5 places I want to go in 2016.

See 2015's list here.

1. Kansas City, MO // Every time Ben and I drive out west we pass through Kansas City and mention how fun it would be to stop and explore. With a cousin now living there (moved just a few days ago!), I'd love to make the 3 1/2 hour drive to see historic church sites, eat good BBQ, and do some shopping downtown.

2. New York City, NY // Some of our friends moved to NYC last year, and we've been dying to go visit them for a few days! While there I would be ecstatic to see Times Square again, visit the new(ish) 9/11 memorial, and eat a Levain Bakery cookie. (Repeat from last year.)

3. Indianapolis, IN // Ben has an aunt and uncle that live in Indianapolis and with it only being a 4 hour drive away, it sounds like a fun weekend trip! The Civil War museum, Cajun/Creole food at Yats, and a walk along Central Canal are calling my name. (Repeat from last year.)

4. St. George, UT // When I think of a fun and relaxing destination, I think of St. George! I'd love to go with family this year and check out Zions National Park, get a juicy steak at Anasazi Grill, and see an outdoor play at the Tuacahn.

5. San Diego, CA // After going east for our "big" vacation last year, I feel like we need to go west this year to balance things out. ;) I've spent hardly any time in San Diego and have heard lots of good things about it from friends. It would be fun to check out La Jolla Cove, find some authentic Mexican food, and see the Mormon Battalion Historic Site.

Where are you hoping to travel to this year?

architecture + good food + lots of walking

^^Pardon the B&W photos. The shadows were horrendous.^^

^^Frank Lloyd Wright home!^^

Since my humanities class in mid-2010, I've had a fascination with Frank Lloyd Wright homes and have been dying to take a tour of one. After several failed attempts to schedule a tour of the FLW home in St. Louis, I had given up all hope of getting to see one anytime soon. 

Ben suggested that we use Memorial Day as an excuse to get out of town and go on an architecture tour, and he discovered that Chicago offered a 3 1/2 hour long bus tour that showcases the works of many well-known architects. We booked tickets and I mentally prepared myself to spend 3 1/2 hours looking at buildings. ;) Turns out that the tour was actually quite interesting and extremely informative. AND. A FLW home was one of the 4 stops on the tour! (If you've done the river/lake architecture tour and enjoyed it, try going on the extended bus tour!)

We were able to cram quite a bit into our short 36 hour long trip, and we ended up walked over 35,000 steps in the two days! Our feet we so sore by the time we got in the car to drive home.

What we did and how we felt about it:

ate at Taqueria El Asadero - meh

grabbed shakes at Margie's Candies - amazing!

took the Harry Potter quiz online to discover our houses/wands - amazing!

bus architecture tour - amazing!

watched the Memorial Day parade for a good 45 minutes - amazing!/meh at times

ate hotdogs & hamburgers at Portillo's - amazing!

grabbed a bag of Garrett mix popcorn - amazing!

walked along the lakefront - amazing!

walked through Millennium Park - amazing! (It was sooo hot at this point.)

checked out the Chicago Cultural Center - amazing!

did some shopping on Michigan Ave - amazing!

ate at Lou Malnati's Pizzeria - amazing!

grabbed some gelato at Paciugo - meh

played Mario Party on the Wii U - amazing!

(Thanks to Mandie and Myk for letting us crash at their place/hang out with them. :))

girls' trip to Chicago.

A few weekends ago, Ben headed to a conference in downtown San Francisco. We had checked flights to see if it'd be feasible for me to tag along and quickly discovered that we'd basically have to sell our kidneys to make it happen. Instead of illegally auctioning off vital organs, I ended up taking the train up to Chicago ($54 roundtrip! What?!) the day after Ben left to meet my mom for a girls' weekend. It was a ridiculously fun, short, cold trip!

^^Eataly was a fun Italian market/restaurant/store to explore. My cousin (who now lives in Chicago) lived in Italy for 18 months and she showed us different foods around the store that she had eaten while living abroad. We picked up some pear & goat cheese stuffed pasta to make for Sunday dinner, and I discovered that, although not awful, goat cheese isn't my favorite. ;)^^

^^Days leading up to the trip, my weather app was telling me it was going to snow a decent amount and be frigid all weekend long. However, we lucked out with light snow and not too terribly freezing temperatures! Rain boots would have been nice though. :)^^ 

 ^^Post-church snack. I'd heard quite a bit about Garrett Popcorn, so we picked some up to try. The dark chocolate and caramel was to die for. (How cute is that house in the background?)^^

^^I'm a big fan of Impressionist art, but especially anything by van Gogh, Monet, and Renoir. While walking around, I came across the painting I've had as my laptop background for a while now and that was pretty fun!^^

^^Obligatory picture with "The Bean."^^

Food we tried that you should probably try, too: Garrett Popcorn, Cafe Iberico, The Purple Pig, Rosebud, Giordano's, Grand Lux Cafe (we went here twice for desserts!)

5 places i want to go this year.

