Oh the Places You'll Go... Missouri/Kansas

JP and I recently ventured to St. Joseph, Missouri for the wedding of Sean, one of JP's closest college friends. JP and Sean ran on the track team together all four years in college and lived together two of the years.

Sean was a groomsman our wedding.



And now JP was a groomsman in Sean's wedding.

JP and I decided to rent a car and make the 12 hour drive to Missouri. We went got to spend time in a total of seven states on this trip: Alabama (of course), Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas (Sean actually lives in Kansas- Kansas City is in both states), and Indiana (unintentionally- I messed up the GPS on the way home).

We got to passed Busch Stadium on our way (after the Cardinals recent beating of the Braves I still yelled Go Braves when we drove by) and Kauffman Stadium (the Kansas City Royal's stadium).

Our first night, Thursday, we spent in Kansas City eating dinner with Sean, his family, and other out of town guests. We stayed the night at Sean's house with several other out of town people.

Around noon on Friday, JP and I drove to St. Joseph which is about an hour north of Kansas City. We checked into our hotel, got JP's tux for the wedding, and got ready for the Rehearsal.

I had to take a pic to send to my mom because she had not yet seen the dress I bought for the occasion.

The Rehearsal dinner was held at an old house in St. Joseph that had been turned into a museum. It was really cool! St. Joseph is where the Pony Express started and where Jesse James died. Here we are with a scary bear. Apparently the main who originally lived in this house was a hunter.

While we were at the rehearsal dinner, I met one of the groomsman's girlfriend, Sarah. I was very glad I met her because we ended up spending a lot of time together while our date's were busy doing wedding stuff. Neither one of use knew anyone that was not in the wedding party.

After the rehearsal dinner JP and I, Sarah and her boyfriend, and one other groomsmen went to the Pony Express museum for their annual pumpkin lighting. The one night we are in St. Joe's just so happened to be the night of the pumpkin lighting. I read this in a tourist brochure I saw a the rehearsal dinner location and knew we had to go. We were all glad we went!

However, we did not know that in the process of going we actually got in a time machine and went back to 2002 (Seriously, this was the sign they had at the entrance of the lighting).

Saturday was the day of the wedding. Here we are before the wedding. This is the dress I wore to a sorority semi-formal, my wedding rehearsal, and several other weddings. I'm pretty sure I love it. It is my favorite dress and I will keep wearing it.

I followed the guys around as they took pictures.  JP Kaal does not like taking pictures. He did fine taking pictures but for every serious picture, there was immediately a silly/ridiculous one that followed. For example:

A very nice pose...

 Followed by muscle man...

I did not take any pictures at the wedding reception, but we had a great time! We danced and danced until the the reception was over. My feet were tired! The bride's brother actually collects records. He DJ'd the wedding using all of his records. It was pretty cool to have legit turntables at the wedding. He had a huge collection of records! The thing that made me laugh though was as soon as he started to play Call Me Maybe (he did play a few non-record songs) every girl in the place ran out onto the dance floor and every guy went and sat down.

One of the really cool things at the wedding was the favors. The bride and her friends had a baking day earlier in the week and made at least ten different kinds of cookies. There were cute boxes for guests to pick out cookies to take home.  Another cool thing at the wedding was the bride's mom made the wedding cake!

We had a great time in Missouri and are glad we made the long drive!

Oh the Places You'll Go... Santa Rosa Beach

For the second year in a row, my college friends and I reunited for a trip to the beach. This is such a fun tradition as we don't see each other much during the year due to leaving in different locations and busy schedules.

We all rode together in Brittany's mini van, which ended up being so much better than riding in two separate cars. We made a stop at a fabric store that apparently is a store those who sew think highly of. I realized why when just being in the store made me want to learn to sew. Every fabric they had was something I deemed worthy of being turned into a pillow, dress, or curtains. Note: Once we left the store, my desire to learn to sew disappeared. Maybe one day.

