Travelin' fools: Tuscon Edition

Poor neglected blog.

Over the past month, Jordan and I have been traveling. We went on a vacation to Tucson in early August to visit my brother and his family. It was sad how refreshing the Arizona weather felt to us. (Tulsa is always in the summer, but THIS summer it was record breakingly dreadful.)

It was a short trip. We flew in on a Friday night and left on the following Tuesday. During that time, we were able to cram a lot in. Such as...

Getting in touch with our Southwestern roots.

Getting arrested.

"I didn't do it!"

Snuggling.

Boating/ Wakeboarding. (This was Jordan's first time wakeboarding since a one-time attempt when he was a teenager. He did AWESOME. He was able to cut through the wake and even tried to jump. Mucho impressive!)

(this picture was proof that Nancee was there. This is the only picture we have of her and we have none of Troy. Whoops!)

Cactus-sight seeing.

"It's the CIIIIRRRRCLE OF LIIIIIFE!"

Practicing yoga (this move is the mootooshu, which is Yoga for "Holy crap, how can you do that?")

We also swam a ton, played ponies, watched movies, and ate delicious food. We had a great time and I promised we hung out with Troy and Nancee...they just didn't seem to make it into any of our pictures! Sorry!

We love our adorable nieces!

Stay tuned for pictures of Seattle! I may post them in the next year or so...

Sister, Sister: Oklahoma edition

Two weeks ago, my sister Molly and her 6 month old daughter Saige came to Tulsa for a week. We. had. a. BLAST!!! I was so excited because we hardly ever get visitors (subtle hint to family members) and Molly was my first sibling to come to visit since we moved here (much less subtle hint). We had so much fun and the week went by insanely fast.

We managed to eat Josh's sno-cones (I picked peach cobbler. mmm), eat at Steak n' Shake, eat all you can eat ribs at the Rib Crib, and all you can eat ice cream at the Taste of Summer festival (Yes, it's true. Eating is the best part of Oklahoma.) Saige got to taste her first bite of ice cream and popsicle.

MMMM.....high fructose corn syrup....


We did more than just consume calories. We went to a Drillers game (our minor league baseball team) and watched them get creamed.

"In this heat it is important to stay hydrated" ~Dr. Baby


"Higher, Uncle Jordan. I still can't see the outfield!"


We visited the Philbrook Art museum and walked around the beautiful grounds


We went swimming in our apartment pool



We also went to the dog park, human park, and Hobby Lobby. Molly and I knocked out a bunch of crafts to the tune of 30 Rock episodes.

Saige seemed to love Oklahoma so much, she could hardly contain her excitement. Oh, did I type excitement. I meant PUKE! She was able to throw up on at least 4 different pairs of my pants. sigh.

Saige was a trooper, despite her bulimia flare ups. She soaked in the culture so much that by the end of the week, she was able to line dance better than ever! I tried to up load the video of it on here, but of course there was an error. I successfully uploaded it to facebook if you want to see it.


It was so much fun. We can't wait until the rest of the family decides they love us enough to come to.(just kidding..kinda)

"Yeeha! I love Tulsa!"

Cruisin'

Hey! Remember how we went on a cruise…A MONTH AGO??? Ah, geez.

Jordan and I LOVED our vacation siiiiigh. It was wonderful and very much needed! Here it is in a nutshell:

We drove to New Orleans on Friday, May 13^th and stayed the night at our friend’s house in Little Rock (thanks, Bob!!). In the morning, we headed the rest of the way to Louisiana. We had to drive through Mississippi for a while, so there’s ANOTHER state I can check off (been to 26 states now).

On our way to New Orleans, we stopped in Madisonville and visited my good friend Brittany and her cute little son! Brittany was one of my co-workers and close friends at college. She and I would sit at the front desk at work and talk about food a lot. She was also nice enough to listen to all the boy drama from my single days. It was so fun to catch up and see her.

Here’s her cute little boy. She is expecting another boy this summer and looks great!

