Random Fall Fun

Because it's now officially winter, I figured it was time to go ahead and wrap up the fall of 2008, at least as far as Show-Me To the Beach is concerned. I take a lot of pictures (that's an understatement), and it's tough to get each photo op into its own post. Every now and then, a massive recap is necessary. A few months ago I did a final tribute to summer. Alas, this is a final farewell to fall:

Jack and Brayden

My husband looks pretty cute holding a baby, huh? Haha. Don't get any ideas, Mom!

Drunk Fun with Jess

I'm pretty sure my partner in crime was a little tipsy before we even arrived at Arterra this particular night, but that just made the whole thing a lot more entertaining! At the very least, we found a great new bar that's close to home!

Drinking Games for the Young Professional

In college we had "Clock," "Asshole" and "I Never." In law school we had "Stump," "Flip Cup" and "Beirut." These days, we have a whole new drinking game. And the rules couldn't be easier:
Gather together several other overeducated people who like to drink beer out of cans when they're not busy wearing suits to work. Find the presidential debate on TV. Instruct everyone that they are to take a sip of their beer each time they hear any of the following words: Economy, Main Street, Bush, Joe the Plumber, Iraq, and Maverick. Throw in a few more buzzwords for good measure. Pull out some extra blankets and pillows because your overeducated friends may not be able to drive themselves home.

40 Never Looked Hotter

The pretty lady in the middle is my boss (whom I'm fortunate enough to also consider a friend). This was her 40th birthday. Forget wanting to be like Mike...I want to be like Marnie!

Later on in the night we celebrated Marnie's birthday we met up with Dave and some of his friends. We ended up in a place that sells Keystone Light in a can. As Dave is fond of saying, "class, class, class!"

Chilling in St. Louis on Jack's Reunion Weekend

Out at a bar with Jack's high school classmates the night before the big event.

There ended up being more KAs at the bar than there were Lafayette grads.

Me & T.

Tara and Craig's sweet baby girl, Aspen!

Things to do in Chicago on marathon weekend.

Having some cocktails in Wrigleyville with my girls...Cara, me, TK and Nat.

Same night. Same bar. I miss Nick!

Jack and Hardeep in Chicago.

Still in a bar...32 hours pre-race.

Brunch with one of my most favorite people from law school, Ravi, and his beautiful wife, Ami. This restaurant they chose, Orange, was so fantastically yummy!

Pre-race carb loading (no late night boozing this time). We were all in Mizzou gear to watch what would end up being the Tiger's first loss of the season. It was all downhill from here.

Post-race celebration. Filla just ran 26 miles, possibly broke his foot when he slipped on a banana peel, and still manages to smile and look like it's any old casual Sunday afternoon. This was the first time I'd seen Linas and Tanya in years, so it was GREAT to finally catch up with them!

Margaritaville (but colder)

My first Buffett experience. It was a little chilly, but a damn good time!

Oktoberfest

To some it means beer, sauerkraut and leiderhosen. For us, it means hanging out in Jess's courtyard with California microbrews. Good times.
P.S. Again, I'm wearing Mizzou gear because we'd just been out watching the game. And again, Mizzou lost. Awesome.

I miss my Martina!

Thankfully she had to sit in on a depo in San Diego, so I got a very quick but much-needed Martina fix mid-fall. Here we are on the deck of Il Fornaio in Del Mar.

We met up with Atch and Noosa at Dog Beach. I'm not sure who had more fun catching up, me and MT or Mason and Noosa!

Martina had never seen this dog before her in life. Apparently he wanted to make sure he got noticed.

This moment wasn't nearly as scary as it looks like it was! Noose wasn't even growling. She was just trying to give Martina kisses!

Playing Tourist in my Hometown

When Jess came back to St. Louis with us for Spookfest, we had to give her the grand tour of the city, and you can't tour St. Louis without going up in the Arch. I kind of think she hated it (turns out the elevators really freaked her out!), but Tara and I still had fun acting like annoying St. Louis tourists. I even wore some Anheuser-Busch gear to try to fit in!

In the elevator on the way to the top of the Arch. Don't let Jess's smile fool you. She was not loving this.

Cool pic, no?

The Happiest Place on Earth

Who says only kids can celebrate their birthday with Mickey Mouse?

Turns out that Disneyland is the place to celebrate your birthday, no matter what your age. When my friend Allison mentioned that she celebrated her birthday there last year, I thought my 28th birthday was a great excuse for Jack and I to make our first trip to the place where dreams come true (technically Jack went to Disneyland as a child, and we've both been to Disney World, but this was our first venture together to the tourism mecca in Anaheim). Because I'm me, I did a bunch of research ahead of time and knew that I could go to the guest relations office and get a free birthday button. But I gotta say, it's a whole lot less special when every third person in line for the rides is also wearing a birthday button. Apparently I'm not the only one who researches this type of thing.

We were a little worried that the place would be jam-packed on a Saturday near the holidays, but thanks to the phenomenon known as the California wildfires, it was actually pretty empty. Granted, we probably inhaled enough ash that day to shorten our life spans by at least a couple weeks, and it was really windy and smelled like a bonfire, but we barely had to wait in any lines, so I think it's a fair tradeoff.

I think we managed to ride almost every single ride in the place (excluding the ones that get you wet, of course...it's not that warm in Orange County in November!) and it was a ton of fun. My favorite was, hands down, Space Mountain. Between the music, the darkness, the "stars," the speed....it made me laugh out loud in sheer joy every single time we rode it (which, yes, was more than once). I could probably have done without all the kid-friendly rides like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (which was not at all wild) and Snow White's Scary Adventure (which was not remotely scary), but they're old-school and classic Disney so they're part of the experience. And I'm all about the experience. I even ate a frozen Mickey head just because it seemed like something one should do when one is at Disney.

All in all, great day. Even with the smoke. I'm still a little partial to the Magic Kingdom, but I'll gladly return to Anaheim in 5-10 years when I have some children just dying to shake Tigger's giant orange paw.

Aboard "The Matterhorn." Not bad for an self-portrait action shot, eh?

The obligatory picture with Mickey. We waited in line for like half an hour to get this!

Jack in Mickey's house. Nice, hard furniture. He's cute, huh?

Self-portrait in front The Matterhorn. I hear there's a basketball court at the top!

Helping Buzz Lightyear save the world.

A little taste of a California wildfire. This was taken at about 2pm. The sliver of whitish-gray sky you see near the bottom of the skyline is what color the sky would/should have been were it not for the smoke and ash.

Smoky sky in the New Orleans area of the park.

Me and Captain Jack Sparrow. Dude wears a LOT of eyeliner!

Sadly, this is the second picture from my birthday weekend in which my mouth is open and I'm about to eat something really unhealthy (see fried pickles in the previous post). I hope my dietician hasn't seen this blog!

Pay no attention to the Home Alone kid seated in front of us.