2nd Annual Girl's Weekend ~ St. Louis

Last year began what was sure to become an annual event for me, my mom and my sisters.  Mom is so hard to shop for for Christmas and birthday, that buying tickets to a play and making a weekend out of it is the perfect gift.  Not just for her, but for all of us!  Now that we've made it two years in a row, I am already looking forward to next year!

Again, we headed to St. Louis.  It is a great halfway point for the four of us to meet and there is SO much to do there.  I found it funny that, 1.  The only plans we had were to go to see West Side Story. 2.  We didn't see any of the same things we saw last year.  Not even close. 

We started our adventure by heading to the box office to pick up our tickets.  We ended up staying in the area for the majority of our day.  Who knew there was so much in this area?!

This was, probably, my favorite moment of the entire weekend!  Maybe my favorite moment ever with my mom and sisters!  We were all laughing SO hard!  One of us was real close to having tears running down their legs!  I won't say who! (:

We paid a little visit to the St. Louis Art Museum.  None of us are into art, but hey, why not?  Did I mention that it was FREE?  Yep! It was!

 I was slightly in awe as I was looking at original Van Gogh's, Monet's and Picasso's!  WOW!!  I wished that Ben could have been there to see this!

Outside of the art museum was a wishing tree with what other people had wished for.  This was my favorite wish.  I feel the same way.

Not only was the art museum in the same park as the outdoor theater where we would see West Side Story, but so was the zoo.  Yes, the four of us adults went to the zoo.  No kids!  And you know what?  There was no bickering or complaining at all!  (:

 There were some very interesting people at the zoo, but we'll just stick to animals here. ;)

I love the zoo!

We left the park area and headed downtown St. Louis.  We had no idea what we were going to do.  We just thought we would head the direction of The Arch.  Jon had mentioned to me earlier that the Cardinals were playing at home that night.  I mentioned it.  Kris said, "I wonder if scalping tickets is legal here."  The next thing you know, we are stopped at a stop sign and there is a guy standing on the corner with tickets.  The conversation happened very fast in our car.  We decided that we would give it a whirl, but that none of us were willing to pay more than $20 for a ticket.  I can't even begin to tell you the hilarity that ensued in the next few minutes!  I will just say that we ended up with four tickets for $100!!  Not too shabby!!

Sooo...we were off to the ball game!

 I hadn't been to a major league baseball game in so long!  I think the last time was when I was in 3rd or 4th grade.  I live too far away to go to big games.  I love that we have a minor league team in Tulsa, but it's not quite the same.  I was really excited about the game!  One thing,  even though I'm not much of a dedicated baseball fan, I couldn't root for the Cardinals.  Nope.  Just couldn't do it.  Go Cubs!

The Cubs won!

We had so much fun!

To think that all of this fun happened in only one day is just crazy!!  To say that we were a little wiped out would be an understatement!

We may have done a little bit of snacking...

On Saturday we did some shopping.  We got some amazing deals!  Of course, that only happens when we go shopping with Mom!

Since Kris works for Maggiano's, we thought that would be the perfect place for dinner before we headed to the play.  YUM!!  It was....oh my goodness...it was amazing!

I felt a little bit guilty going to see West Side Story without Ben.  He loves the movie!  He would have loved the play!

I tried SO hard to get a picture of the four of us.  It just wasn't working out very well.

This is the best we could get.  (:  But I love it!

Thankfully, after the play, someone saw us trying to take a picture of ourselves and offered to take it for us.

The play was great!

The weekend was great!

This weekend was the getaway that I needed away from home!  Between Jon going away for a week for work, Abby in softball, Ben in marching band, Luke and I spending every waking moment together and trying to get all three kids ready for school to start... I definitely needed a break!  This was so perfect!

I miss my mom and sisters all the time and this is perfect thing for way for us to get to see each other, take a break from life at home and have fun.

I can't wait for next year!!

Indiana Visitors

As soon as my mom knew that Ben was auditioning for All-District band, she said that she would be here for it if he made it. He made it and she made plans to come. (And bring Rebecca and Nolan along with her!) We were all very excited about it! Then the "Blizzard of 2011" hit... We weren't sure what was going to happen. The kids ended up having four snow days and All-District got postponed. I was very nervous about having Mom, Rebecca and Nolan on the roads after watching the news/weather reports all week long. I finally made the decision to tell them not to risk it. I was very sad!

