Thankful

I live a very blessed life and have a lot to be thankful for on a daily basis.

I am thankful for the family I have.  They are truly amazing and care about me.  They make me smile and I honestly enjoy being around them.

More specifically I'm thankful for all of my parents... The older I am the more I realize just how amazing my parents are.  I am so lucky to have parents that care so much about me and specifically have THEM.

I am thankful for my friends - they make me laugh, they let me vent, they are really great friends and I'm lucky they are in my life.

I am thankful I found a house that I love so much.

I am thankful for a pretty amazing boyfriend who can always fix the house when it breaks.  He's so smart.

I am thankful for all our wonderful animals and each of their unique personalities.

I am thankful to have a job I like coming to.

I am thankful for delicious delicious food

I am thankful to have the Friday after Thanksgiving off for the first time in seven years.

I really hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving - eat a lot of food!! Gobble Gobble.

Pumpkin Cookies

Last night we celebrated an annual tradition - decorating pumpkin cookies.

I know this is a repeat topic, but as far back as I can remember we have decorated pumpkin cookies for Thanksgiving.  Even though Keith wasn't able to be with us... my mom, sister and I forged ahead.

I brought over fake-meat chili and we decorated.  This is a tradition I can't wait to pass onto my hopefully, someday kids.

They always end up so cute and creative - it's fun decorating cookies!!

Weekend in Review: No Real Plans

This past weekend started by me not having any real plans - which honest was pretty awesome.  It was nice to be able to do whatever I wanted b/c I didn't have to worry about being here or there.

My weekend started out with Catching Fire on Thursday night.

On Friday I spent most of the day lounging around the house... and I don't care if it sounds lame - it was amazing!!

After work on my mom picked me up and we went to see my Grandpa who was at my aunt's house.  Sadly he fell earlier in the week.  He is 91 and in good health.  He was outside picking up leaving and lost his balance and took some stumbling steps forward and smashed his head into some rocks and broke his arm in two places.  He looks pretty terrible with all the cuts on his face (he had to get like 12 stitches in his head too).  He's going to see more doctors, but he's ok.  The longer we were over there the more he seemed like himself.

After our visit we got some dinner at Rich and Charlies and checked out both the Dollar Store and Big Lots.  It was a nice evening with my mom.  I went back home and hung out and then went to bed.  I got a phone call at like 2 in the morning from Dan asking me to come get him... someone had drank a bit too much haha.  So being the amazing girlfriend I am, I went and picked his butt up... of course I had to stop for gas... it's really cold out at 2 in the morning.

On Saturday we slept in, which we NEVER do... or at least Dan never does.  After we finally got up and moving we went back to get his car and had lunch with his friend Caleb at Quincy Street Bistro.  I've heard about this place a bunch and always wanted to go, but hadn't, so I was excited to try it out.  It was delicious!!  We ordered the onion peels (the batter is amazing) and I had the BLT.  The cure their own bacon there - the bacon is thick and awesome.

We headed back home and ended up spending the rest of the day/night at home.  I also made cookies.

On Sunday I met up with my mom, sister, and two aunts (Pat and Ruth) and went to the Lindbergh Craft Fair.  It was an awesome time spent with all of them.  We used to go to craft shows much more, but it kinda stopped, so it was nostalgic too.  I was also able to pick up a few gifts, including something for my dad who is always hard to buy for.  It was a lot of fun!!

I finished off the day by doing exciting things like grocery shopping and taking a nap.  Overall it was a great weekend!!

Baking: Chocolate Cookies (with Peanut Butter Chips)

I decided to try to bake some chocolate cookies... those just sounded good and different from what I've already tried.  My mom told me to look at the recipes because a lot of chocolate cookies can end up feeling dry, so I went for a 'chewy' chocolate cookie recipe to help with that.

So I did what I always do - google and pick the one I want... which in this case was the first one from food.com.

