Happy Summer!

Happy 1st day of summer!!! It has been a while but as I have said before, this summer is crazy crazy crazy!! I keep thinking to myself... please let this get easier! Now, I am not the one in these crazy hard classes (thank goodness), but I do live the effects of them. Mitch is in class all day everyday and then when he's home he is locked in his study room. We always make a point to have dinner together, but I go to bed alone and wake up alone. I am literally counting down the days until this summer is over! 54 days if you're wondering! As hard as it is, I am thankful for his dedication and hard work. I do love getting to see him learn and do things he is interested in. I am just ready for these classes that are jammed packed into summer to be over (and I think he might agree ha).

But we are making it and as long and drawn out as this summer may seem, I keep telling myself it will all be worth it when he is done with school. Its so weird to think its already summer. We usually have time off, visit fiends and take multiple vacations in the summer. To us this doesn't even feel like summertime (minus the weather). But like I said, it will be so worth it here in a few years. And about that weather, it is crazy hot and humid here. Now being from Tulsa, I know hot and humid, but Tennessee is a whole different level. It is about the same temperaure here, but the humidity it unlike anything I have ever experienced. Mitch and I joke all the time about it. You literally start dripping with sweat when you walk out to get the mail and we HAVE (I mean it is a must) to use our Yeti mugs at all times in the summer, unless you want your ice to melt in your glass and get all over the table within about 2 min. I love summertime, but I am already so ready for fall!!!!

With all the craziness that this summer brings, we are trying to enjoy ourselves as much as we can. I had an idea where we would do one "fun activity" together each weekend to celebrate getting through the week. Yes, these weeks are long and hard and if we make it to Friday it deserves a celebration. So I filled up a mason jar with small inexpensive ideas and we draw every weekend and make time for whatever our activity may be. It's going well, but this week was extra busy and we didn't get around to playing putt-putt. This next weekend we are headed to DALLAS so we will skip drawing and celebrate our anniversary in Dallas!

We are going because one of my good friends and doubles partner in college is getting married and also I get to stay and spend four days with my best friend, Elizabeth!! I was planning on going alone and just flying out, but Mitch came in one night and even with how busy he is wants to try and go since it is our anniversary. I was so excited and even though he will lock himself up at some coffee shop the whole day to study, I will enjoy him being there and maybe even get a few dinners with him :) To say I am excited about this trip is an understatement! I cannot wait to see Elizabeth and Kevin and also several of our college friends at the wedding. And not to mention- the wedding is actually in Waco, so yes I will 100 percent of course be making a trip to Magnolia Market! Fixer Upper has been my show for years now and I wouldn't miss that opportunity.

Other than that, we are staying busy with work and school and just ready for mid-August to be here so we can make a trip back home! I miss our friends back home so much and especially this time of year there are so many fun things going on in Tulsa. We can't wait to be back. But we are really enjoying our time in Tennessee. It is definitely hard being away from "our home" and where we were settled, but we are coming to like it here. I think I just love being so close to Nashville, but hey that counts for something, right?

Today we are watching a lot of golf, well I am and Mitch is trying to, and wishing our dads a very happy father's day!!! We wish we could be there to celebrate! Here are a few picts of what our "summer" looks like so far.

Every night we take Bella up to campus to run around. It's so hot and humid here in the day she won't go outside at all. 

Our 1st "fun activity" together- bowling!

This girl is my sidekick here in TN and I wouldn't know what to do without here. She keeps me company while Mitch studies his life away. So naturally we make many Starbucks trips- for the both of us :)

And this is a snapshot of my weather app- we are not looking forward to these temps this next week, and either is Bella!

Our trip to St. Louis!!

First off, let me start this post with...

I love June!! It has always been my favorite month until recently when I've gotten older and my love for Fall and the month of October has taken over. But I still love June and the start to summertime! It brings warm weather, tans, lots of outdoor activities and usually for me time off work ( I can't wait to to teach again!)

So now I will tell you about our trip! It couldn't have been better! Like I said in an earlier post, this was Mitch's last weekend on his 2 week break and he wanted to do something, a little getaway, so bad. So I told him to plan it and he did a great job. Although this is a time in our life when we don't have a lot of funds for fun trips, etc we both think it is so important to do small inexpensive trips/activities during our time here in TN. We know we can't do a ton right now but enjoying our time here is very important to us and we don't want to look back and regret not doing anything because we are going in debt with school, but to look back and remember the fun times and things we did. So although we can't do the things we are use to for these next 2 years (YES it's two now and not three!!!!) we still want to enjoy ourselves.
So we spent the past weekend in St. Louis and had the BEST time! Friday we spent all day doing the touristy things, eating, visiting the Arch, etc. we had lunch at a place called The Shaved Duck. We saw this in Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We got what they recommend on the show and it didn't disappoint! So good! 