After we left Madisonville we headed to Harvey, LA where we stayed at the ever so luxirous Travelodge. You know it’s a fancy motel when the door doesn’t close all the way. Yikes!

Luckily, the door locked so we headed out to the Big Easy. And I LOVED IT!!!! As soon as we parked our car, we saw an informal parade. It looked anyone could join, so marched along them on the sidewalk and took some pictures. This guy was enjoying himself…

I LOVED the architecture of French Quarters. It was so adorable. I felt as though I was walking in a city of dollhouses. I kept walking around saying, “Awww!” and “How CUTE!” New Orleans is definitely unique. There seems to be very very little chains and tons of one-of-a-kind stores. Also, there would be random houses in between stores in the city. So cool.

There were tons of street performers too. This guy behind me was holding that pose without blinking!

Several people suggested we hit up Café Dumont for their beignets. We were not sorry we listened to them. Droooool. One funny thing about New Orleans dining is you don’t wait to be seated- you seat yourself! We didn’t know this so we stood around like a bunch of buffoons while servers walked around us as though we didn’t exist. We saw other people sit down at a table so we copied them and sure enough, we got a waiter. It was same thing at dinner. (Is this normal, Brittany?)

There were tons of Psychics and Tarrot card readers….don’t you think with all these gifted citizens, someone would have seen Katrina coming? (too soon?)

The next day was Cruise day! We went to a branch in Harvey for church and headed to our port. It was so exciting to know that we were minutes away from our cruise that we booked six months ago! The moment we got on our boat we chucked our carry-ons in our rooms and headed to the buffet…and we never left.

The next day was our two year anniversary (augh!). We spent it relaxing at the pool and getting all dolled up for dinner. The waiters sang for us and gave us an anniversary cake. Very nice. (And you can’t tell, but we are seated with a view of the ocean. Very cool!)

The next day was Costa Maya day. We hopped off the boat and headed toward the exit of the port. One of the port workers/ travel “experts” asked us where we were going. We explained that we were going to Placer to see our friends. He warned us that it would cost us $50 to get there by taxi. Jordan explained that our friends who live in Placer told us the cab fare is $20 to Placer. The worker just said, “Well, maybe…make sure you act what you are doing or else it will cost more.” Ugh!! So frustrating. Luckily, Jordan could remember enough of his 10^th grade Spanish to ask the nearest cab to go there in Spanish. Throughout the whole cab ride (which was about 20 minutes) neither one of us spoke in fear that we would look vulnerable. At the end- $20 for the ride! Aha! Us-1, Shady Mexican-0.

We were so lucky to go to Mayan Beach Gardens, which is owned and run by family friends from our home ward. Marcia took us on a snorkeling tour where we were able to see schools of fish, a ray, and a barracuda. Yikes!

After the snorkel trip, Marcia let us relax on her private beach. We were the only one out there, and it was magical! Her staff also gave us a tasty lunch that we ate right on the beach. I could get used to this.

Thank you, Bales! We loved it and we WILL come back!

The next day was our Roatan day. This day was much LESS magical. We thought we would be at a different port on the island that was close to a beach, so when we got to the port we were totally lost. The locals were pretty aggressive in trying to get you to use their businesses. We thought we could find the beach by walking so we walked by a populated street and passed lots of houses. They were cool but I was too terrified to take out my camera. We finally gave up and let a taxi driver rip us off and drive us to the beach. (Fun fact: In Honduras, taxi drivers have a method of getting business: 1. Honk, 2. Slow down to a crawling speed and follow pedestrians, continually telling them they need a ride 3. PULL ONTO THE SIDEWALK, blocking the pedestrians, get out the cab and stop the pedestrians…)

We ended up at a very populated beach where we were constantly asked if we wanted to have our hair braided. But the water was beautiful there, so that was nice.

After the beach, we headed back to the city and looked at some local shops. We bought some bracelets and a Fanta and said goodbye to Roatan.

