Trip to MO

I got in super early today to grow some bacteria... I have a couple of hours at work to kill before I can go home so I thought I would do some blogging. We got back on Thursday from our MO trip. We have lots of pictures, however they are at home on our camera. So I will attempt to recreate the trip using google image searches. Roxanne will (presumably) post the real pictures soon, but for now this will have to suffice....

1st... We decided to drive rather than fly for a number of reasons. We rented a Chevy Equinox as we knew we would be putting a ton of miles on the car we drove. We ended up putting 2200 miles on the car the whole trip...

We spend 1 scary night in sherman tx on the way there... the pheasant capital of texas... I was worried our equinox full of presents would be busted into in the seedy motel we stayed in, so we brought them all in...

The next day we traveled through Oklahoma to Columbia MO... It is not as glamorous as the musical makes it out to be...

This picture better sums it up....


In Columbia, we ate dinner at one of my favorite haunts from when I used to live there... Flatbranch Brewery and Pub... We bought a take home growler of green chile beer which Roxanne really liked.

The next day we drove to Novinger and christmas merriment officially began!!!

Everyone came and brought their dogs... there were 6 dogs total... Louie enjoyed his favorite activity of chasing the 4 wheeler through the snow, it is a good thing too as he was pretty listless from the car ride... this perked him up a bit. We got ~4 inches of snow when we were there.

On Christmas day we drove to St. Louis....

We visited with my extended family and stayed at my sister's house for a couple of days. Keith took us for a nice hike in Forest Park which aside from rigorous cookie and chex mix eating was the only excercise we got the whole trip.
We drove straight back to Austin in about 12.5 hours... which is pretty good time. Tune in soon for real pictures, now however you will have to make do with what google gives us.

holidays in Missouri

We rented a mini-SUV (chevy equinox) and headed north. "Only" 13 hours later and we're in Missouri!

We went through Oklahoma (what a dump!) and through Joplin. First stop: Columbia to visit Jack's brother, Andrew and stay the night before heading up to Kirksville to see Jack's parents. If you click on the map you'll be able to see where Columbia is, but I think it's a little too small just viewing it on the blog.

Back from Wisconsin

I'm back from cold Wisconsin - problem is, I seem to have brought the cold with me! I saw weather reports for Austin showing temperatures around 30 today...ugh. Hopefully it doesn't mean snow like this!

I had a great visit - very busy. Thursday I spent the day with my dad. He got his John Deer tractor fitted with a snowblower recently, and it was delivered while I was there.

I stayed at mom's and we had some lovely dinners, like paella and pastas. She also made my favorite toffee bars! We stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home and got my favorite beer as well - cheers! I sure missed my Capital brews!

Friday I visited my Aunt Linda in the morning. We had a great time catching up.

Later, mom and I had lunch with our friend, Gerry Quesinberry. She is a great lady and is now doing Mary Kay full time. Free shipping!

http://www.marykay.com/gerryq/ContactMe.aspx

Friday night dad took us to Newport Shores for dinner - they now have lobster on the menu and we enjoyed that along with a filet mignon. mmmmm!!

Here's my review on citysearch.com Apparently mine is the only one.

http://milwaukee.citysearch.com/profile/10975291/port_washington_wi/newport_shores.html

Saturday I spent the morning with dad and then went to lunch with Dr. Paul Shepherd, the veterinarian I worked for when I first got interested in going into vet. med. He just built a new clinic and it's great! It was great catching up. Here is their website:

http://www.saukvillevet.com/

Friday afternoon mom and I, along with her sisters, went to a baby shower for her second cousin. There I met Angelina for the first time since she was a baby...here she is with her grandma (my aunt Donna). So cute!

Here is my aunt Jill, cousin Burgundy, and my mom.

Afterward, we found out about a santa hay ride and joined in the fun. Angelina got to sit with Santa for the first time ever.

Here is me with my cousin, Burgundy:

Aunt Donna and Angelina with Mr. and Mrs. Claus in the background.

Then we went back to Aunt Linda's to chat. She collects Christmas decorations and the action/music ones are her favorite. Here is a video of one.

=

Saturday it snowed all day! By Saturday night the roads were getting treacherous. Ryan wanted to take Amy out for her birthday but instead we had a small get together at their apartment to celebrate. They have a really great place in Fredonia that has vaulted ceilings and a balcony.

