My Staycation

I took a staycation. And it. was. awesome. I have been wanting to take a staycation for a while, but wanted to do it at the right time. After working 29 days and only having two days during that time where I was off work and home, I figured I was overdue. So, I took advantage of the free Fourth of July holiday, and took almost a full week off of work! Here are some pictures from the week:

Fourth of July and our awesome outfits:

And here are Mark and I at another Fourth of July gathering, watching fireworks:

I feel like I need to add that Mark and I met at a fireworks stand back in 1998, so he always says our relationship "started with fireworks". This gives every fireworks display more meaning. (-:

I planted some beautiful flowers:

Someone got too friendly with the sprinkler and had to get blow-dried:

Someone else got groomed and is officially the cutest poodle ever:

I had girl time with lots of friends - and one friend and I happened to both have on polar bear pajamas, so I figured that was photo worthy:

I watched lots of Harry Potter in preparation for the newest  movie this week:

Cookie baking definitely took place (more than once):

Mark and I attended a wedding reception and they had cupcakes that we got to eat and decorate:

And last but not least, I got to spend extra time with Jesus, and that was wonderful:

One of my favorite things was not setting my alarm each night when went to bed, and not waking up before around 10:00am. (-: That was pretty awesome. 

So, I am a lover of the staycation. It was super cheap (I only spent money on flowers to plant, one skirt I bought, coffee at a coffee shop, and baking ingredients). For a vacation, you really can't beat that. And it was nice to slow down and not be busy. 

Have you ever had a staycation?

~Kathryn

On the Road Again

Well, hello, everyone! I am blogging from a charter bus right now, somewhere in between Destin, Fl, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. I am on my way back from our church's youth choir tour. I feel really legit blogging from a wifi card on a bus.

Our trip has just been fantastic. We ministered to lots of people through singing the Word of God over them, and we had lots of great fellowship, and of course, lots of wonderful beach time. I don't have any pics right now of the choir singing, since I couldn't take pics while singing, but I do have some beach pics, which I will most definitely share. (-:

This is the view from my room - how stinkin' cool is that? I stayed with a couple of sweet ninth grade girls and another sponsor.

Karlie and I got to spend some quality beach time together, too. (-:

Being a church choir trip, I was on a hunt for a one piece swim suit. Now, I don't know about you, but I have the HARDEST time finding a one piece that fits. I think I have a long torso, so the one pieces never seem long enough. It's like I'm always having to try to pull them up and stretch them out and it's usually frustrating, and never flattering. But, this time I splurged. I bought a one piece that is supposed to be super cute and look decent. And I'm glad I did. You guys all need to check out www.modcloth.com and see their really cool and vintage one and two-piece swimsuits.

Mark didn't get to go. And I missed him a lot. I'm pretty sure he missed us a lot to. We sent lots of pics to him like these throughout the week:

We will be home tonight and we are excited to see Mark, Boo, Melvin, and Bella. We are very ready for that. (-:

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

~Kathryn

A Weekend In Denver

I spent this past weekend in the great state of Colorado. As shocking as it may seem, it was my first time to really visit Colorado. And I loved it. I went to visit my sweet and fabulous friend, Allison. Yes, here she is, getting ready to help me pound that cinnamon roll at a local Denver mall. By the way, she's 5' 3" and doesn't even weigh 100 pounds. Small but mighty.

So, outside of gorging ourselves with cinnamon rolls, what did we do, you ask? Well, lots of things! We obviously went shopping! My sister called me a brand name hoar because I got a NorthFace fleece and a Marmot jacket from the local REI, which we don't have around here. The cool thing is that the NorthFace was on sale, and I got the Marmot rain coat out of the kids section, so it was cheaper. And it's purple!!!

I also got lots of cute things, including fun boutiquey clothes from some cute boutiques around town.

Did we see mountains, you ask? Heck yes, we did. And they were beautiful. Here I am, all surrounded by some pretty huge mountains:

Close up:

Perhaps the most epic part of the trip was when we visit the grave of the one and only Buffalo Bill Cody. I know, right? Here I am, paying homage:

And of course when I came across a Bison near the grave, I had to take a pic in honor of my alma mater:

God Bless OBU.

Here we are, giving our best Annie Oakley/Wild West impersonation:

We also had some local root beer that was AWESOME.

Other things we did included watching multiple movies, visiting Allison's church in Denver, which I loved, getting an eyebrow arch from a local fancy salon, eating lots of fun food from all the best places to eat, some football with her friends, and I even tagged along on a babysitting gig to experience the locals. (-:

We had a great time, and Allison was even generous enough to take me to the airport at 5:00 in the morning! My boss said, "She must be a good friend to do that." Yes, she is a good friend, indeed. Thanks Allison!!!