At first I thought I may have messed it up... I left the butter on top of my stove to soften, but left it there almost too long, luckily I realized in time (my oven heats up the top fast!)... I also added the cocoa powder to my butter and sugar mixture without thinking (should have gone in the dry ingredients).  I mixed it up the best I could, but it was dry with the powder in there, so I ended up making sure it was all mixed up by hand (totally messy but worth it)

I ended up cooking them a bit differently this time too - only one sheet at a time... I don't always plan on doing that, but was testing it out... that and I forgot to move my racks around while the oven was cool and I'm scared of ovens so I didn't want to do it when it was hot (yes this is a real fear of mine... a stupid stupid, but real fear)

Either way - they were great!! Probably the best cookies I've made - texture-wise I didn't over cook them and had a good balance of chewy and crunchy.  The peanut butter chips in them were awesome (although I will say that I didn't mix them up well enough in the batter as some had a bunch and others not so much... but I also kinda like the variety like that)

Dan seemed to like them too... he's been eating them since I made them.

Here's the recipe from food.com
1 1/4 cups butter or 1 1/4 cups margarine, softened

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups peanut butter chips (12 oz. pkg.) or 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 oz. pkg.)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°.
2. In large mixer bowl; cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.
4. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; gradually blend into creamed mixture. Stir in peanut butter or chocolate chips.
5. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-9 minutes. (Do not overbake; cookies will be soft. They will puff while baking and flatten while cooling.).
6. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet onto wire rack. Cool completely.

Catching Fire

You may remember that I'm a fan of the Hunger Games trilogy.  It's great, if you haven't read it please do!!  I saw the first movie at a midnight showing with Rachel and Susan... and way back then we knew we wanted to do it again for Catching Fire.

A year and a half later Catching Fire was finally in the theaters.  We started making plans a few weeks ago... instead of Rachel (she moved to Des Moines) we subbed in Michelle.  First we picked a theater... and let me say this... the midnight release is dead folks.  Now it's the 8pm release, which just kind of loses it's cool factor a smidge.  We held out and found a 10:30pm showing at West Olive, which is now a fancy theater (more on that in a moment)

We met up around 7:30 (the plan was going to be 8:30, but we moved it up b/c we wanted to get our drink on) and went to Houlihans.  They do happy hour pricing pretty much the entire night - so it works out well.

They even do a mini trivia thing, which is fun and you don't have to pay for, so that worked out really well.  We drank some beers and chatted and ate food... it was the perfect girly night out.

We went over to the theater... and let me tell you I think it will be hard to see a movie any other way.  They had a bar - which would bring drinks directly to your seat.  We also ordered a fun dessert - s'mores pizza and some candy.  And let me tell you about the seat - ah-mazing!!  They have a foot rest and recline back... it's seriously awesome.

Oh... yeah... the movies :) It was great too.  I love seeing what I read come to the big screen and who doesn't love Jennifer Lawrence?

Overall it was a great night out with good friends - what more can you ask for??

Office Tour Part 2

Ready to see the rest of my office??

Here's my wall of doodles - I really don't see them much since they are behind my monitors

The one end of my desk - with all my random stress balls and such.  There's also a picture of me, my boss and an intern we had (he's in the center).  I also like my Mario mushroom.  There's a mason jar with flower pens and a balloon flower that still looks good (from almost three years ago)

This is more what I can see hanging - My boss game me that taco bell packet b/c she thought it was funny (says don't throw me under a bus).  Next to that is my paper bracelet collection - I keep them all that I get at concerts and whatever.  I write the name, date, and place on each as well.  There's also some random cards.  In the lower right hand corner is a lounge chair for a cell phone.

