RedLetterWords

girls weekend!

Last weekend my oldest daughter and I went to Chicago for a girls weekend!  We have never done this before just the 2 of us so we shopped and we ate lots of sweet things and drank tea and walked the city and had a fabulous time just being together.  

Here's our view from the hotel . . 

and maybe the favorite part of the weekend was taking the brown line train all the way to the last stop to the Swedish restaurant Tre Kroner.  I have blogged about my swedish heritage before but eating at this restaurant reminded me how glad I am that my mom and dad made a big deal of instilling our ancestry to me and my brothers and sisters.  I know that my Uncle did the same with my cousins.  My daughter picked TreKroner from the diners drive ins and dives app even though it was way far out of the city.  Ok so on to the cinnamon rolls . . .

Best ever.  With cardamon and lemon icing.  They had a store across the street called the Sweden Shop where we picked up a few goodies to bring home.  

oh and we also had a facial!  Ok so it was all about tea, cinnamon rolls, yummy breakfasts, shopping and pampering!  On the way home, she asked if we could go again next weekend!:)  

Do you take trips with your daughters?  Whats your favorite thing to do together!?

 

Packing my Bag!

I am going to Relevant!!  I hope I get to meet lots and lots of you!!! Find me please and say HI:)

Here is what I am bringing . . .

Tim

Thankful heart

Big Smile

Cute boots and jeans and shirts and headbands to go with them

Laptop

RedLetterWords Prints to giveaway

Miscellaenous makeup and shampoo

Camera with Cute Strap

and speaking of cute camera straps . . .

have you seen these new ones from Shey B???

I love The Chic in Black

But how fabulous is The Peacock?

The Gray Daisies is adorable too!

Which one would you pick??  Shey B is offering a 10% discount to RedLetterWords readers!  Use the code REDLETTER at checkout! 

Still in Utah . . .

so we left off somewhere in Utah . . . 

this is Dead Horse Point

its a long way down -   oooh that makes me dizzy!!

this picture is totally Christmas card worthy.  If I thought I would remember this at Christmas time that would be sooo cute!

me and my honey! 

does the sky come any bluer?

how did they get up there??

very carefully . . .

this one is for my mom!  Wooden shoe arch - she is dutch:)

view of balance rock - Arches National Park - Moab Utah.  Highly recommended area - We hiked and had picnics in Arches, Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point.

John Wayne's old stomping grounds.  Somehow I think that they didn't have wi-fi when he was there.  Still I LOVE old signs!

We ate here.  If you are in Moab - GO!!  its off the main road, but seriously awesome burgers and shakes!

It was absolutely beautiful and we had a total blast checking it all out! 

then we got too hot.  It was 113 degrees.  So we left.  You will never guess where we ended up . . .

Somewhere in Utah. . .

We are on day 7 of an 8,000 mile road trip!  Here is everywhere we have been so far. . .

Crossed over the bridge to Mackinac Island.  Tim and I haven't been here for 11 years and we have never taken our kids here before so it was really fun to ride bikes around the Island and eat fudge with them just like our parents did with us when we were little

thats my baby riding a big bike with her Daddy -   that smile never left her face.

Next up was a Loooong drive through Michigan's Upper Penninsula and through Wisconsin.  The kids were fully stocked with movies and DS games and Ipods.  It was cord city in the backseat.  Tim and I played our favorite driving game which is to turn on the 80's channel and see how many songs we can guess in a row.  We beat our all time record of 8 with this list . . .

38 Special - Hold on Loosely

Men at Work - Who can it be now

Rosanna - Toto

Sheila E - The Glamorous Life

Kyrie - Mister Mister

Billy Joel - You may be right

Video Killed the Radio Star - The Buggles (this one has tripped us up before!)

Frankie goes to Hollywood - Relax

No One is to Blame - Howard Jones

That makes 9 in a row.  Our previous record was 8.  Here is the song that got us this time.

Something so Strong - Crowded House

It is amazing how hard this game is sometimes.  Like you have heard this song a million times and then you can't think of who sings it and then when you finally give up and look at the screen, you have never ever heard of the band? 

Next up was Minnesota and South Dakota. Anybody ever driven through South Dakota?  We drove through the Badlands during the most incredible lightning storm. . .

