Americana Hollywood Museum: Denied!

Here we go! The last little post from my trip to St. Louis LAST MONTH! Haha, I don't know what took me so long! I'm sitting here waiting for Travis to get ready so we can head to Memphis. We're going to Graceland! Ah! Butttttttt before that, here is our last stop on the road home....

We stopped in Metropolis, Illinois again with the hope of going to the Americana Hollywood Museum. Crystal and I went a few years ago and had the best time! It is a strange place, with exhibits on Elvis, James Dean, Hollywood Monsters, Pamela Anderson, Angelina Jolie, and then random stuff like a giant finding Nemo statue, and some parrots. It is totally worth the 5 dollar admission. Sadly, it is closed on Sundays!

Crystal and I were so disappointed! I think the boys might have been relieved.

Doesn't it look awesome? When we went the five dollars also covered the Superman Museum. Such a good deal!

Kryptonite!

I would love to steal that sign and chop off the words. So handsome!

At least there were some photo ops for us to enjoy.

The best! I need to get this one blown up to put over my mantle!

We saw these posters in a few Illinois rest stops and I love them so much! Forget the photo of my friends over the mantle, I want this, painted in oils!

It can be hard to find vegan food when you aren't near any big cities but we were pleased to find out that the veggie chili at McAllister's deli is vegan! We got it on the big potatoes and it was pretty good! I thought I would throw that out there for my fellow vegans!

We stopped at a Halloween store too, randomly.

Travis is going to be Spock for Halloween (be still my heart!) so I wanted to check out the liscensed costumes. How hilarious does the guy on the package look! These shirts all fit terribly, and were 50 bucks! I made something that I think it going to work just fine. And I  can't wait to cut his hair and put on the ears!

How awesome is this photo op they had set up!! I thought it was such a good idea! Here we are giving our best Christmas Card photo smiles. Haha!

After this, we got serious and drove straight back to Nashville.

Arch!

When we went to St. Louis we had to stop by the arch on our way home. I don't know what it is about it, but I just love the St. Louis arch. It is exciting when it comes into view! We didn't go up in it this time (once really is enough) but we went down to the riverfront to check it out.

There are some good photo ops down on the river!

I have a TON of pictures from this little pit stop, and I bet in 75% of them at least one of us is doing an arch pose. Haha, nerd alert!

I love these shots so much! This was also the weekend of the "spice girls pose".

It was a gorgeous day, and we were having such a good time! These guys are like my family, I really love traveling with them. I'm hoping we can do a group vacation again next year.

This teeeeeny tiny puppy walked past us while we were having our photoshoot.

She was so precious! My brother just got a puppy and I can't wait to go meet her. I need my puppy breath fix!

We walked right up to touch the arch. Travis was over-joyed!

Look at the cute signage that was around the arch! The rainbow!

That time I rode in a hot air balloon!

I have always thought of myself as someone who is afraid of heights, so riding in a hot air balloon has never been on my list of things I had to do. But when the opportunity presented itself last weekend I was all over it. And it was amazing! That is me up there!

This happened at the wedding of my friend Ashley, I told you I'm having a wedding filled month! Ashley is a designer (I know her from college. Remember when I had dreams? Ha!) and she really had everything perfectly thought out. The wedding was so beautiful!

Another friend, Lauren, was shooting the wedding and needed some last minute help when her assistant got sick. I was pretty excited to be asked to help out! I took lots of pics with one of her cameras (and a pretty amazing lens!) It was FUN! My camera is on its last legs and won't let me shoot in manual anymore, so I got to do that again. I can't wait to see her finished images! What follows are just what I snapped with my camera once I was done with my assisting duties.

Ashley is known for her love of pink, and we couldn't stop laughing at her pink Port o' Potties! I didn't even know that was an option! Of course she found them!

Here I am shooting for Lauren!That lens was so heavy! 

And here is my little assistant. Travis is such a good sport. Always willing to carry bags and hand me things. This is the only photo I got where you can kind of see the dance floor. It really got going after the sun went down, and there was a basket full of glow sticks so we could make all kinds of accessories. I love dancing all of a sudden! A few years ago you couldn't have paid me to get out there in public, but now I can't wait to bust a move! What I lack in dancing talent I make up for with enthusiasm.

If you didn't want to sit at the tables there were all kinds of cute picnic stations set up. Another friend, Rosemary, styled all this up! She and her business partner Bethany looks so cute in their dresses climbing ladders and setting everything up.

Look at that cake! I thought it looked totally fake! And see the hot air balloon topper? The plan was for the bride and groom to make a completely surprise entrance to the reception in the balloon. It didn't work out exactly as planned, but it was still incredible! Travis got to hold the balloon open while it filled up! It was such a cool experience! Afterwards I asked him if he wanted to run into the open mouth of the balloon (it looked so cool! Like a huge colorful room!) and he answered "Of course."