Thursday morning, the day they were supposed to come, my mom called and asked if they could still come. Mom and Rebecca had been keeping tabs on the road conditions and didn't see any reason why they shouldn't be able to get here without any trouble. Besides, we had all been really looking forward to seeing each other. How could I ever turn my family away?! I said, "Of course you can come!" Mom said they would be heading out in the morning.

I was still very nervous about the roads, but prayed all day long for safe travels. Mom, Rebecca and Nolan made it safely to our house without any problems! (Well, the roads were still a little bit snowy once they got close, but nothing major.) I was thrilled for them to be safe and sound at my house!
The boys took off playing right away!
(I know this is very blurry, but you can see that Luke was having a blast!)
I think their favorite activity was jumping from one bed to the other in Abby's room. They had a great time! And the happy sounds were the best!
This was the jumping pit and Nolan's bed. :)
From jumping off of beds to playing with trains...these boys are all boy!
Modern technology...
This little guy cracks me up! Nolan fell in love with this bear from Abby's room and had to take it out to dinner with him.

No trip to Bartlesville is complete without a trip to Frank & Lola's! It is my FAVORITE!! We go there pretty much every time someone comes to visit. The first time is because we love it and want to share it with our friends and family. The next time is because they love it! Come visit us and we can go check it out together!
We had to wait a while for a table so the kids passed the time playing pool.
Abby and Nolan are best buddies!
What did we ever do before we could watch Thomas the Train on the iPad?
It was great when the boys would play together nicely. Toddlers can be so touchy!
Story time with Abby.
And Aunt Becca.
Snuggly time with Grammy! :)
Apparently the little guys weren't interested in the Super Bowl. They watched Despicable Me in my room.
Facebook time for Ben.
Cooking dinner with Rebecca.
Nolan got to see his daddy! I don't know how we ever made it without modern technology!

It was so GREAT to have my family in town for a few days! I hate living so far away, but I still believe it makes our times together that much more special. I was able to spend some time with just Mom and Rebecca this time, which doesn't usually get to happen. We had a great time and laughed A LOT!! SO GREAT!! I'm not sure when we will all be together again, so I cherish these times that we have had!

Thank you SO much, Mom and Rebecca for braving the roads and coming out for a visit!

Vacation: Day 7 for the Adults

Jon and I were absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to go to Kings Island! It has been years since we have been to an amusement park! We LOVE roller coasters or any kind of ride! My mom offered to watch the kids while the adults went to have fun! Unfortunately Kris had to work and Neil isn't interested in the rides, so it ended up just being me, Jon and Rebecca.
SO excited! I think I figured out that I hadn't been to Kings Island since high school! 17 years ago!!
The Diamondback is the first ride we went on. I have to admit that I was scared to death as we were headed up that first hill! It was HUGE! (230 feet tall and went up to 80 miles an hour!) But once we got to the top I got brave and rode the entire ride with my hands up! It was my favorite ride of the day!!
This was a great little roller coaster too! Not high, but fast and fun!
The Vortex: fast, fun and shaky!
The Drop Tower...This ride is absolutely HUGE!! It takes you 315 feet (26 stories!!) up in the air and then drops you in a free fall at over 65 miles an hour!! The three of us were very nervous to ride this one! Especially Jon! He said that he'd rather be in an airplane up that high!
We all ended up really liking it, but thought it was over way too fast! Go figure...
This ride was excellent as well!! Flight of Fear! (This picture is deceiving. The ride itself isn't the spaceship looking thing. That's just part of where the line goes through. The roller coaster part is inside of a building.) I was definitely in fear mode as I stood in line and watched this thing take off!! To go from sitting still to 54 miles an hour, it looked crazy! The ride happens in the dark, so we had no idea what we were in for! It was fast!! Great ride!!
Later in the day it started to sprinkle and there was some lightening in the area, so most of the rides (all of the good ones) had to shut down. It was a great time to sit and rest the aching feet for a little bit! I have no idea how my feet got so filthy!
The kiddie part of Kings Island is called Planet Snoopy, so there were Peanuts character signs and stuff all over! We were particularly fond of this one! Can you guess why?

We had such an amazing day!! It was great to run around without kids and ride the awesome rides! I must be getting old though because I was absolutely beat at the end of the day and so sore the next morning! I would, however, do it again in a heartbeat!!