As soon as the weather starts getting cooler, and the leaves start changing, I'm ready for fall with a vengeance! Apple picking, shopping for halloween costumes, all that good stuff! Carol called me Sunday to say that her brother, Paul had gotten six free tickets from his work to Konow's Corn Maze in Homer Glen. Free...my favorite word :) We went to go check it out, and there was a lot to do and see. Besides the corn maze (which we failed, by the way :) ) Carol went swimming in a pool of corn kernels, we went to the petting zoo and saw some cute llamas and baby piglets. Last weekend, Aunt Dawn, Becky and I drove down to Charleston to visit Juli for the weekend at EIU. Saturday we went to an apple orchard ... read more

On my road trip from Colorado home to Orland Park, my last leg of the trip was staying a couple days with Brett and Megan (and Jax, of course) in O'Fallon. Brett and Megan took me around to some of St. Louis' fun tourist attractions. We went on a brewery tour at Anheuser Busch, which is always fun. We also went to City Museum, which is definitely not your normal "museum!" It's interactive, part museum, part playground and fully odd! The building was once a shoe factory, and in homage, now makes and sells colorful shoelaces in one exhibit. There are vault door from an old bank. An underground 'cave.' There's a slide from the top floor to the bottom. On the roof, there's a small ferris wheel, and a large slide. All in all, it's ... read more

Now that my moving back to Chicagoland is definite, my departure date from Colorado seems to be looming closer and closer, and I'm suddenly worrying about all these great places close by, and don't want to miss out on any potential trips!! Since Mount Rushmore is only 6 hours away, I decided to go when I had two days off work. I drove up late on Wednesday, leaving from work at about 8pm. This was my first time being in Wyoming, but since it was dark, I'm afraid I didn't get to see anything...not that there seems to be much to see on the eastern side! I made it up to Custer, South Dakota at around 2am, and ended up sleeping in my jeep for a couple hours. Even though I'm pretty short, I wish my ... read more

"Way Down Yonder in New Orleans, In the Land of Dreamy Scenes, There's a Garden of Eden, You know what I mean" ~ Louis Armstrong Blake Robert Dose - born 2/15/2010, to amazing parents Michelle and Jeremy :) I haven't seen Michelle and Jeremy in a couple of years, so when Carol suggested flying in for a visit to see the happy new family, I was super excited. Carol and Michelle are friends from high school, and I first met Michelle at NIU, and then we both transferred down to SIU, where we were roommates for a year, and where Michelle met Jeremy. They've been traveling a lot in their marriage, living in Ohio for a while, and north central Illinois, and now for the past year or so, New Orleans. We planned our visit as ... read more

My first trip to Vegas... in all my travel wishlists, Las Vegas never really featured, but over the past year I began thinking it could be fun :) When Southwest Vacations ran an awesome deal on airfare+hotel, Beth and I didn't even have to think twice. $250 for round trip airfare and 3 nights at the Mirage!! You can't beat that! Then we began the task of rounding up other people to come with, because with Vegas, the more the merrier! Candice and Jeremiah, our Texan friends, jumped on board right away. So did Mike - all you have to do is mention travel to him and he's there :) He brought along two friends- Mike 2 and John. Candice and Jeremiah convinced two more friends to come - Alex and Brett. I'd met both of ... read more