Branson weekend

 We went to Branson for a long weekend with Rob's parents.  They know a family, The Bretts, that perform there so we went to see their show.  They have a great show that you should go see if you're ever in town.

The Brett Family

We went into this shop where they had amazing carvings.  One guy was even carving little ornaments while we were in the store.  He did some amazing things.  Check out this lamp

Wood-carved Santa.  This thing was like 7 ft tall.

Rob's dad. I think we need this chair on our front porch.

Branson has a Titanic museum that was pretty cool. They gave you the name of a person that was on the Titanic and while you toured the museum you looked for clues to see if you survived or not.  Unfortunately I did not.

One show we went to was a Kung-Fu show. Rob and his dad bought these Chinese shirts.  Don't you think they look like they are from China?

On the way home from Branson we stopped in Memphis and ate at a place that raved they have the best ribs in town. Sorry....I still think Texas Roadhouse wins out.

Rob is debating over the "Best Ribs" claim also. The ribs lost.

Me and Elvis

On our way home we went through this weird cloud. The picture looks like it has bad light, but it really did look like we were in the 1970s.  Everything around us was orange.  Weird.

Chicago, Chicago...that toddlin' town

Rob and I (okay, mostly it was my idea and Rob quickly got on board) thought it would be fun to do something kind of big this year to celebrate 2 different occasions. First, our 5 year anniversary and second... ah-hem, ummm, cough, mumble.....turning 30. That's right...I'm not in my 20s anymore *sniff*. I didn't want my 30th birthday to be unmemorable...to me it's a big deal! So in honor of these great events we spent a long weekend in the windy city. Of course the day before we got there was warm and sunny, but the minute we showed up only gray clouds and 60 degree temperatures. That did not get us down however, because we totally lived it up! I can't remember the last time I walked so much....and my pedometer proved it.


We scoured Michigan Avenue a few times, went to the top of Willis (Sears) Tower, toured the Field Museum, saw The Bean, went on a dinner cruise, strolled down Navy Pier, laughed our heads off at ComedySportz, drove around Rob's old neighborhood and ate way too much food.

Of course anywhere you go on vacation, you have to try the local food. Apparently Chicago is well-known for a lot of different kinds of food. I tried Giordano's deep dish pizza for the first time (AMAZING!) and well as a Chicago hot dog (not a fan of the pickle on a hot dog I must say. And here I am with my first try of an Italian Beef Sandwich---Yum!

So many pictures so hopefully you get the idea here!! Now to start planning what we're going to do when Rob turns 30!!

Yellowstone Adventures

This was our first time to Yellowstone and we had a blast. Rob really wanted to see a bear, but probably lucky for us, we didn't! We did however make friends with a ground squirrel in our camp who we named Buster. He now loves O' Brien potatoes and granola bars! We went everywhere we could in the park in 1 1/2 days and totally had the best time!