Here is Ryan, Amy, Cori and Titus in front of their enormous Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas Everyone!! I loved my visit and miss you all lots.

Roxanne is away...

Roxanne is gone to wisconsin to visit her family, so I am in control of the blog for a bit... I am sad I could not go, but I am glad I am not in negative a billion degree weather... Louie and I are keeping busy...

We went shopping and on a long walk.

word

jb

Duran Duran!

Roxanne went to a Duran Duran concert tonight... she said it was super awesome... they played a lot of new songs as well as old ones that everybody knows.

it was general admission, and she couldnt see much cause the venue was kind of crappy... but DD rocked the house... let it be known...

We are going to see The Old 97s later this month and I am trying to get tickets to see The Cure soon too!!

Mizzou Game in San Antonio

On December 1st the Missouri Tigers played the Oklahoma Sooners at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. Jack got us tickets and we were off to San Antonio for a day of checking out the River Walk, tailgating and going to the game.

Here are a few pictures of the River Walk in San Antonio. The river itself is below street level and it is lined by businesses like restaurants and shops where you can stop along the walk. Here is their christmas tree, which just happens to be surrounded by tropical foliage like this Bird of Paradise. The river is pretty dirty grey but the surrounding architecture, foliage, etc., is pretty.

After the River Walk we headed back through the convention center for the Missouri Pep Rally. Here it is early on - there were a lot more people there later. We met a few alums and got some great "flare" for the game. The Oklahoma fans didn't have a pep rally - no one there could figure out how to use the internet. (that was Jack's favorite joke all day, BTW).

Then we went back to our car for our tail gate. Here is the waterfall outside the convention center just under the Tower of the Americas where we parked.

Jack bought some brats from Whole Foods. The one in the middle (below) was a Mexican brat with peppers - bursting at both ends with flavor :)

We got a great parking spot right next to the Alamo Dome. You can see it in the background of the picture below. Jack is holding a Mizzou banner we got at the Missouri pep rally in the conference center.

Below is "Truman" the Tiger, Mizzou's mascot. Every time Missouri scores, he has to do a push up for each point. This time he only got up to 17 pushups :(

The band has spelled "Tigers", but it's hard to see that from our seats that were the very very back almost in the corner. Oh well.
Here I am in full Missouri regalia - face tatoo, beads, and pom poms. I bought a cowboy hat while we were on the River Walk and I put a Mizzou sticker on the front. Not bad for not even being an alum, hey?

This is the Oklahoma "Sooners" schooner. What the H*@# is a "Sooner" anyway!? Stinks that they won, but we had a great day.

Trip to El Paso

This past weekend (Wed through Sunday) we went to El Paso to visit Dave, Peggy, and the kids. The landscape goes from Austin green, into the hill country and then the desert. It was a 8.5 hour drive. Along the way we saw some very beautiful scenery.

On a rest stop about one hour east of El Paso, we let Louie out to walk around. He ended up with these little prickers in all four of his paws! One was even bleeding. Poor Lou...he declared it the worst rest stop ever! Woo oooo :(

Here is Peggy, Jack and Bella. We are at The Greenery restaurant in El Paso. Yummy!

This is Quinn....isn't he a cutey!?

We brought a gingerbread house for the kids and helped them put it together.

We all had a lot of fun doing it, and I think more frosting and candy ended up in our mouths than on the house!


Voi La! Beautiful job guys!

David has shown himself to be quite the artist. Many great drawings were done over the weekend. This is a fun piece of his where he decorated the wine rack.

While there we brought the kids their Christmas presents. Along with these great Groucho glasses, David got sea monkeys from Uncle Jack. Don't forget to feed them Wednesday, David! Bella is shown here coloring in her new Hello Kitty book with pink pen.

A trip to El Paso isn't complete without going across the boarder to Juarez. It's touristy so there are many people walking around peddling their goods, including music at your table. We got a couple cervecas and went shopping, then had a light lunch there.

Dave took us to a Miners game. Here is David in my vest trying to keep warm.

We also went hiking at one of the State Parks. Lots of great catci to be seen.


For the whole photo album, click on the link to the right "Trip to El Paso".