The balloon made a dramatic photo backdrop! And I'm realizing I have no photos of the groom! Sorry Shawn!

After they made their entrance guests were treated to rides in the balloon. Here is a photo of Travis waiting in line. What a cutie!

Balloon! Maybe I shouldn't have worn black to a wedding, but I really love this dress from Target! It makes me feel sassy! There were three other girls there in dresses from the same line, just in different colors! I kind of want to go back and get the blue one.

Here I am freaking out a little bit because of the flame! Thanks to my buddy Brett for taking some photos of us in the balloon! I didn't want to take my camera up there and spend the whole time looking through a lens.

It really was amazing! Have you been in a hot air balloon? It's such a different view than you are used too. We were only a few stories up, but when are you ever up that high and not surrounded by buildings/concrete? The view was beautiful rolling Tennessee hills, and it was that magical golden hour time. It was really breathtaking. The guy who was flying the balloon was nice too and indulged all our questions about how you steer (you don't, you follow wind currents!). I don't know if I would be able to go on a real flight, it was a strange feeling to be held up in that basket without some kind of machinery sound. Just the occasional burst of flame (!!!).

The wedding felt really laid back to me. The bride and groom seemed to have plenty of time to walk around and talk to all their guests.

I realized all of my dress shoes are this color. Which is my favorite (and matches my camera bag!) but I might need to invest in some basic black and brown shoes.

Travis and I brought our own cupcakes from Kahn's so we wouldn't feel left out once the cake got cut. These are their jumbo filled cupcakes and they were AMAZING. Everything we have bought there has been good and their logo includes a pug! Bonus! This was a chocolate pistachio cupcake with a fudge filling.

So that's three weddings down, and one more to go in a few weeks! Here is a kind of cute/ kind of awkward photo of us from the photobooth. What am I doing with my hand?

Another thing I love about weddings is getting to bring flowers home at the end! Here are my two beautiful bouquets on top of my hutch in the dining room. The only place in the house that keeps the cats from eating the flowers!

The day after the wedding I had to work, and for some reason I felt like I shouldn't be there. I think it was the hot air balloon ride. It felt boring to go back to regular life after such a beautiful day. This week has been much less glamorous. I'm going to physical therapy for a messed up rotator cuff and it hurts! I hope it will only last one more week!

The City Museum: Part Two!

I had to split my City Museum post in two because that place it too amazing for just one! This post is mostly about the outside. The inside is fun, but the outside is even better! It is this crazy maze of tunnels and stairs and weird birdcage things to climb into.

Look at this giant ball pit! Marc and I were the only ones who were brave enough. It is full of little boys throwing balls really hard at each others faces.

You can also stand above it all and look town. And the boys will try to hit you with balls from down there. So violent!

I love that this place is in the middle of the city.

I was not brave enough to go through this tube. But I did go in the bus that is dangling off the edge of the roof. It isn't as scary as it looks.

It is 5 extra dollars to go up on the roof, but it is worth it! You can climb up the inside of this dome.

While waiting for your friend to climb it you can spin around in these weird things.

I was too scared to do this too! We called this "the hornets nest" because of the basket at the top. Thomas and Marc said it was terrifying to stand there and look down.

Once you emerge from the top of the dome you can ride a ferris wheel on the top of a 13 story building! AHhh! It is so fun and scary at the same time! We came back and did it again at night and it was even better!

I love this praying mantis guy. He is what is on top of that dome.

It was such a gorgeous day.

My favorite this was probably this big slide! It is SO FUN and I went down it probably ten times!

Oh yeah, there is also a big bug/taxidermy exhibit. Which I loved of course.


Gimme those charts!!

And I'll take this whole cabinet.

There is a large exhibit of architecture salvage, including this case of glass doorknobs. I have clear ones in my house, but I haven't seen the colored ones before! I want turquoise door knobs!

And lots of stuff salvaged by building facades! So many beautiful things!

We left again to get dinner. The best thing about this place was the sign sadly. Travis met us there, and then went back to the city museum. I left my camera in the car and we climbed through the caves and went down slides and rode the ferris wheel until they closed at midnight. It was such a good day. We got back to the hotel and I totally collapsed into bed.

And just so it is documented here, here are some photos of Travis from his Tough Mudder race, the whole reason we were in Missouri. The left is before, and the right is after. I'm so glad our friend Karina came and did it with him. He had a wonderful time! He is actually doing another one of them this coming weekend in Kentucky. Go Travis!