Here's a better look at my cards.  My mom has given me two of them (the ends), my dad gave me the one in the middle and Dan gave me the Snoopy ones.  The second from the left is the first card he gave me.  My boss gave me the Flowchart card on the lower part

This is one of my computer speakers - I looked at it for years and always saw a face so I just made it official.  Next to that is another cell phone holder, but this guy holds a cake instead... I even gave him a post-it note ring. (does this make me a loser I'm just not sure)

Here's the other end of my overhead thing.  You can see the second calendar I have.  There's also a random collection of animals I picked up here or there.  Dan got me the beanie baby platypus after a story I told him.  I have a Blues thunder stick from a playoff game (there's another one behind the desk) and my two Cardinals towels from post seasons.  I'll talk about the Cardinals stuff below.

My zoo calendar (#3) a work related thing I don't even use anymore and a map of the US with the states I've visited outlines... I now realize you can barely see the highlights - I'll need to change that!

Here's my Cardinals stuff - a Rally Squirrel, a Mr. Potato Head, a David Freese bobble-head, a baseball bat from the Louisville Slugger Factory, and a pretty photo print my friend Liz gave me. 

That's a fun little tour of my office.  Thanks for stopping by!!

Office Tour Part 1

NOTE:  Man, really did bad this weekend with the daily posts - bad Jenn!!  These will be post-dated but I failed the challenge.... I'll still get 30 posts during November - that's the end plan :)

I thought it might be fun to take a quick tour of the things I keep in my office as it's becoming more my space.  I am lucky to have my own office for the time being.  Actually I've had my own office for almost two years now... but in the grand scheme of things we won't be in this building forever (supposedly) and will have a brand new building in 2015 (we'll see).  At that point I'm not sure if I'll still have the comfort of my own office - but I'll enjoy it while it lasts!

This is the back of my door - I've started keeping all paper keepsake kinds of items here.  Sporting and Movie tickets - the fronts of programs and other random paper items.  It makes me happy to see my collection grow.

This wall has my standard government calendar - the Yellows are my off day, the pink is holidays and the purple are vacation days.  Also, you can see the away certificates I've received.  Top and bottom are shining stars (which is an internal award given by coworkers), the second from the top is my certificate for helping with the Golden Age Games and the other is an Excellence in Government Award which means less to me than the other ones.

Here is my filing cabinet.  On top you can see the picture of me and my sister.  My boss got a framed picture for everyone when we moved to this building.  The funny story about that is my brother is in it as well (same picture that's hanging on the front) but that was when I was going through my divorce and they didn't want to put a pic of my ex on there so he got cut out just to be safe.  They were sneakily finding pictures. 
The blue certificate holder and the glass block you can barely see in front of it is my award for being nominated for the Amber Blaze award as part of a team.
You can also see my collection of bows - I don't really collect them, but throwing them away just seems silly.
Then we have two pictures of me and Dan on the left and on the right is a couple of family pictures.
Below that is my trip magnets.  I got a magnet from everywhere I've had a work trip to (Denver, San Francisco, Baltimore, Las Vegas, San Jose, San Diego, Indianapolis, Tampa Bay, New Orleans, San Francisco (again), Atlanta, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Salt Lake City, Miami, Las Vegas (again), San Diego (again), and Nashville.)

Here's a better look at the pictures.  The funny thing I want to note is the far right picture actually has my ex in between my mom and me - I cut the picture slide it over and taped it and you would hardly ever know he existed in that pic.

Here's the side of the cabinet - a magnet someone brought back for me (doesn't go in my trip arrangement) and a picture my cousin's kid, Abby colored for me.

Here's the edge of my desk... my water cup that has my name on it.  My pens, pencils, and highlighters in a glass mug that I was given at a conference including my two silly pens - Flamingo and punching glove, some thinking putty, and wax lips... and a deformed paperclip I've since thrown away.

Here's my metal for helping with the Golden Age Games - it hangs on my Dry Erase board which currently has nothing on it.

