A St. Louis Weekend...

A few weeks ago, we went to St. Louis for a long weekend.  When I say we, that also means this sweet little pumpkin:


This suburban girl quickly changes to a city girl when we stay in downtown St. Louis.

The view when we woke up on Friday morning.

I worked on Friday and Ken played golf with a friend.  Afterwards we got to go watch our beloved Cardinals at Busch Stadium.  They ended up losing, but we had a good time.  Other than it was HOT.  It was so hot.  I do not remember just sitting and sweating like that before.

Us girls before the game

We ended up seating with a lot of Rangers fans, but they were all very nice and fun.

Yadi, Yadi!

On Saturday morning, Ken took me to do something that I had never done before.  We went to Anheuser Busch for the brewery tour.  It was a lot of fun.  It was very interesting to hear all of the history.

Of course we saw my favorite, the Clydesdales.  Ken said that the tour could have ended right then and I would have been happy.  He is correct.  I love those things.

Other than the Arch, the most photographed landmark in St. Louis.

The chandelier inside the brewing area.  It was so pretty!

Ken enjoying a Straw-ber-rita inside the tasting area.  The funniest thing about this weekend is that I got carded twice.  Once at the baseball game and once at the brewery.

After the brewery tour, we had a little business to tend to.  Ken bought me a nice little present.  I was so excited!

This girl ended her day with a walk in downtown and then an elevator ride back to the apartment.  I think she can get used to the city life.

It was such a fun weekend!

Deck the Halls...

We had quite the busy weekend!  We had a birthday party to attend on Friday night, that included adult go cart racing.  I am not so sure I have ever driven a go cart before, but given the way I drive my car at times, it could be scary!

We had a little time to kill before going to the birthday party, so we stopped off at Hobby Lobby to see if there were any Christmas decorations that I could not live without.

I found a singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.  Of course I hit the button to make it sing.  I was completely in love until I noticed...

The Abominable Snowman!  This is my I think I love him face.  He sang too!

All smiley and ready to race some go carts!  Spoiler alert, I had to have a booster seat to be able to drive.  It is the story of my life being 4'10!

Mike and Ken are ready to take off.  Too bad it was girls racing with girls and guys racing with guys.  I would have loved to raced with the boys to cut a few of them off!

While I had to have a booster seat and my pedals adjusted, Mr. here could barely even fit in the darn thing.  Ah, the story of his life.

Well, if I am completely honest, I must admit that I had to have TWO booster seats because I am just too freaking tiny!  I probably could have used a third, but I was too afraid to ask.  Yes, I look awfully scary here with my mean face and two booster seats...

Saturday night we decided to cruise thru Starbucks for a latte and drive around to look at Christmas lights.  We found a listing online of houses in Southern Johnson County that go overboard.  Oh and guess who went with us?

That would be Miss Angel.  She loves going bye bye in the car, so we figured she would like the lights as well.  She loved it!  

One of the neighborhoods has 23 houses that takes part. It is so pretty!

On Sunday, Jill and Avery picked me up so we could do a little last minute shopping.  If I am being honest, I must say that Jill and I were shopping for ourselves and not others.  Merry Christmas to us!

I was watching Avery while Jill was paying and she ran over to this rack and started picking things out saying I want that!  It was priceless.  I guess the apple does not fall far from the tree.

She is such a mess!

Exhaustion...

Today marks two months from Ironman Kentucky and it is safe to say, I am flipping exhausted.  I am ready for this shindig to come and go.  I had to drag myself out of bed to come to work today.  Ken suggested I call in sick, but I am not a call in sick kind of girl.  I am the idiot one that signed up for this thing, I have to deal with it.  Although, calling in sick is sounding very wonderful now that I am in my office.  It is quite possible that I might cause physical harm to someone today.  Oh, who am I kidding, that would take way too much effort!

I started my long bike ride on Saturday at 1:30 in the afternoon.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but that quickly faded when it turned to like 98 degrees and I was riding into the wind.  The wind.  I despise the wind.  That is my one hope for Kentucky, that there will be no wind.  There is nothing worse than being on a bike with the wind blowing what feels like 40 mph.  I also made a wrong turn at some point and ended up on a gravel road.  Fantastic.  As you can guess, a road bike does not do well on a gravel road.  I did what any self respecting, pink skirt wearing girl could do, I got off of my bike and walked him until I got to the pavement.  (I also squatted and peed on the gravel road, but that seems unlady like to mention.)  I finally made it home after 65 miles of hell.  Yes, I am well aware that I have 112 miles of hell to look forward to and 65 miles is only scratching the surface. 

I was disguisting, covered in salt and completely soaked with sweat.  All I wanted to do was lay in my chair and read my book, Fifty Shades Freed.  (That is a whole story within itself, damn you Michelle!)  I knew, I just knew that I would beat myself up if I did not at least go out for a small brick run.  So, I did what any self respsecting, pink skirt wearing girl would do, I grabbed my iPod and darted out the door.  I ran by one of my neighbors that gave me an odd look for looking so rough.  I swear, these people wonder if I ever wear any other clothes besides workout clothes.  I am surprised and how okay running feels after taking a beating on the bike.  I completed my mile and went inside to shower, plopped myself in my chair and started reading. 

Besides working, maintaining our house, and training for this Ironman, my friend Michelle insisted that I read the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy.  I fought it for as long as I could, but finally caved on our airport ride home from the Grand Canyon two weeks ago.  Um, yeah, I cannot stop reading!  Jeeze Louise, something has got to give, I am exhausted!  I cannot stay up late reading these things!  I am happy to say that I have less than 100 pages of the last book left.  Maybe I will catch up on my sleep since I will not be anxiously turning the page waiting on the next sexual scene. 

Oh and the Grand Canyon, yes we just returned from hiking Rim to Rim to Rim of that beautiful hole in the ground.  Gee, doesn't that sound like such a relaxing vacation?  Hopefully, I will find time to post a complete report one night this week. 

And one more thing, you know how you are not supposed to go to the grocery store hungry because you end up buying crap?  Well, I went to Target yesterday to pick up my birth control pills and I came out with this:

Yes, I solely intended on picking up just a $5 prescription that keeps me from having children and ended up with six bags of candy.  It started innocently enough, I was just going to buy some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, but it kind of snowballed into buying all of this.  I have no shame.

I was so hungry, that I wanted Chipotle, but decided I just could not wait the extra 10 minutes it would take to get the Chipotle and get it home to start enhaling it.  So I went with Plan B, which was two bowls of cereal and butt load of candy.  Good choice Keri. 

Just in case you are concerned that I am not eating enough, I did out eat Ken on Sunday.  Yes, that is correct, this 4'10, 100 pound, self respecting, pink skirt wearing girl out ate her 6'4, 210 pound husband.  I will sign autographs later.