Next day was Belize. Belize was simply beautiful. I would LOVE to return. We were told that Belize City is pretty dangerous so we decided to splurge and purchase an excursion. We went snorkeling (again!) and our tour boat took us to Banister Island. It was an amazing, peaceful private island. The water was warm and the island had a bunch of floaties for use to play on. The island also had free kayaks. I kept saying over and over, “I can’t believe we’re kayaking in BELIZE!” It was so much fun.

Another fun thing about Belize was the plentiful supply of cheap Coach bag knock offs. I treated myself to one…and it already broke. Oh, well. When you buy something that is 90% cheaper than the real deal, you can’t complain!

Our last port was in Cozumel, Mexico. We bought tickets to a national park called Chankanaab. We were able to snorkel (no, we weren't sick of it yet!), watch a sea lion show, and play on their beach. It was a great place because we felt safe and didn't have to travel far. I wold love to go there again!

Our last day of the cruise we spent eating, relaxing, and watching shows….then we ate..and ate. Sigh. I miss that food.

It was such as wonderful vacation and it was so hard to come back home and start work again. We definitely plan on cruising again. In fact, we have made a goal to go on a cruise at least once every five years. Anyone want to join us?

Remember that time when I used to write in thisthing??

GAH! I HATE having my blog go stale. I have been trying to update it more, really! I even had an elaborate post for mother's day....except I started writing about my grandmas and then bawled like a baby. So I gave up on it. Waaa.

I also wanted to write ALL about my 25 birthday!....but our camera was dead and the only pictures we got were on Jordan's phone and we have yet to figure out a good way of getting them onto our computer. Waaa waaa.

So I will post about this....our trip is THIS WEEK!!!! We leave for New Orleans on Friday and we are thrilled. I think out of all the things that either one of us talk about, the cruise takes up about 70%. For me, the other 30% are Ke$ha songs (I've been on a very shameful Ke$ha kick lately. I permit you to judge me).

During our General Conference weekend last month, I created a paper chain to count down the days until our cruise. At the time, there were over 4o rings. Now we are down to threeeeee! Jordan is especially looking forward to this trip because this week is finals week for him. Today he did not have any school. When I left for work this morning, he was in the living room. When I returned from work, there was a note from our office on our door talking about the electricity poeple coming to the complex. I came inside to Jordan studying in the living room and asked him if he knew anything about the note, to which he replied, "No, I haven't left this spot since you went to work."

Here is another random update. I still look twelve, apparently. I am in Young Womens now. I like SO much more than nursery. Sigh. This past weekend I came to supervise our youth's dance festival practice. One teacher (14-15 year old boy) politely asked if I needed a partner to practice with, and another leader asked why I wasn't out there with the other youth dancing. Of all the days to forget my wedding ring.

Speaking of wedding ring, Jordo and I are almost to our 2 year anniversary! Time has flown by so quickly! We will celebrate our anniversary on our cruise. (DID I MENTION WE ARE GOING ON A CRUISE?????)

That's it for now. My next post will most likely be about our cruise......mmmmmmWE'RE GOING ON A CRUISE THIS WEEK!

ok, I'm done.

CRUISE!

now. done.

Woohoo!!

Though the weather outside is frightful...

The Jo's are feeling sooooOOOOooOOOooOOOoo delightful

(I'm a dork)

because....

WE BOOKED A CRUISE!!!!

We wanted to go on vacation sometime this spring, and I really wanted to go to New Orleans, so we found a 7 night cruise leaving out of New Orleans in May! Perfecto.

It leaves from N'Awlins:

Then goes to Costa Maya, Mexico:
Then to Roatan, Honduras:

Then to Belize City, Belize:
Then hits up Cozumel, Mexico on the way back:
Sigh, I can feel the warm water already. Jordan and I will be celebrating our second anniversary/hooray for being done with Jordan's first year of PA school. We can't wait!!

So...wanna come?

Oh, me oh MO!

