by Sarah | Feb 26, 2019 | All About Denver, All About Erik, All About Family, All About Kennedy, All About Me, All About Molly, All of Us, Blogging Life, Redefining Perfect, Top Ten Tuesday
Continuing our countdown of my dream family vacations, we hit #6 on the list…
Colorado
I know, I know…that’s a WHOLE STATE. It’s just…some states deserve to have the WHOLE STATE on a list like this, you know?
Unfortunately, in this case, my kids have totally beat me to the punch SO HARD on this. They went, they saw, they conquered, and declared it their favorite state…which only furthered my desire to go.
I have an entire book series set here. I’ve been in love with Colorado (as a place to visit, I’m too much done with snow to want to live there) ever since I watched Dr. Quinn and saw the Red Rocks featured on an episode. I’ve always felt called to go see it some day…and I’m not jealous at all that my kids beat me to it.
I’ve heard really amazing things about all of the sights and the activities that can be done there. My friend and former coworker went a couple of years ago and still talks about it. My kids still talk about it.
I just want to see it ALL…including the area where I set my little town at (there’s a real town there that I could visit) to see what I’ve always envisioned it looking like come to life.
Have you ever been to Colorado? What was your favorite part? Do you live there? What do you recommend as a MUST SEE?
by Sarah | Feb 19, 2019 | All About Denver, All About Erik, All About Family, All About Kennedy, All About Me, All About Molly, All of Us, Blogging Life, Redefining Perfect, Top Ten Tuesday
Continuing our countdown of my dream family vacations, we hit #7 on the list…
Yellowstone National Park
I got spared my kids beating me to this by the skin of my teeth. When they went most of the park was closed, so they stayed in one state (which is next on my list, the punks)…
I’ve always wanted to see Yellowstone. Not just Old Faithful (though that’s on the list)…but the beauty all round, from the mountains to the hot springs to the amazing wildlife. I could just go with my camera and get lost for hours on end.
I really think the kids would love the variety of things to see, and there’d never be a dull day. So much wonder and beauty wrapped up in this huge park.
I’d love to go with the kids…but it would be a great vacation for just the husband and I, too.
Overall, you can’t go wrong with the beauty of nature.
Have you ever been to Yellowstone? What was your favorite part?
by Sarah | Feb 12, 2019 | All About Denver, All About Erik, All About Family, All About Kennedy, All About Me, All About Molly, All of Us, Blogging Life, Redefining Perfect, Top Ten Tuesday
Continuing our weekly countdown of my top ten dream family vacations, we come to #8…
St. Louis, MO.
Unfortunately, to be honest, my kids beat me to this before I could even get back into blogging and complete this top 10 that I started ages ago (seriously, I started these probably a year ago originally, so plenty has happened)…this past fall, the near-adult took the teens on a road trip, and they started in St. Louis.
I’d like to make the trek again…this time with all of us together.
Erik and I went to St. Louis several years ago. We had a lot of fun when I wasn’t at my blogging conference, and there’s plenty of sights we didn’t get to see, and there’s sights my kids didn’t get to see last year.
There is so much to do in St. Louis beyond the arch. There’s so much FREE stuff to do in St. Louis…and not free stuff. We could really go for a week and not have time to see it all. From the Lemp Mansion for my ghost-hunting self, to the City Museum for the kids to have fun, to back to the brewery tour for my husband to have fun (again) and the girls to see the Clydesdales.
We live so close, relatively speaking, it’s a shame we haven’t day-tripped it once or twice. Maybe we can get a run in before we move.
Have you been to St. Louis? What was your favorite part? Better yet, do you live there? What’s an insider tip we have to know?
by Sarah | Feb 5, 2019 | All About Family, All of Us, Blogging Life, Redefining Perfect, Top Ten Tuesday
Continuing our countdown of Dream Family Vacations, we hit #9 on my list.
New York City
Oh, New York…it’s been a favorite of mine for a while.
Honestly, growing up I had no desire to ever go. I’d heard horrible things about the crime and homeless and living in Western New York it was just “eh” to me. Never mind that I loved musicals and dance and all things theater…just eh.
Then we lived in Maryland for a couple of years and I took a road trip to NYC to see Cats on Broadway.
And I was never the same again.
I loved every minute of every little road trip I took to NYC (and there were quite a few). Even the time I locked my keys in the trunk and had to pay almost $300 for a middle of the night weekend call and they pretty much destroyed the lock, so then I had to have it replaced. (It was an expensive weekend).
Surprisingly, for all my trips there, I’ve not done a lot of the touristy stuff. I did see the Smithsonian, FAO Schwartz, Central Park and Times Square. No Empire State Building, no Statue of Liberty – and this was pre-9/11 so no memorial, clearly. I pretty much saw Broadway, a few shows (Cats many times) and a handful of restaurants.