Here's my first monitor - I have my cute candy corn paperclip holder (I was given that by someone when I worked at AGE)  I have all my fortune cookie fortunes along the side and a quote at the bottom that helps with anxiety - "You fear something that does not exist"

This is my second monitor.  This includes two doodles of my name I liked.  A silly sticker that says "A phony smile is better than a real frown" and another quote I like that I got from my mom "It's not the thoughts or actions of another that influences the quality of your life; It's your own thinking that determines it"

Stay tuned for part 2...

Anxiety

I have it.

I'm not really sure what I wanted to say in this post... but it's something that I've thought about writing about for awhile... but wasn't sure what exactly I want to say.  I know that a lot of people deal with anxiety in varying degrees... it seems like everyone has a story or knows someone.

I am one of those someones... and I deal with anxiety.  I feel like I have dealt with it for a long time... social situations have always made me a bit nervous.  I knew this in school (both high school and college)... I didn't/don't like to raise my hand or answer questions... or even ask questions in some situations.  It's one of those things that I need to grow comfortable in order to be myself in a big social situation.

I always thought this was normal... that I was on the shy side... and honestly that's probably part of it.  But I would get nervous about ice breakers... like ones where you simply have to say your name and where you're from.  The entire time I have to wait for my turn the nerve build up and up and up... and I know what my name is... and I know where I'm from... it's just annoying.

The biggest place you can see my anxiety is my inability to call people.  I do not like to talk on the phone... I do not like making phone calls.  I have had this fear as long as I can remember.  Stupid irrational fear that makes about zero sense in my head however my body FREAKS OUT when I have to make a phone call... I honestly feel pretty stupid about it.

Over time I have been able to live with this anxiety.  I had my coping mechanisms... that either was push what I didn't like to do off on other people (especially when I was married) or just force myself through it... this worked for awhile.

About six months ago something changed...  I think I was going through a bit of a rough time dealing with some fighting with the boyfriend, an issue with a good friend and thinking I had to rehome my cats.  I guess I just didn't have time to cool down in between these incidents and my body FREAKED OUT.  I was anxious day in and day out... I was exhausted from my heart pounding all day long.  But when it came time to sleep at night I couldn't... it was difficult and I finally reached the point that I knew I needed to do something about it.

I ended up going to the doctor and starting some medication.  I know that some people have different thoughts about medication in these incidents... and I'm not sure what the right way of doing things is... but I've been on this medication for about six months and I feel so much better.

I still have anxiety... for instance I had to call the doctor's office and change an appointment and ask about a prescription... honest I sat here for awhile freaking out about it and coming up with tons of reasons to put off that call awhile longer... but finally just made myself do it.

I hate that this kind of stuff hinders myself and my life... I could go into many other examples of how I deal with it on a daily basis.  But I'm still fairly embarrassed by how I let it control my life sometimes, but the medication does help... and I've noticed that.

I have learned there a couple of different kinds of anxiety and I do think I have social anxiety (which I hinted at the beginning of the entry)  It's social situations that get to me and the phone is linked to that social-ness.  I hope that I continue to get better and find more ways to deal with it.  My doctor mentioned yoga and I have thought about that from time to time (other than my lack of flexibility).  I will say that people that can talk to people and thrive in social situations really make me jealous... I wish it came that easily to me.

I want to wrap this post up on a happy note... things are better and hopefully I'll continue to improve myself and my ability to be comfortable around people in all sorts of situations.  It's just hard sometimes to differentiate between it being a problem and normal nerves... haha.... I mean what IS normal?  Ugh... that's a question for another time I suppose.  Either way I'm feeling better and I'm happy I made the decision to get help... end of ramble.

Baking: Toll House Cookies

I decided to make cookies this weekend and decided to just make a classic - Toll House Cookies.

I did over cook some of them (sensing a trend) but I'm starting to get the hang of my oven

Side Note to the story... the stove/oven I have now is the same oven I had in my old house when I was married, so you'd think I'd have it down... but I'm a better baker now (I think, hope, pray) so I'm getting it...  One of these days I'll tell you my cookies were perfectly baked.

