Road Trip Day 4

Day 4: June 11 (I’ve decided to type this while we’re driving so I won’t forget anything. Sorry if it’s TMI. Just let me know!)

We left Oklahoma this morning with the threat of major thunderstorms heading towards I-44 from Tulsa to St. Louis (basically our whole trip today). Good thing J is driving.

As we were driving through Oklahoma, we weren’t really planning on stopping until Missouri. However, we saw this sign & I made J pull over…rather quickly.

He unintentionally started collecting mugs/paraphernalia and I have a terrible habit of collecting anything that is part of any set/collection/series.  =) My parents bought J a Hard Rock fbeer glass when they were in Europe and he decided that he wanted to switch from coffee mugs (which he uses as pen holders since he hates coffee) to the glasses.

So, when I saw the sign for the Hard Rock Casino & Hotel, I knew we had to stop at all the Hard Rocks we could on this trip. This was my first casino experience too. Stinkin’ hubs wouldn’t let me play even $1 on the slots. Guess he thinks I would get a bad habit. =) But look! Isn’t this mug worth the stop?

I know it’s a mug, but it’s a beer mug so I think J will use it more than he does his actual mugs. He thinks it would be perfect for ice cream floats. I guess we have needed a mug for that purpose for a while. It’s supposed to cost $11 but everything was 25% off so we got it for just under $9, tax & all!

About those storms, we saw this set of clouds just after we went through Vinita, OK.

Don’t they look dark? Yeah, that’s what we thought but did we hit any rain? Not until after the clouds were behind us. Crazy.

Also in Vinita, I got to see the McDonald’s bridge for the first time. Yes non-Oklahoman friends, a McDonald’s with a bridge over the highway.

When we got close to the Oklahoma/Missouri border, we went by the town of Miami (pronounced my-am-ah). 

This is where my freshman college roommate was from. Thanks to her, I know how to say the name of the town correctly without being laughed at in Oklahoma. She was a great potluck roommate. Ok, off the bunny trail.

Once we crossed the border into Missouri, I noticed the coolest thing ever.

Isn’t that so crazy?! They put the tenths of a mile on the bottom of EVERY mile marker, every .2 miles! How can they afford all those mile markers?

Ok off that bunny trail too.

We stopped at the Missouri Welcome Center for the obvious break. But it was such a cool, clean welcome center.

Besides taking pictures, we got umpteen amounts of brochures for St. Louis and Kansas City. So excited to find cool things to do besides just the ballparks & Triple D eateries (Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives for you Food Network virgins).

Random bunny trail ahead:

Today at 3pm I had a brilliant idea: License Plate Game! Why didn’t I think of this earlier?! So, I started snapping pictures of the plates we saw from different states. Of course, we were already in Missouri by this point. But besides Missouri we found Illinois, Indiana, New York, Alabama, and more. On 18-wheelers, we found Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Iowa & Nebraska. Such a fun goal to have & it helps keep the driver awake & me interacting with him.

Our first view of the arch!!

We checked into our hotel and walked to St. Louis Union Station. It’s an old train station that has been turned into a mall. We ended up eating at Landry’s since it was 8 o’clock at night.

Still pretty though, right?

Tomorrow…the arch & the baseball game. Goodnight.

Road Trip, Day 2 & 3

The last two days have been less busy but lots of driving around Oklahoma.

Day 2: June 9. Jerome & I drove to Oklahoma City to see family.

J's cousin had a miracle of these precious twins last week.
I'm holding Olivia Kathleen & J is holding Elijah Conrad.

After seeing family, we drove to Stillwater, Oklahoma. We went to our alma mater, Oklahoma State University, for a wedding of a dear friend of mine. They got married on campus with the Library as the background.

A clever way of making sure he never saw the bride.

The happy couple after being pronounced.

Day 3: June 10.

We went to visit J's grandparents in a small lakeside town. We drove down in time to make the worship service.

Isn't it cute?

My father-in-law even got up and performed a song.

Tonight, after we got back from visiting J's grandparents, our sweet niece K came over to visit. We haven't seen her since this past Christmas. She was 1 year and 3 weeks old then. Now she is 18 months.  I will never have a blonde-haired blue-eyed baby so that makes me love her even more. Isn't she precious?!

She was more comfortable with Nana & Poppi but she kept staring at J.

K was blowing us kisses with her momma.

Tomorrow morning, we're off to St. Louis.

Road Trip, Day 1

We started Road Trip 2012 an evening early. My parents had tickets to the Houston Astros game so we decided to call it the unofficial start to our road trip. Unfortunately, we lost 14-2. Not pretty.

The Dancing Chicken - cream cheese, grilled chicken, bacon,
granny smith apple, tomato, lettuce & YUMMY!!

Man operated scoreboard

The view from our seats 

Minute Maid train...with oranges in the car

Now, on to Day 1 of our road trip. Look at what we had to leave behind!

Our baby puts on the best puppy dog pity eyes that I've ever seen a dog give.
I love him so much but he couldn't come this time.