I’d really like to go back again, take my girls and really dive into the city that never sleeps. Take them to a show, see the Statue, the memorial…all of the touristy things I’ve never seen…and some of the non-touristy stuff I’ve been curious about. There is just so much there…I want to see more of it.
What’s your favorite part of NYC? Have you been? Did you see a show? Did you go touristy? What’s your biggest city secret?
by Sarah | Jan 29, 2019 | All About Family, All of Us, Blogging Life, Redefining Perfect, Top Ten Tuesday
I’ve visited this topic before, but it was in one brief post. I wanted to broaden the stretch of my top tens, to address each answer and give it its own worth. So, without further ado:
#10 on my list is California.
Not a specific location in the state, but California.
When I was in middle school, my parents arranged and took my brother and I on a trip to California. We started in Fresno, drove down the coast, then back up through the state. We visited Monterey, Yosemite, Redwood Forest, San Francisco, and many others. Though boring at times (so much driving), and we never did Disneyland, I still remember that trip with much love and happy memories.
From the sites in Yosemite, the giants of the Redwoods, to the ocean views, and the oddities on display around Fisherman’s Wharf. There was never a shortage of cool things to see.
I would love to be able to give my kids a chance to see the state like that. I’ve always said I never wanted to live there, but I loved to visit California, and it still holds true. There is so much beauty and fun to be had.
I’m thinking a two week road trip, north to south like we did back then, but making it to the original house of mouse unlike my first trip. With so much to see and do, it would take a ton of vacation time, but be so worth it in the end.
Have you been to California? What were your favorite parts?
by Sarah | Sep 15, 2015 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Crap, Random, Redefining Perfect, Top Ten Tuesday
I am not a movie watcher. I will watch them, and enjoy them once or twice. There are a few movies (Galaxy Quest, Star Trek, 27 Dresses, Harry Potter) that I’ll watch over and over…but for the most part I watch it once, twice, I’m done. I don’t sit down and watch movies all day long, I leave that to my husband (gives me the perfect excuse to write).
TV shows, however, are a different story. I love watching TV, I have it on almost all the time in the background. I have shows that I watch repeatedly. Some of them are goofy, I know…likely sentimental, but I love them. If they’re in syndication I seek them out and watch whenever I can. If they’re not, I flat out miss them.
1. Friends – I laughed so much at this show. I still do several times a day. There are some episodes I skip over without remorse…but for the most part I will always watch this if it happens to be on.
2. Dr. Quinn – I actually own this on DVD. I rarely watch it (there’s something about it being on TV…I don’t skip episodes or stop watching when it’s on TV like I do on DVD). But when I was laid up after my surgery I watched a lot of it. Love it, cheesy as hell, but love it anyway.
3. Deadwood – I never knew about this show until it was off the air, so it’s seems silly to say I miss it, but holy cow do I hate HBO for ending this show. It was amazing. Vulgar, yes, but amazing. So much story there, so much intrigue and action and quite a bit of humor too. I will forever love my “cocksucker TV”. And yes, we DO own this on DVD and it’s one of the few shows hubby & I both enjoy watching together.
4. Star Trek: The Next Generation – I didn’t find this show until season 4 when I happened upon the episode “Remember Me” which featured Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton). I was instantly smitten. From that point on I sought out the show and watched it whenever I could, cried when it was over, watched reruns to catch up and was so happy the day I found it in syndication. I went to the opening nights of the movies at midnight (ah the days of youth). To this day I love it…I don’t watch it as much in recent years, but my son sure does.
5. Star Trek: Voyager – I know there were a lot of complaints about this show, but I liked it. After the first couple of seasons of whining about getting home they really started exploring and being scientists, I really fell in love.
6. Buffy – Spike. ‘Nuff said.
7. Diagnosis Murder – How badly am I aging myself between this and Dr. Quinn? This was another corny and cheesy show, but I just adored it. I loved Steve and the mysteries and the comedy thrown in. It made me happy, and anything that makes you happy is worth it. I have found it in syndication, but keep forgetting it’s there until it’s over for the day. I need to start remember this sort of thing. 🙂
8. Without a Trace – Missing persons cases brought about shortly after the advent of CSI. It didn’t last as long, but I really enjoyed it. I liked the way they told the story with a back and forth of what happened to the person telling it.
9. Cold Case – Another one that rode in on CSI’s coat tails. I absolutely loved this. My husband hated the flip between past/present actors and the cheesy ending showing the murder victim smiling, but I liked that touch a lot.
10. Will & Grace – Loved everything about this. I know a ton of people hated the finale, and I can’t blame them. I didn’t despise it, I saw where they were going…but I think it went off course some. Still, the show before it was wonderful.
And there we go. 10 shows I miss running fresh stories every week. What shows do you miss showing up fresh and new every week?
Continuing our countdown of my dream family vacations, we hit #6 on the list…