I made the first batch without any chips in it and added some candy corn M&Ms in the cookies.



Some of the best things ever!

But as you know (and I know, although didn't think too much about at the time haha) so I put three M&Ms per cookie when after they spread looked pretty meager... womp womp...

All the cookies after that I used peanut butter and chocolate chips - which are amazing... overall the cookies were pretty great!! (maybe just a bit crunchy haha)  The fun part was I used the same amount of chips for all the cookies even though I already put a batch in the oven... so they were extra chippy.

There are so many options in the store for different chips - so I might try these again with different chips - sounds fun to me!!



Somday I'll get good at the food staging :)

Weekend in Review: Dan's Sister's Wedding

Before we get to what the title of the post clearly spoils... let's start at the beginning...

Thursday night we hung around the house and watched two new episodes (finally) of Parks and Rec.  Then I watched Project Runway All-Stars - a nice relaxing night of TV.

On Friday I met Susan at the mall for some shopping.  I wanted to get a dress for Dan's sister, Amy's, wedding the next day.  Right before I left I tried on a dress in my closet that I've had for maybe about five years that I've never worn (that's how I roll)



So we shopped around although it was nice that I had a fall back just in case.  I did find a dress that I really liked (this one in case you're interested) and one I wanted to buy but knew I shouldn't spend the money (I was going to link to it but I can't find it - it was black with silver and gold sequins in like arch-y patterns - so cute!)

 

I didn't buy the one I liked just because seemed on the expensive side and we walked around the mall... along the way I was convinced I should just wear the dress I had at home... so we went into Payless looking for some shoes.

 

I ended up getting these booties - I used to be pretty against the trend, but I love it now, and seemed the like a nice thing to do - especially with a fall wedding.  They were actually pretty comfortable too!!

We stopped off at Charming Charlie and I got some jewelry too (Susan is much better at the accessories than I am!)

I ended up getting this bracelet (loved how it sparkled!!)

And earrings that aren't located online... think that gunmetal color but big earrings... I also got some fun Christmas earrings that I can't wait to wear!

We finished off our shopping trip with lunch at California Pizza Kitchen.  Luckily Susan and I both like the same pizza there - yay!!  It was a lot of fun shopping with her!!

 

I went home and had a bit of a sinus headache (darn thing would follow me around all weekend... boo) so I laid down for awhile.  Dan and I spent the night in with pizza.  It was nice.

 

Saturday was the wedding.  We had to be at the church at 1:45 for pictures (well, not me but Dan did haha).  I spent the morning relaxing and then getting ready... here are a couple of selfies I took...

More full body

And close up on the hair (and you can see the bracelet woohoo)

That second picture gives you a better idea of what color the dress is as the other pictures (in the spare bedroom) make it look more nude color.  My awesome sister let me try out her Magic Wand hair curler... it worked out pretty well and I loved how my hair looked.  I totally added it to my Christmas wish list... which is just becoming too long at this point...

We headed off to the wedding and let me tell you - we had a wonderful time.  There was eating, talking, drinking, laughing, and even dancing.  That's right my friends - Dan danced with me... slow and fast.  I did a fair amount of dancing without him too.  I really just can't express enough how much fun we had.

Escort Cards - made from maps

Dan's friend Kyle was the photographer  - so we got to hang out with him as well.  He did a great job... seriously if you're looking for a photographer he's wonderful - https://www.facebook.com/#!/BraunMultimedia

He was even nice enough to get a photo of us - probably our best one yet!!

Overall we had a great time at the wedding... so great in fact we spent much of Sunday laying around the house doing next to nothing (ok ok I baked some cookies I'll share with you tomorrow)

PS:  Amanda - I know you read this blog and wanted to tell you that Dan has two sisters - Amy and Amanda... how weird is that?!?

A quick plug

I wasn't really sure what I wanted to write about today, and while I could/should be writing about my fabulous weekend I just don't want to admit it's over quite yet...