1. Chicago, IL // Living just a short 5 hour drive away, Chicago has become one of my favorite weekend getaways! So much to do, so much to eat. :) This year, I want to try Garrett's Popcorn, see the art museum, and get Spanish food at Cafe Iberico!
Update: Did all three February 7-10!

2. Orlando, FL // I've been once before, but I'm in desperate need of some warmer weather and sun. I would love to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Disneyworld, and grab some food at Yellow Dog Eats.
Update: Conquered the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at the end of November.

3. New York City, NY // With our friends moving to NYC later this year, I can guarantee we'll be on the lookout for cheap tickets to go visit them. I'd love to see Times Square again, visit the 9/11 memorial, and eat a Levain Bakery cookie.

4. Indianapolis, IN // Ben has an aunt and uncle that live in Indianapolis and with it only being a 4 hour drive away, it sounds like a fun weekend trip! The Civil War museum, Cajun/Creole food at Yats, and a walk along Central Canal are calling my name.

5. London, England // This one is the most unrealistic destination on my list, but it's always fun to dream. :) I'd be over the moon if I could see Big Ben, take a tour of Buckingham Palace, and eat a slow-roast lamb sandwich from Sticky Beaks.

Where do you want to go this year?

we basically skipped Halloween this year and went on a trip instead.

A month ago some friends asked us if we'd be interested in trekking across some of Kentucky and Tennessee with them to go to BYU football game over Halloween weekend. Since we love BYU football (Ben especially!), we love spending time with friends, and we don't really love Halloween, it was a no-brainer to tag along.

I think I've mentioned before that every major city around St. Louis is almost exactly 4 or 5 hours away, and in every direction. (A benefit of being smack dab in the middle of the US?) I hit up Memphis with some girlfriends earlier this year and really enjoyed Tennessee, but I've been dying to visit Nashville for the longest time. Good BBQ, country music, and southern accents? Too much for me to handle. Fun fact: I've always wanted a southern accent, but since that won't be happening, I want to convince Ben to find a job in the south so our kids can pick up one. "Yes, ma'am" and "no, sir" all day long? Too cute. Anyway, moving on.

Friday night we stopped in Kentucky for some southern comfort food - mashed potatoes and cornbread muffins galore! - before continuing on to Nashville. We spent the night just outside of the city, and explored downtown Nashville the next morning. (Did you know Nashville's Music City Center is 2.1 million square feet and takes up 16 acres downtown?! It's probably the longest building I've ever seen.) After a tour of the city, we headed to the BYU tailgate for some food and entertainment.

By 11 am it was still only 42 degrees and pretty windy, so within 5 minutes of being outside, Ben and I were absolutely frozen because we had only packed some sweatshirts and thin socks (my fault - I packed and didn't anticipate how cold it would be). I'm sure you can imagine how fun the tailgate was. ;) At least the free BYU stuff, pulled pork and baked beans, and live country music made up for it. Free stuff can make up for almost anything, right? However, before the game started we made a run to Walmart for scarves, gloves, blankets, hand warmers, etc.

The BYU vs. MTSU game was a good one for the following reasons:
1) Watching football in person is better than watching it on the TV.
2) They were selling hot chocolate (at a ridiculous price, but at that point I would have sold my firstborn for something warm) and it was delicious.
3) WE ACTUALLY WON.
4) Believe it or not, BYU had more fans there than MTSU and trust me when I say they came from all over. We saw California, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Oregon, and Maine license plates. Even a mini van from Utah!
5) The guy sitting behind was uttering hilarious comments under his breath throughout the game.
6) WE ACTUALLY WON.
7) The halftime entertainment was priceless.
8) We high-fived all of the players after the game and I think Ben was in heaven.
9) DID I MENTION WE ACTUALLY WON?
10) And we got a picture with Cosmo before the game. Crossed that off the bucket list.

That evening we discovered that Nashville has the best authentic Mexican food ever. Even Ben, who served a Spanish speaking mission and is highly critical of tacos at Mexican restaurants, deemed their tacos as authentic and amazing. Just stop for a minute and picture the restaurant. Blacked out windows in a little strip mall store that looks too ghetto to offer much, entering to find that every single seat is taken and people are crowding around the bar, a huge projector in the front of the restaurant showing a soccer game between two South American teams, and people going crazy every time someone almost scored a goal. I think in between stuffing my face with chips and salsa, I tried to convince Ben to do a postdoc at Vanderbilt University so I can become a regular at the restaurant. It was that delicious. (Cafe Rio sweet pork, however, is still my favorite food of all time.)

We hit the road, got home super late, and somehow made it to church on time. Life is good and I want to move to Nashville.

The end.

this was a "first" for us.

 

It amazes me that after a few years of marriage, you can still have "firsts." You know what I mean by "firsts," right? First car purchase, first real job, first fight (haha), first Christmas together, first anniversary, and so on and so on. This weekend was our first trip away together (besides our honeymoon) in our 2 1/2 years of marriage - because our families live far away, we use all of our vacation time to go out to Denver or Salt Lake City any chance we get. The opportunity for a quick little weekend getaway to Branson, MO presented itself and we were all too eager to jump on it.