We just got back from a fantastic weekend trip with Jordan's parents. Since we didn't get enough of Missouri a few weeks ago when we went to Kansas City, we decided to return and hit up Branson! And we had a blast!

We left on Friday evening right after work. We didn't do anything exciting that night since we did not get into town until 9:00. We hit up a frozen custard stand that was delicious and rich and returned back to our hotel to watch reruns of Whose Line is it Anyway (and in my head I was mourning my last day of non-football season for the next four months).

Saturday was our day full of fun. My in-laws had to sit through a travel group presentation to get free tickets to Yakov Smirnoff's show, so Jordan and I explored solo. So...what should two adults who are new to a city do first on their vacation? If you said ride over priced go-karts, you are correct. (Sad fact: I was two. inches. taller than the minimum height requirement for the go-karts. And they weren't fooling around about it either. I had to fully extend my arms to reach the steering wheel and fully extend my legs to push the brakes/gas. Sad? Yes.) Some how, we didn't get a picture of our go-kart experience, but it looked like a little something like this:
I have no idea how Jordan smuggled a green turtle shell onto the track...or how he grew a mustache so quickly.

After that, Jordan and I got ice cream. What- it's vacation.

We left to pick up my in-laws from their presentation and headed out for more excitement. Jordan saw that there was an Elvis Impersonator show called "The Elvis Experience".


My in-laws graciously took us to the show and it was AMAZING! There was no photography of any kind allowed, but THIS picture I found captures how I looked during the performance:
The impersonator was named Tony Roi. He has been impersonating Elvis for 13 years (or something) and has won numerous awards for his show. He did NOT disappoint! He sounded JUST like Elvis, looked a lot like him, and captured his mannerisms perfectly too. You could tell that alot of work has been put into his performance. I found Tony Roi on youtube. If you care, check out the video of him at the end of the entry. During intermission, he let people take pictures with him for free (and keep the picture for $20- gah!). I happily took the picture so that I could twll him how fantastic his show was. When I came up he said in a very Elvisy voice "Hey, Gorgeous!" (Which I think he also said to the old fat lady in line in front me) but I couldn't stop giggling. I said I loved his show and he told me he loved me- which lead to more nervous giggling. We took a picture and I let him kiss me on the cheek before I left. It's amazing- any other 40+ year old man complimenting me, saying he loves me and trying to kiss me would get mace in his eyes. However, if he's wearing a blue suede jump suit, he has my heart.

After the Elvis show, we hustled to go the Yakov Smirnoff Moscow Circus Show- and we sat in the second row! It was a circus based on a children's book that Yakov wrote. A clown falls in love with a ballerina and promises to take her away from oppressive Russia into the wonderful land of America, and he "will propose to her with the Statue of Liberty as his witness". Sounds lame? It ain't. It was an AWESOME show! Between the story line, there was alot of circus performances. Unicycle tricks, acrobats, fire twirling, and my personal favorite- dog tricks! SO CUTE!

In the middle of the show, the audience was given a Russian dinner of meatballs, potatoes, a Russian veggie soup, and a pudding dessert.They left the black lights on during dinner so our dinner boxes and utensils glowed in the dark. It's hard to see, but here is my psychedelic meal.

This lady had a glow in the dark and sang "Be Our Guest" as our dinners were passed out to us.

During intermission, they brought out this cannon that out candy to the audience. It was a little freaky being shot at in the second row, but we survived.
Jordan and I got one picture together: picking Yakov's giant nose. We are terribly mature.

After the show, we decided that getting ice cream two times just wasn't enough. We went to the Orange Leaf and grabbed some tasty frozen yogurt. Then we went back to the hotel and watched...football (It begiiiiiiins).

On Sunday we packed up, visited a few more areas of town, and drove back to Tulsa. It was a fast trip but it was really fun. This was the first vacation that I have ever been on with my in-laws.

Thank you, Richard and Elaine for the great time!!!

(Here's the link to the video in case it doesn't work here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPxRPizVadw&feature=related)