We had a Wall Drug Billboard competition where the kids earned extra souveneir $ by being the first to spot the Wall Drug billboards.  We lost count on how many there are, but there is a ton of them.  4 days later Lily is still calling out "Wall Drug" at random billboards and saying "can I have some money?"

After dinner and souvenier shopping at Wall Drug, we finally made it here. . .

Mt Rushmore was fun.  We have always always wanted to go there.

On our way to Yellowstone we drove over Bighorn Mountain. 
I love rainbows. 

and isn't this baby moose the cutest?

 

Yellowstone was huge.  Much huger than we thought.  and Busy!  We saw the highlights. . . Canyons, Mud Volcanoes,  Bison, and of course

Old Faithful was cool to see.  And then we bolted.

Stay tuned.  More road trip adventures coming up. 

It really was that fun! . . .

8 women on a weekend trip to the Pioneer Woman's Lodge.

Some of us were blog stalkers avid readers of Pioneer Woman, some of us have made lots of her recipes, one of us has cooked her way through PW's entire cookbook, some of us had known each other for years, some of us had never met, some of us had only recently met, some of us were related, one of us wants to live on a ranch, some of us were completely comfortable on horseback, but we were all so excited to be there.

Yes that is a white stretch limo that PW had arranged to take us to the ranch.  Our awesome limo driver was Kayle, who is the husband of this blogger.   Very funny girl!  PW had also arranged for us to eat lunch on the way at Bad Brads BBQ.  
I love brisket and this was waaay yummy.  We were full and it was time to get to the Ranch! 

PW was there to greet us and she stayed and visited for awhile then she went home and we did lots of normal things like check out the view

and go on a walk and check out the cow grate

and then

some more completely normal borderline wierd things like touch all her pans

and count how many pounds of butter there was

She told us to make ourselves at home!!!

To be continued . . .:)

Less than 8 hours from now. . .

I will be boarding a plane with Sheila and Demetria and Carla, Karen, Cyndee and her daughters Laura and Anna.  We are on our way to the lodge !!!

Since Sheila is a far better, much more regular blogger than I am you can read all the details on her blog.  Because everyone knows that if I was to blog about it, It most likely wouldn't be blogged about until at least November.  Case in point here where I totally and completely admit that I blog in reverse.  Or not at all:) 

And, because she is awesome, Sheila is giving away an autographed Pioneer Woman cookbook!  You can post a comment to win here.  You can post what you would like her to write in your cookbook! 

I can't wait! We are going to have a blast!! - One of the happenings will be to make cinnamon rolls and then eat them for lunch! That is so my kind of favorite thing to do!

New York. Chicago and even Nantucket!

My husband and I love to travel.  Our kids love to travel.   I love creating vacation memories during our visits to cities,  beaches, restaurants, museums, tours, etc. I especially love that I can remember those moments through RedLetterWords art. I love to display 12x12 cafe mounts on a shelf surrounded by family photos.

We have been to visit NYC several times and every time is a completely different experience.  I could go there any day, any time. 

 

This print is a 12x12 cafe mount, but also looks super fabulous as a 20x20! This print is also available in gallery wrap canvas

or how about Chicago?  Great shopping, restaurants, What's not to love?  and It's close enough for us to drive for the day!

 

This is a 12x12 cafe mount print too, but is also available as a 20x20! and gallery wrap! check out all my cool travel prints at redletterwords or on etsy. 

  OR would you like a custom set of prints created especially for you like the one I made for Rachel from New Jersey?  Rachel wanted a silhouette made of Nantucket Island in the middle and then her favorite places on the other 2.  I LOVE this set:)   

 
OR how about Kristen in WI who celebrated her 40th birthday in New York and wanted a very special print made to remember it?  What fun places she went on her trip and isn't the pink the greatest?  Kristen also has the most excellent goal of having a RedLetterWords print in every room of her home!  She is currently on room #4 and she so rocks!  I don't even have a RedLetterWords print in every room LOL - I am quite close though:)

 

Or do you have your favorite beach spots from your honeymoon like Jennifer? - Wow! they look amazing on her wall!

 

Let me know what you are dreaming about for your house!  I would love to make it for you:)

Dee