~Kathryn

Almost Home From a Fabulous Vacation!

Mark and I spent five days in sunny Hermosa Beach with our dear sweet friend (basically family member) John G!

There were several highlights so I will try to remember all of them!

We arrived on Monday and got settled in and then Mark and I walked around Hermosa Beach area and did a little shopping. We stopped for coffee and carried it to the beach. It was a little cloudy and cool, but beautiful. I LOVE ocean waves. Here I am, enjoying my chai, and loving the ocean.

After that we went back to the beach house and enjoyed some fabulous California sushi. Mark even ate all the weird stuff. I stuck to the safe things... you know, rolls, smoked salmon, that's about it. (-: He ate some things that we aren't even sure what they are. ha ha.

Tuesday we went to see Peter Pan, in this way cool, 360 degree, 3-D light thing with actor flying from the ceiling and really cool puppets and effects. It was so cool! We also did a lot of shopping on Tuesday, or at least I did.  I spent a lot of my opera money at Forever 21. (-:

We woke up on Wednesday and went to the beach. Again. (-: Here we are, loving the beach, and each other. he he.

On Wendesday at the beach, we actually saw dolphins. It was the coolest thing. There was a school of them that were swimming along, and jumping. I had the "Flipper" themesong stuck in my head. If you look behind me in this next pic, you can see a dolphin fin in the background.

Here I am with our host with the most, the famous John G!

Pretty cool, huh? After walking the beach, we ate a fabulous place called Scotty's. Mark had what he would probably refer to as the best meal of his life, migas. Seriously. He went on and on. So here he is with his food:

Wednesday we all drove into Melrose Avenue to check out the vibe there. A little too funky/punk for me, but very interesting. We had some Starbucks and enjoyed the sites, and I of course visited Urban Outfitters. Then we stopped at the coolest Farmer's Market. It's actually called "Farmer's Market" right by the Grove in California. We ate some awesome fish tacos for dinner, and checked out all the local faire, gazed at all the yummy produce, wished for the chocolate, and had a wonderful time. (-:

I actually found this book at a local gem of a bookstore, which shows you what to cook with what you have purchsed at that exact market. How cool is that? Here I am, with the book:

Thursday, Mark and I went to brave the Los Angeles traffic by ourselves and we went to Venice Beach and saw lots of interesting people there.

I got a funnel cake, because, well, they are awesome:

We also promenaded at the 3rd street promemade, and I checked out their awesome Anthropologie. We stopped at Barnes and Noble and drank some coffee and read some books. So fun. I read a book on dog training. 

After Venice and the 3rd street promenade, we had dinner with a friend of ours from Oklahoma who happens to live close by. It was so nice to see her, and so funny that we saw her when we were in California, and not when she comes back to visit in Oklahoma.

Friday we lounged around and then Mark and I walked down to the beach and he decided to get in the freezing cold water. What a goober. After that we came home for a little bit and got ready and then we went out and walked around Hermosa Beach. We went to a record store and both found some great finds! Mark got "Time Out" by Dave Brubeck, and I got "Sweet Baby James", (JT), and I got several Dan Fogelburg albums and a George Winston "October" piano album. 

Here I am, enjoying the walk through Hermosa Beach:

After our record store and pet store adventure, OH AND we ate at Pita Pit. I LOVE Pita Pit and there aren't any in Tulsa. Oh the injustice. That yogurt cucumber stuff they put on those pitas is divinity.

We came home and for dinner, our wonderful host fixed us this fancy meal, and let me say it tasted just as good, if not better, than it looks!

YUMMO!!! And here we are, enjoying our last dinner:

And there you have it. A week of fun in beautiful southern California. We have had a fabulous trip.



~Kathryn



A Vacation Video

Enjoy!

~Kathryn

We Are Home

Well, folks, we made it.

We had a fabulous trip, on and off the road. Mark did a great job driving. Even though I offered several times, he really enjoyed driving and actually wanted to do it. So who am I to argue with that? (-: He got us there in record time.

The trip home was not as exciting as the trip to vacation - I don't think it ever is. But, it was still enjoyable. Mark is already planning our next road trip - so you could definitely say that he had a good time. (-:

I hope you enjoyed our ridiculous video blogs and that they perhaps made you laugh a little. We certainly had fun making the videos.

And now, it is back to reality. Back home, back with the poodles, and back to work.

Happy Monday!

~Kathryn

On the Road Again....

Well, we left Virginia this morning. It was very sad. )-: The drive home is not as exciting as the drive to vacation, which will be very clear by the videos. It does involve a breakdown of sorts, some ice cream, some rather out of control singing, and the arrival at the hotel.

