.  What better way to spend a weekend!  While it's chilly in the Midwest we headed for a warmer destination.  My Mom has wanted to travel to a city with me for awhile and it happened to be my Dad and Mom's 35th wedding anniversary.  It turns out that we found cheap tickets and didn't hesitate for a second to book the trip.  Zack and I just got to tag along.

Friday we met at the airport and headed for Coronado Island to visit the Del Hotel.  We talked through the shops until we found the best Mexican restaurant there is, Miguels.  Oh so good, but let's not talk about what I ate.  TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE!

Saturday morning, Dad and I got up to run (much needed from the night before).  We googled a place to eat for lunch and settled on a place from Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives Luigi's Pizza.  We were the first customers and the guy making the pizza started off by saying, don't ask any questions I have no time for answers.  Well alright then.  We ended up with 11 slices of pizza and 3 drinks for $20.  I think we found a deal!  We headed for the USS Midway that afternoon, Gaslamp District, and Balboa Park before heading to a Fish Market for dinner.

Sunday morning we headed back to Coronado Island for an eight mile bike tour.  This tour was on and off again several times.  They only do tours of 6 people or more.  We only had four, but they made an exception.  We had so much fun riding all over the island.  Only one mishap on the bike.  At one point Mom thought she had the wrong bike, but once she turned the handlebars around it was hers again!  Afterwards we had a HUGE lunch before Seaworld.  Seaworld was a cross between an amusement park, Disney World, and a zoo.  It was actually pretty fun!  For our last meal we headed back to Miguels where of course I ate TERRIBLE again.  How could you not?

What a quick fun trip!  Thanks Dad, Mom, and Zack! 

Happy 30th Amanda

December 28, 2012

Amanda is joining the 30 Club and had a great evening planned.  The exciting part about the birthday party was the fact that Lee Ann, Miranda,and Lauren were all coming to St. Louis for the celebration.  We arrived to St. Louis around 4 PM, quickly changed, and met Amanda at Sub Zero.  She rented out a room and provided food for her party.  After the party we went to see Wicked at the Fox Theater followed by Cafe O in Central West End.  It was a great evening!

Saturday was a slow start to the day, but we headed to the Zoo for Wild Lights and dinner.  Afterwards we went to Bailey's Chocolate Bar before calling it a weekend!

What a great time with wonderful friends!

Try My Hand At Cooking

December 27, 2012

Mom had invited a family over for an Italian dinner during Christmas.  If you remember a few posts ago I had taken a vegan cooking classes and I couldn't wait to "try" to cook for my family.  I brought all my recipes, encouraged everyone to help me out, and started the big task of cooking.  Everything turned out wonderful from the pesto, tomato sauce, and eggplant.  I really enjoyed everything!  I'm pretty sure my Mom didn't enjoy me being in the kitchen. She is probably still finding tomato sauce everywhere!  I just keep reminding her that she loves when we come home!

Catching Up

This time of year it's always great to catch up with friends that you don't get to see very often.  Lauren came over one evening and showed us her "30 by 31" book.  Brad met us for lunch at Chick-fil-A one afternoon.  Katie Stetson was in town visiting family and just moved to Orlando.  It was so great to see her and Shawn again.  They have 2 babies now, so it was so much fun catching up!

"A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself."  Jim Morrison

Home for the Holidays

Sunday, December 23rd

Early on Sunday morning the boys, elf, and I loaded up the car and finally got to head back to St. Joe.  I could hardly wait to get home this year!  First stop was of course Abuelo's where you eat until you are sick.  That was going to be my one terrible day of Christmas.  Wish that was the case, but I was on vacation.

Rachel reminded me that last year we volunteered at the Food Kitchen on Christmas day.  There were several volunteers already that day, so we chose Christmas Eve this year.  We started the morning off by serving.  Christmas Eve we headed to Frederick Inn where we met Grandma and the extended family.  We headed to Grandma's for presents and dessert before Christmas Eve service at Grace.

Christmas morning came quickly and found that Santa had made a visit.  This year Santa got us some gift cards and a new Bible.  Christmas is all about the family and we just have a wonderful time with each other.  We can make anything entertaining.  We took our time opening presents, eating appetizers, big dinners and laughing! 

Thank you everyone for a wonderful Christmas!  It comes so fast, but I love when we get together. Before we know it, we'll be doing it again!

Merry Christmas!

St. Louis Christmas With the Boys

December 22, 2012

In St. Louis there are some cute Christmas traditions, especially in St. Charles.  When the boys arrived (after seeing the elf) we rushed over to St. Charles Main Street to meet Christmas characters.  They have different individuals in the Christmas story dress up and hand out playing cards.  There were 35 characters in total, but we met around 11.  We met the Candy cane maker, Gingerbread maker, chestnut cookers, and Pierre Noel to name a few.  The boys had fun collecting the cards.

After main street we headed over to The Crossing to volunteer for a Christmas Eve service.  My church had 21 different services spread out over the weekend.  It felt like a rushed evening, but we had fun throughout the day!

Elf on the Shelf

December 22, 2012

Rachel asked if I could babysit the boys on December 22nd while they attended the Illinois/Missouri basketball game.  Of course, YES couldn't come out fast enough.  Love those boys!

At some point this Christmas season I told Brady that I had an Elf on the Shelf.  Almost daily he called to ask what my Elf was doing.  The first time he called I was very confused, but Rachel reminded me that I had an elf also.  Whatever I was doing in the moment Brady called became what my elf was doing.  Ty and Brady's elf sits around their house, but my elf was having a "party" every time they called.  The elf would be in the refrigerator eating chocolate, ice skating on ice cubes, or even typing emails to Santa giving him updates on the weather.

Saturday morning I reminded Rachel I needed her to bring the elf to St. Louis and run it in the house before the boys got there.  I had a plan.  The elf would be around my running medals and had just finished a race that morning.  Plan worked great until the boys came in and were disappointed by the below picture.  I think they thought it would be dancing or flying across the room.

Now, how do I get the elf back to St. Joe.   Well the elf got its "hand" stuck in a book i was taking home.  That did bring a little laughter as we figured we better take it with us.  We couldn't touch it to remove him.  That was the first car ride for the Elf and we checked on that elf the whole way to St. Joe!