So... what to write about... nothing was really jumping out at me... but here's something I've thought about writing about for awhile...

In my recent years I've never been one for painting my fingernails... my toenails - absolutely... but fingernails just never dried correct (I was impatient) and chipped way too quickly for it to seem worth it.

Then I decided on a whim to buy this Sally Hansen stuff... I think I just liked the color... and I'm hooked... I have several bottles of it at this point... the stuff is Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure. 

They say it can last up to 10 days... although in my experience it's been about a week while it chipping just a bit (in places where it doesn't look bad if it does).  What's also wonderful about this stuff is it had the base and top coat already in it - so there's no need to worry about that stuff - which makes it super easy.  It also has a pretty great brush.

This is now my go-to nail polish just because I know how well it works for me.

My hand looks monstrous

Here are all the colors I have... from left to right - Jaded, Greige, Pedal to the Metal, Water Color, Rosy Outlook and Kook a Mango.

These bottles usually run me about $7 - but to me it's worth it. 

I'd highly recommend this nail polish!! 

A story about my uncle

I am following yesterday's trend with a story about my uncle (mom's brother) Steve.  He passed away 16 years ago this month, but luckily that gave me plenty of time to know him.  He is a very special person and I am lucky he was my uncle.  As with my grandpa there are too many stories to count that I could tell... but here's a short simple one that I've thought of recently (I told it to my mom, sister and grandma recently)

I remember once that Steve took us over to visit a family friend (yes the same ones that we went to the wedding recently)  After hanging out there for quite awhile we headed back home.  Except on the way home at every intersection Steve would ask which way he should turn.  We did this for quite awhile... not sure how long... turning this way and that all the way back home.  I mean eventually we got to something we recognized I'm sure.  When I was younger the friend's house seemed so far away but in reality it's close to where I work now... so I'm sure we were never really lost, but at the time it was a fun adventure in the car.

A story about my grandma

I wanted to finish up this mini series with a story about my Grandma.  We lost her two years ago this month as well (apprentally November is a popular month to lose members of my family...)  My grandma (my dad's mom) was such a sweet woman... just about the most caring a person could be.  I can't ever really remember her yelling at us haha.  Here's a short sweet story about her.

My grandma could really cook - good food... food I did not appreciate at the time (why oh why was I a picky eater as a kid?!?)  One of the best things she would make was pancakes.  The best part about her pancakes is she would make them into any shapre you would request.  I mean sure there were some simple things like an apple or a smily face, but we threw some challenges at her :)  I remember once us asking for teenage mutant ninga turtles and she totally pulled it off... even adding their eye coverings... talented in pancake art she was.  That's the kind of grandma she was - anything for her grandkids!

A story about my Grandpa

Ok, so I wrote these next three entries last week and was going to go home and post a picture with them... pictures I have on my laptop... but I'm lazy and haven't used my personal laptop since I moved out of my mom's house... so now you're getting them late and without pictures... I'm terrible I know!

_____________________________________________________________________

My grandpa (mom's dad) passed away this month 12 years ago.  I loved my grandpa and I miss him... we all miss him. 

There's a lot of stories I could share about the wonderful person that was my Grandpa... but today I'll just share one simple, short story... one that I don't even totally remember myself - but special nonetheless.

I have freckles... not like some people have freckles but they are there let me tell you.  I guess when I was younger I didn't like them as much.  My grandpa told me they were angel kisses and the more that you have the more the angels like you.  How sweet is that?

I really do miss him... I think as I've gotten older we would have even more to talk and share about.

Five Places to Visit in St. Louis

Since I've done a bit of traveling, and we visit certain things in each city - it made me think about what things would I tell someone to visit if they were a tourist in St. Louis.  I'm sure there are a bunch of these lists and I'm sure that I'm probably missing something so cool and so neat that it's just downright shameful... BUT I do know somethings about his city and thought I'd put together a list of things I think people should do when they come to St. Louis.