Here is the departure video:



 Here I am, about six hours into the drive. I started to get rather sick of being in the car:



Here I am, trying to entertain myself:



And here we are after a pit stop in Columbus.



And here I am, again, trying to entertain myself:



And finally, our arrival at the hotel:



I also did some of this:

 And here we are:

So there you have it! One more day and we will be home!

~Kathryn

Apparently I'm a Pretty Awesome Bowler

On our final day with the cousins, we went bowling, at the local lanes. I must admit that as a child, I was a pretty good bowler. I generally won, plus I was super competitive, so I had lots of motivation to do my absolute best.

Even when Mark and  I would bowl I would usually beat him.

It's been a couple years since I've bowled, but I just figured I'd pick right back up where I left off and be decent. (And by decent, I mean able to consistently hit the pins, and get a strike or two, so really, pretty terrible, but like you know, in the 80's or something.)

Well, something has changed. Drastically. I bowled a 57. A FIFTY-SEVEN. I may as well have blindfolded myself and spun around three times before I bowled each time. I mean SERIOUSLY. My score card did say 67, though, because on one of my turns the lane was messed up and gave me a strike for free. So that was great, but in reality, it was a 57.

Here's the proof:

And yes, Mark got a 112.  He was on fire.

I think I should have used this:

When we first arrived at the lanes, it was Mark and I with three of  the girls. There were some kids in the lane next to us with their grandmother and the lady came up to me and said, "Are these all your children? You don't look old enough to have these children." And I said, "No, I'm their cousin, but I'm 25." And you could see the shock in her eyes as she sized me up and said, "Oh, Honey, that's WONDERFUL." Clearly she was impressed that I was 25 while looking like a 14 year old, and was just offering me encouragement and celebrating that I apparently will always like at least 10 years younger than I am. It was pretty funny. Ha.

Despite my terrible performance, we managed to have a fabulous time. Here are some photos:

Silly girls:

Sorry this is kind of fuzzy:

And one more:

We had lots of fun. After bowling, we had lunch at Elevation Burger, which is an organic, grass fed beef burger joint. It was pretty fabulous. And, we are now getting ready to load up and see Toy Story Three. WOO!!

And tomorrow we head home. )-: But, we got a hotel for $40 off priceline, and it's a Hampton Inn, so I'm pretty pumped. Until next time...

~Kathryn

Road Trip: Day of Cooking Out and Swimming

Well, today was another fun and relaxing day in Virginia. Unfortunately, my cousin's migraine worsened so she was out for the count for most of the day. So, Mark and I made another trip to the pool with the girls. This time we got some video footage and some pics. Let's just say the girls LOVED playing with Mark in the pool. I thought it was VERY comical, so I snapped several photos.

And Mark is in this pic, you just can't see him, because he is surrounded by girls:

And here I am with the cousins. The youngest one is Elizabeth, and it's been two years since I've seen her. She isn't four yet, so she doesn't exactly remember me. We were walking back to the car today and she looked up at me and randomly said, "I still don't remember you." ha.

Here is me and Mark. Yay!

Here are the girls sitting out of the pool for the grown-up swim time, with Mark in the pool. This is a video:



And here I am, talking to Elizabeth, and teaching her the peace sign, which is very crucial to learn:



And here's one final picture from the pool of my, Georgia, and Annie.

Tomorrow we are going to the Zoo. That should be pretty fabulous. And tonight we are cooking out. No photos of that yet.

Peace!

~Kathryn

Road Trip: A Museum and the Pool!

Today was a very exciting day in our nation's capitol. We started the day with a riveting ride on the DC Metro to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. This is the "dinosaur museum" as my cousins call it. Mark and I took the two middle cousins with us. We had to stop for lemonade before we made it into the museum. Of course, the girls took full advantage of the free Metro newspaper:

And here we are, in front of the museum, drinking our lemonade:

And yes, in perfect tourist form, I wore my I "heart" Tulsa shirt and Mark wore his Eskimo Joe's shirt today. All we needed was a fanny pack. (-:

After we wore ourselves out at the museum and ate lunch at the local mall's food court, we loaded up all the kiddos in the minivan and headed to the neighborhood pool for some swimming and pizza.And it was just Mark and I, with 5 kids, all between the ages of 3 and 10. Are you impressed? I was impressed. Here is a video from the car ride in case you don't believe me (their mom got a migraine, so we were without her):



And here is a picture of me with the youngest at the pool. Note the awesome new shorts I have on. I know you can't see them completely, but I got them at Urban Outfitters, and I love them.

And there you have it. A day of swimming, eating, nap taking, and museum visiting. Pretty stinkin' awesome.

~Kathryn