Cheese smothered fries

Mitch and I split this bbq sandwich, I just ate the meat because it was seriously the best meat I have ever tasted. 

Then around 3 we went downtown and hung out there until the game (we had tickets to the cardinals game that night at 7). We walked around downtown, such a fun area and found a coffee shop that Mitch heard about. He knows my love for coffee and always try's to find me a unique coffee shop. It was called Park Avenue Coffee and it also had the food networks best butter cake. So of course we tried that!

It was forecasted to rain on and off all day/night so we were worried about the rain. It started raining a few hours before the game but didn't last long. So we went to this restaurant/bar in Ballpark Village, Fox Sports Live and hung out until we walked across the street to the game and it turned out to be the best night with no rain at all! After the game we were starving, we didn't eat before or at the game so we went back to the Fox Sports Live restaurant and got these nachos that everyone was getting earlier in the day and they were so good!!! Highly recommend them!

I haven't stayed up past midnight in a while ha! So we definitely slept in Saturday. When we finally got up and around we went on a donuts and coffee run and then to the Science center. 

Let me tell you about this science center- yes we were the only ones in there without kids- no joke- but the teacher in me had the best time! I mean we spent a long time- about half the day in there but I could've easily dedicated a whole day to it. I know not everyone loves stuff like that and being a teacher makes this stuff super appealing to me, but I still recommend it! I think everyone would enjoy it! 

Our next stop was lunch. We went to Dressel's Public House, another place Mitch found on diners, drive-ins and dives. Mitch always likes to look up places from this show when we travel. 

The "Louie" recommended from Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. I wasn't the biggest fan of this particular sandwich, but Mitch really liked it. BUT the appetizer and bread pudding for dessert were incredible!

Then we headed to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. Now I don't want to say I wasn't excited about going on the brewery tour, but I mean I just left the science center and in my mind nothing could've topped that. Well I was wrong. Y'all, this was SO cool!!!! May have been tied with the science center on my favorite part of our whole trip! We got there around 2:30 and the people at the front told us the tours were full and the next one we could go on was 4:30. Well we didn't really want to wait but also we really wanted to do it. We had dinner reservations at 7:30 and had to go back to the hotel get ready and get there so we knew this would be cutting it close.

We walked around the lobby area, stores, bar, etc for a while and then happen to see the beginning of a tour starting. We heard the guide give his whole intro and then we started to walk around more and try to figure out what to do until 4:30. Well right when we were walking off the guide said that tour wasn't full and they would take a few more people. We literally ran and jumped in ha! It was about an hour (this was the free tour, they have several more you can pay for) and so worth our time! I'm not really a beer drinker at all, but this tour was just so neat. It was so informative and actually really neat to hear about the brewing process. I was amazed! When we go back to St. Louis, we both want to pay for the next one and learn more! I learned so much about how they make the beer, lots of interesting facts I never knew, and just about the Anheuser-Busch plant in general. If you are in the area, GO! It's so worth it! And a plus- we got to see the famous Clydesdales!!! Gorgeous! 

Then since we got into the earlier tour, we went to the famous Ted Drews after. This is a famous Frozen custard place and EVERYONE that knew we were going to St. Louis said it was a must and we agree. It was delicious- so delicious that we may have went more than once :)

Then like I said, we had dinner reservations at Giovanni's on the Hill. We heard from multiple people go to The Hill, which is just an area in St. Louis that has several Italian restauants. We were lucky because I have been wanting to eat at Giovanni's but knew it was one of the more expensive restaurants places where all the famous people go in St. Louis. But we randomly found a groupon for it and couldn't believe it. Out of every restaurant on groupon this is the one we wanted to eat at so we were very excited!!

Sunday we got up early and drove into Illinois to play a round of golf. We also found a groupon for this and it was a really good deal. It happened to be super cold that day (of course the only day it wasn't crazy hot on our trip) but we had fun anyways. We got done around lunch and went back into downtown St. Louis for lunch. We ate at this little Mexican joint and it was so good! Then we went and picked up Bella from the place she stayed at and went to the parks. They have some awesome parks in at Louis and it was so fun to spent the day outside!

Overall we had the BEST time and already are planning a trip back. We love that we are only a little over 3 hours from St. Louis so it makes the perfect little getaway. There were several things we didn't get to do that we wanted to, but we also felt like we can always come back. We didn't want to rush through everything just to try and fit everything in. We enjoyed our time there and fit in what we could and what we wanted. We have several more things we still want to do, but like I said, there was no point in rushing through and not enjoying what we did just to try and get it all in. There are def things we would do again, and there are several more things we just didn't get around to. 

Today starts the beginning of summer semester and it's already in full swing. I have been mentally preparing for these next two months and praying we both make it through ha. It's going to be crazy but once August hits his classes will be (mostly) done and residency begins. We also find out one month from today if we will be moving or not!