1. The Gateway Arch aka Jefferson National Expansion Memorial:  I love the Arch... let me say that first.  It's truly amazing!!  I will never get sick of looking up at it.  That being said after I've been up there like billion times while working there I do think the trip to the top can be overrated and overpriced.  I still think that if you've never done it before and/or are visiting St. Louis it's one of the things that you should just do!  The tram ride to the top is different and an experience in itself.  While looking out the windows is neat for awhile the better part is seeing the floor curve and being able to stand at the tip-top of the Arch.  The other cool thing is you might even be lucky enough to feel it sway.  I'll tell you from working there I only felt it truly sway a handful of times - although visitors swore they were feeling something (they weren't), but it's quite the experience if you do get to see it.  Another thing:  If you can't see the top of the Arch when you are on the ground you will not be able to see much looking out.  I could probably go on way too much about the Arch because it is near and dear to my heart... so I'll spare you some details - So... just go there.  Also, you can visit another National Park Site!!
   
 
2. Forest Park:  I'm cheating a bit with this one - because you could spend multiple days at Forest Park, but I only have five places on my list and I could come up with five places within Forest Park alone.  The park covers over 1,300 acres.  I can't remember the stat exactly but it's on scale with New York's Central Park in size.  The nice thing about St. Louis is a lot of our museums and our zoo are free to get into!  Some of the things at Forest Park include the St. Louis Zoo, Art Museum, History Museum, Science Center, and the Boathouse.  All of these places are wonderful, but of course there's even more that's not listed.  You should also just drive around the park - there's a lot to see!! 
   
 
3. Grant's Farm:  I grew up just down the street from Grant's Farm, meaning I saw it pretty much every day.  I love Grant's Farm.  I love that it's free to get into (you can't really get by without paying to park which is $12 if I remember correctly)  There are many things to see here but my favorites are seeing the shows and feeding the baby goats bottles.  I also like that you can feed camels - because where else can you do that?!?  They also have an awesome biergarten where you can even same some Anheuser Busch products!  Their deer park is awesome too they take you on a "train" and you can see animals up close.  The cool (or frustrating park depending how you look at it) is you see different animals nearly every time.  Oh, and you can see the famous Clydesdales!!
   
 
4. City Museum: City Museum is just one of those places you have to see to really understand.  It's amazing - every where you look there something and they are continuously building new stuff.  This is fun for adults and kids alike... however probably not best for small kids.  You will probably have even more fun than I did recently if you're gutsy enough to climb in tunnels... I always have a weird fear of getting stuck.  There are a lot of add-on things you can do while here and honestly I haven't done many of them.  The City Museum is just truly amazing and giant work of art that you you play on... it's really just incredible.  I know I haven't said much in this post about what it actually is.  You just need to go there any experience it for yourself... trust me, you won't be disappointed!
   
 
5. Magic House: I have not been to the Magic House in years... it's really aimed at children and since I don't really have any children to go with, I haven't been.  That being said, I know it's a great place to visit especially if you do have those aforementioned kids!!  It's grown substantially since I last walked through it's doors and I really want to see what's in there.  It tends to rank high on lists of best places to visit.  I still have fond memories of going there - like the big slide down from the third floor or the electro-static ball that makes your hair stand up or the room where you jump around with the colors - not even sure if those things are still there, but if they are not just know even better stuff replaced them.
   

 

That concludes my list of five places you should visit in St. Louis... nothing is probably that surprising on the list... maybe I should do another entry with five more places that may be different than lists already out there.  Is there anything you think should outrank some of these... I could have replace Brewery Tour for Magic House to hit the adult crowd :)

 

Weekend in Review: Omaha Part 2

On Sunday we woke up and ate breakfast at our hotel (great selection... I love breakfast food!) then we headed over to the zoo.

