Germany Bound

Well, it's official, Andrew and I will be traveling to Germany over the summer! Andrew was offered an internship with the International Paralympic Committee in Bonn. Sure, I could have let him go by himself to experience this once in a lifetime opportunity, but then what fun would that be? We both have always wanted to travel over to Europe, so what better way then to spend three months there, with great opportunities to travel to neighboring countries!

It's all a bit overwhelming right now and I'm not quite sure it has actually sunk in that we will be in another county in 36 days and counting, but I think the excitement outweighs the nervousness.

Our flights are booked, as well as our train tickets that will take us from Frankfurt to Bonn, but after that we are basically just playing it by ear! We hope to stay in a hotel/hostel for the first couple of days, in hopes to find a more permanent place to stay. We will keep you updated!

Be sure to check back here often, because once June 4th arrives, we will be posting MANY of our adventures for all to read! Oh, and visitors in Germany are always welcome!

Wünschen Sie uns Glück! (wish us luck!)

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St. Louis Cardinals Game 3

Here are some pictures from Cardinals game three:

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St. Louis Cardinals Game 2

Here some pictures from Cardinals game two:

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St. Louis Cardinals Opening Week Games

We have gone to two Cardinals games in the past two years and somehow managed to have the opportunity to attend three games on the 2009 opening week. How did this happen you ask? Well...

1.) Being the "like-lightning" runner that Andrew is, he won us the April 7th bleacher seat tickets by coming in 1st place at the SODA 5k run in Jerseyville, IL. (And just for your info: I also won us some Cardinal tickets, but those aren't until the end of August.)

2.) Friday nights game (April 10th) was by far the best seats we will ever get to sit in. We were behind home plate and about 13 rows up. Skip, the son of Bill (Great friend of Andrews and highschool employer), had two extra tickets and called Andrew up to ask if we wanted to go. Well of course we did!!

3.) Easter Sunday was the only planned game we had tickets for. These seats were in the all-inclusive scoreboard area. We were glad Andrew's dad and dad's wife were able to join us because we had a lot of fun spending time with them. Great seats in the outfield, as well as free food and drinks... can't get much better than that!

Now that you know a little bit about how we managed three games in one week, I will inform you the Cards won every game (9-3, 5-3, 3-0)! We would like to think we are good luck, but I'm sure it had more to do with the almost full moon! Little did we know we would have to break out our winter coats, gloves, blankets and hand warmers for April, but both Tuesday and Friday's games were in the high 30s and low 40s, with wind.

Each game was exciting with home runs... Pujols actually hit a homer about 10 yards to the right of us while sitting in the bleacher seats. Molina, Duncan, and Ludwick also ripped them into the stands. All in all, we had great seats for all 3 games. Each game we had a different view and I don't think I could even pick a favorite. I had my camera for each game and would like to think they all turned out great. Got some action shots, pictures of the stadium and pics of us while at the game.

Below you will see pictures from game 1. Look for posts with pictures of game 2 and 3 in the near future!! Enjoy!

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Spring has Sprung at the Missouri Botanical Gardens

Anyone who knows me (this is Ashley writing) knows that I LOVE taking pictures, especially of flowers and outdoorsy things. I have been to the Missouri Botanical Gardens three times, but have been wanting to explore the gardens when tulips were in bloom (and take hundreds of pictures). Living in Florida all my life I only had the pleasure of tulips being sold at your local supermarket or street corner vendor and with my mom's love of tulips I just wanted to see what the fuss was all about. So, a few Friday's ago we decided to take a trip across the river to good ol' Missouri to see what was beginning blossom.

As soon as you step foot into the gardens you were smacked in the face with these bright orange and yellow tulips that were just beautiful. I think this color of tulip was by far my favorite of all... plus they definitely made for a great photo. Not all tulips were at peek bloom so I can imagine what all the flowers look like now, now that they have had two weeks to take in the rays and water.

Aside from the tulips, cherry blossoms and daffodils were livening the botanical gardens with the different shades of pinks and yellows. The botanical gardens also frequently updates their "Plants In Bloom" page so people like me can see all the flowers currently blooming and decide if I want to go take pictures or wait a little while longer for different ones to pop up.

Even though there has still been a hint of chill in the air here in Illinois, going to the Botanical Gardens has helped with knowing warmth is on its way (not yet ready for that summer warmth though). Wish everyone could have gone with us because it definitely was a beautiful sight. I am hoping to make it there one last time before "springtime" is over so be on the look at for more bright and colorful pictures.

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St. Patty's Day (A Couple Weeks Late!)

We have still been trying to play catch up ever since we left for the spring break trip to New York. It has been non stop running around and now there is finally a chance to breathe a bit. Just a couple of days after we returned from the NYC trip we had our St. Louis St. Patrick's Day Parade 5 mile run. I have done this run four times previously and the both of us did it a couple of years ago. It is a pretty popular event in the St. Louis area as it precedes the annual St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown St. Louis. We usually do not stick around for the parade since it gets fairly crowded. Instead we head to a local Irish pub for some authentic cuisine and a nice cold pint of Guinness.

Oddly enough on St. Patrick's Day (the run was the Saturday prior) we did not do anything special. I had a couple pints of Guinness though to celebrate. Below are the pictures from the run and my meal from McGurk's Irish Pub. You can see the potato soup Ashley had in the background of my Guinness Stew. I hope it does not make you too hungry, but it was absolutely delicious!

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