I had never been to the 30A beaches but was not disappointed. The beaches were just beautiful, and the water was so clear I could see my feet on the bottom! Our first view of the beauty occurred from the deck of Bud and Alley's where we ate lunch the day we arrived.

When we got to the condo- which was the nicest condo I've ever stayed in. I would def recommend it- we exchanged gifts. The year before we all drew a name and kept who we had a secret. Over the year (or the month/day before for procrastinators like me) we got gifts for our secret person. We had determined a price limit that everyone held to.

I had Brittany as my secret person. She owns a business- Birds on a Fence. I had my other friend Brittany who paints canvases paint Brittany's business logo on a canvas to hang in her sewing room. I was highly pleased with the way the canvas turned out. I also got Brittany a gift card so she could treat herself to a shopping trip just for her- something a mother of two doesn't get to do very often!

Blair had me as her secret person. She had just returned from Israel and included in my gift some bath salts from the Dead Sea and a cross made of olive tree wood. How cool is that! She also included a gift card to Chickfila- obviously one of my favorite places to eat.

I had such a great time catching up with these girls over the weekend. Even though we don't see each other frequently, when we do get together it is like we were never apart.

 Blair: She is responsible for setting JP and I up. When she visits our house she, JP, and I all end up sitting on our king size bed talking. I love it. I loved hearing her talk about her recent trip to Israel. It was something she had been wanting to do for years and years.

 Laurel: The first time I remember hanging out with Laurel was the summer of 1996. We spent the day at the pool and then went to a banana split party at her church. She also had Nintendo brand glasses which she convinced me she could use as a video game control. You know you are friends for life when she asks who her Freshman year CP teacher was and I can tell her.

 Brittany: I remember Brittany teaching me how to paint my toenails French manicure style for Rush one year. She always seems to be doing just that, teaching me things I should know how to do but don't. I'm pretty sure she also helped me get my hair side swoosh right for Step Sing. Note: I admire Brittany so much for her hardwork in creating her business Birds on a Fence. Did you notice the hats we all had on in the beach picture above? She made them!

Emily: She was one of my first friends at Samford. She can quote movies and tv shows like no one else I know. It seriously is a skill. On this trip she got points in my book for venturing out into the ocean with me pretty far out. It was a great chance for just the two of us to catch up.

Ashley: I have gotten to know Ashley more after college than during. I love Ashley's honesty. Recently she has started working for a company, Free Set which offers employment to women in India trapped in human trafficking. It has been cool to see her heart grow for this ministry.

Looking forward to next years trip. And, getting things for my secret person for next year! The questions is, who is it?

Oh the Places You'll Go... The Marriott Grand

This August Mom, Sister, and I took are third annual trip down to the Marriott Grand. This year we had the chance to spoil my Sister with a few days of luxury after she had just spent a month living in the wilderness.

We have made it a tradition to pack a picnic lunch to eat at a rest stop on the way down.

There is so much to do at the Grand. We take advantage of the pool at the hotel as well as the hotel's country club. The country club has a lap pool. Sister and I like to pretend we know how to swim, especially this year after the Olympics. However, Mom- who was a swimmer in high school- clearly has more swimming skills than either of us. Note: I'm no swimmer but I'm better than Sister. So swimming and bowling are the only two sports I'm better at than her.

We played a round of mini golf- I was terrible.

And tried our hand at fishing. Sister, who has a fishing license in the state of Wyoming and has fly fished in the Wyoming wilderness- determined the hooks provided were no good. So, we caught no fish.

We enjoyed working out in the super nice gym. The best discovery of the trip came in the gym. In the gym, there was a door labeled as the accountants office. If you know my sister, who is an accountant, you will know that her dream would to have her office in a gym. Note: I promise the sign on the door says accounting.

Tea time is a tradition at the Grand. This year we went when kids were in school so we did not have to wait in a super long line for our tea and cookies.

 Riding bikes is one of our favorite things to do at the Grand. It is a great way to take in the beauty of the area.

We had such a great time on our trip!