We got there right as it was opening.  The Omaha zoo does charge admission but you do not have to pay for parking.

We first went to the Desert Dome which also houses the Creatures of the Night area in the basement.

Wallaby

Hogs - how cute are they sitting all together like that?

This cat was right above the hogs above... wonder how that makes this guy feel?

Bobcat

Aardvark - doesn't look much like Arther huh?

Beave - totally not a good picture, but the beaver area was REALLY cool they were swimming around and building a dam - so neat!



White alligator

Some other interesting things of note in the Nocturnal house - bats and really cool croc exhibit where one looked me square in the eyes - so neat!

Next we went over to see the Orangatans - one of Lindsey's favorites.

These apes were in the same area as the male orangatans - it was so cool - this one swung over to me when I was in the bubble and just stared at me

Not the greatest picture but one of the male orangatans - Lindsey taught me about the face plates - not all of the males get these and usually show who is the dominate male.  This guy was pretty crazy looking.  There was one other male - but mostly they hid.

 

The females were getting fed so there was quite a lot of activity in their area

Yep, that's pee

Next we headed over to the gorillas - I think we walked in just as they were let out in the exhibits.



Can you believe these big guys don't eat meat?

Here's the dominant male - he 'showed' haha

They also had female gorillas (not nearly as many of them in zoos... for instance the St. Louis Zoo doesn't have any)
 



Here's their 'baby' - four years old - you can also see mom in the background

It was really fun listening to Lindsey talk about the apes - I learned a bunch from her.  It's funny listening to her listening to visitors - like when they call these monkeys haha.  I mean I didn't know this until she worked in at the Zoo this summer - but monkeys have tails, apes do not.  She's really becoming very knowledgable!!

We first got a small snack ($8 bucks for a small pretzel and cheese and medium diet coke...) Then we saw the bears...
 



Look they have a polar bear!

Next we waited for the tram - while we were waiting we saw the large amount of peacocks they have at the zoo (seriously so many)



I took this one to show the babies

We rode the tram and saw some of the hooved animals... I should have taken a picture of the awesome giraffes, but didn't... we also saw the rhinos.  This is where we also went through the madagascar house (ring tailed lemars!) and saw the pathetic sea lion area (hey the one in St. Louis is pretty awesome now-a-days)



We then hopped back on the tram and saw the big cats - In the mean time we actually got to see these apes hooting and hollering - it was soo soo neat - I don't know how to get my video posted here, but maybe I'll figure it out soon for another post



Here's how close you can get to the cats - sadly they don't have the best cages...



A beautiful tiger - Dan wants one for Daddy to play with... pretty sure this tiger would eat Daddy pretty quickly

A white tiger - Dan says they are not that good b/c they are inbreed a lot... all the cats were pacing their cages.  Lindsey suspects it was feeding time although we didn't get to see that.

A beautiful male lion

Finally we looked at their aquarium.  This is where their penguin exhibit is.  We actually got to see feeding time there.  They also had this neat tunnel with sharks swimming over you... but it was annoying since there were like a million kids in it.  Kids at the zoo can be super annoying to non-kid-having-people.  I mean seriously don't let your kid bang on the window - that's not nice to the animals...
 

The jelly fish were the best part



Such weird creatures, but so pretty to look at

Needless to say we were pretty tired after all things zoo - we did see most of the zoo the things I know we missed were insects and jungle... but overall a lot of neat stuff!  It's a really cool zoo and if you are in the Omaha area I highly recommend going!

We finished off the day by going to dinner at Upstream Brewery. We started off with Hot Artichoke and Asiago Cheese Dip - which was awesome!!  I had their BBQ Chicken pizza which was good.  We finished off with Butterfinger Cheesecake and Caramel Apple Crisp - so good.

We headed back to the hotel and were done for the night.  We headed back to St. Louis on Monday.  Overall it was a great trip and had a great time hanging out with my mom and sister!!