The weather recently in St. Louis has been fall-like, so naturally, I packed us sweaters and pants and socks. Since Mother Nature clearly has a mind of her own, she decided to throw us a curve ball this past weekend and bring back the 90 degree & 80% humidity weather. Thus, sweaty faces and frizzy hair. 

The red and yellow trees made up for it all. As did the perfect little lake and marina.

We knew going down that we didn't want to check out any of the shows and we definitely didn't want to have a schedule, so we didn't plan a single thing. We went for walks, we ate good food, we got a malt shake to share from an old-fashioned candy counter, we sat outside under the stars and talked, we explored the town a bit, we read, and we slept well without the noise of the city in the background. It was perfect and relaxing to get away from all responsibilities!

Definitely already planning our next little getaway. :)

Word of advice: go to Branson during the fall and you won't be disappointed.

Also, try the twice baked potatoes at the Chateau Grille.

Skagway, AK & Victoria, BC

Catch the first part of our trip here and the second part here.

On Wednesday we had the chance to explore a cute little town called Skagway. With only 900 permanent residents, most of the hustle and bustle of the town comes from tourists. Okay, all of the activity comes from tourists. Ha. We checked out a small Alaska museum/gift shop and a few other shops before deciding to ditch "downtown" and just walk around the town. As we were out and about walking, we ran into some missionaries! (We didn't take our cameras out since it was raining when we got off the boat and all I have are camera photos unfortunately.)

^^We found the local LDS church. So small, and so different from any other I've ever seen!^^

Thursday was another day at sea. At this point I had caught some kind of nasty cold, so my day was full of lounging in heated chairs at the spa reading The Help (Side story: Possibly one of my most favorite books I've ever read. Everyone should read it!), eating all of the pre-cut fruit I could find on the ship, and religiously taking DayQuil and vitamins. Fortunately I was able to curtail my cold and my energy came back just in time to explore Victoria Island on Friday!

I had been to Victoria before, but all I remembered was the condo we stayed in and touring some old castle. So between that and just being older on this trip, I felt like I was discovering a new city. Our first stop was Chinatown; honestly, it wasn't as cool as the Chinatown in San Francisco or New York, but it was still fun to walk around and see something different for a change. 

We stumbled across a small outdoor market and a bunch of really cute restaurants on our way back downtown. 

My second favorite thing to see on the island was the gigantic parliament building. It was absolutely beautiful and impressive in every way possible.

^^The famous Empress Hotel - built between 1904 and 1908.^^

After hanging around downtown for a little bit my mom, grandma, and I took a taxi to Butchart Gardens. This was definitely my favorite thing we saw/explored on the island - the weather was perfect for walking through acres of flowers! And now for too many pictures of flowers. . .

To kick off our week of cruising with a bang! we spent our evening watching one last cruise ship show, stuffing our faces with one last fancy dinner we didn't have to prepare ourselves, some reading, and a cheesecake run at 1 am. It was the best and definitely one of my most favorite trips ever, and I'm dying to go back already!

Japanese Festival in the gardens.

Every year the Missouri Botanical Garden hosts a Japanese Festival with various activities all weekend long. Ben's sister was interested in checking out the festival while she was visiting, so we grabbed our cameras, purchased some tickets, and made our way through it all. It started raining as soon as we got there, but it made for some pretty pictures the rest of the time. Believe it or not, none of these photos have been edited - everything was so bright!

Juneau, AK & Glacier

Catch the first part of our trip here.

Juneau was definitely nothing what I expected! Besides an occasional tall government building here or there, it was mostly rows of shops (for tourists), small businesses/restaurants, and houses. I was also surprised to find that the Capitol building doesn't look like your typical Capitol building with a dome and granite, but is really just a simple, old building. We ended up taking a tour of it and learned quite a bit about Alaska's history, but my favorite thing was hearing the tour guide refer to the rest of the US (minus Hawaii) as the "lower 48." I can't wait to start using the term any chance I get. ;)

^^The Capitol. With 4 fancy pillars.^^

The cruise ship wasn't docked in Juneau for very long and because of the weather we didn't plan to head out on any excursions, so we spent a few hours walking around the "city." We found quite a few jewelry stores, lots of animal furs, and millions of Alaska sweatshirts (can't wait for the weather to cool down a bit so I can wear mine everyday. ;)) Juneau was definitely the most gorgeous mix of vibrant greens I've ever seen and I hope I get to go back someday!

That afternoon the cruise ship headed towards a glacier a few hours outside of Juneau. I wish I had a video of how anxious and excited people were after the captain announced that we were a minute or two away from the glacier. Herds of people flooded the decks and I've never seen so many cameras and video recorders in one place before. People were taking selfies with the glacier, climbing on the shoulders of family/friends to get better views, and pushing their way to the front of the balconies. It was hilarious to watch and slightly ridiculous. I've now learned that 1) this glacier was a whole lot smaller than I thought it would be, and 2) it was a much brighter blue than I imagined. Now you know what a glacier looks like. :)