Thankfully, the hubs was okay with me wanting to take lots of pictures on this trip and stopping at all of the "touristy" places that my family never stops at. So stop #1 - Sam Houston Statue in Huntsville, Texas. We always drive by Sam to and from Oklahoma and wave/salute him but we never stop. I'm so glad that we stopped.

They have a replica of Sam's face so you can get an idea for the size of the statue.

Someone had to. =)

Now, we're in Oklahoma visiting family that we haven't seen in 6 months. Yay for newborn twins & a wedding tomorrow!

Help!

We leave in 2 days...for a 10 day trip. This is all I have packed. Help!!

I can't pack on Thursday because we "have to" go to an Astros game. I guess that can technically be the start to our MLB portion of the trip. =) So, technically I have only tomorrow to pack. Again, I ask, HELP!!

Road Trip 2012

Jerome & I have yet to go on a vacation just the two of us since we've been married. Much less a road trip. Of course, we've been taking road trips twice a year since we have became a couple in 2006. However, they are not the "Let's go visit a new city!" or "Let's see this part of the map in person!" road trips. They have been to drive the 518 miles from our dorms/apartments in Stillwater, OK to visit my family in Houston or the reverse: Houston to Tecumseh, OK to see Jerome's family. This trips are always worth the 8 hour drive to see family...always. But my idea of a trip deserving the title "road trip" is the one where we drive to a certain area of the country, check new states off of my "I need to visit all 50 states before I die" list, and go to all of the MLB (major league baseball) parks & DDD (Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives) locations in that area too. (Can you tell I'm Type A and/or slightly OCD?)

Well, this "Road Trip" fits both categories so I'm calling it our Road Trip 2012!! I'm so excited if you can't tell. =) I WILL be taking my camera and using it every day to record everything. This is your warning. haha. You do not have to read every detail of every blog on this trip if you don't want to. I understand. I am mostly going to be doing it to have the memories for Jerome & I. I am also hoping that it will help get me used to using my camera to document everything & keep blogging on a more consistant basis.

Here is a general itinerary of what we plan on doing (mostly for me but you can know if you want):

• June 8-10 - Visit Oklahoma & family there
• June 9 - Wedding in Stillwater
• June 11-13 - St. Louis, Missouri
• June 12 - Cardinals vs. Chicago White Sox
• June 13-15 - Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas
• June 14 - Royals vs. Milwaukee Brewers
• June 15-17 - Arlington, Texas
• June 16 - Rangers vs. Houston Astros 

This idea of visiting baseball stadiums was a dream of mine & one of Jerome's growing up. I am so thankful that God put us together & that we have some of the same dreams. I cannot wait to spend some alone time with my hubby while starting to check something off of our bucket lists...together.

Here are a few google pics of where we will be going & hope to be going!

Busch Stadium, St. Louis

Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City

Ballpark at Arlington, Arlington Texas

I cannot wait until I have my own pictures that show up in a Google search! Let me know if there is anything we should see/do in these cities!

Decor: Peeps Vase

Do you remember this vase from my Thanksgiving display?

I knew I would end up using these vases for multiple things. So I bought 3. Ha! 

This new project was an Easter vase using themed candies and flowers.

You will need:

• 2 vases, one being able to fit inside the other
• jelly beans - I got only orange...to match the flowers.
• peeps (the bunnies are better) - I got yellow bunnies.
• flowers - I went with orange tulips.

I found a drinking glass that fit inside of the vase. I would recommend (because mine didn't) a glass that is NOT wider at the top of the glass. When we get to the next step, you'll see why.

I emptied out the popcorn kernels, put the glass inside the vase, and put the jelly beans between the vase and the glass. It was hard because my glass was wider at the top, leaving a small space to pour jelly beans into and not getting any in the glass.

Next, I took my Peeps. This picture is to prove to my mom that yellow bunny Peeps DO exists!

Again, I wish my glass was skinner at the top. It took a lot of maneuvering to get the Peeps to fit between the vase and glass without completely mushing them. I was proud that they almost covered the top of the glass!

 I found these gorgeous, blooming, orange tulips at Kroger! For $9.99!!!! Aren't they gorgeous?!

As you can tell, I'm still learning and exploring picture angles and lighting with my new camera. What do you think of the last picture of the tulips?

The last step in making the vase was to put water in the glass ONLY and trimming the tulips to fit!

 Am I just bias or is this fun & gorgeous or what?!

 Here they are in my Easter display. Go here to see where to get the details on that display.

Printables: Easter Display

This Easter ended up being more low key than normal. Everyone came to the ranch that normally comes. But, everyone left by Friday afternoon. Odd right? I was able to throw together a quick display. 

 How cute! Right?

The eggs are real ostrich eggs that my mom has hand painted. Isn't she great?!

Do you see the vase on the right? With the tulips, peeps and jelly beans? It's so easy! Go here to see how easy.

I found this printable at Eighteen25.

I found this printable at A Night Owl Blog. She has it in multiple color options!

This is one of the first printables I found when I started Pinterest. I honestly have no idea where the text came from any more. If you recognize it, let me know. I printed it on a piece of scrapbook paper I already had.

Simple and cute. Enjoy!