We took a very quick trip to San Francisco this past weekend! We did super touristy things – rode a cable car, wandered around the Wharf, toured Alcatraz, watched the sea lions, saw the Golden Gate Bridge, and lots of shopping!

Wharf sign...

Alcatraz Island

Sign at Alcatraz Landing

Hall lined with cells

Close up of a cell

Sign for the Sea Lions

They were loud!

And rather large!

A bus tour to see the city - this is the one sunny day we had!

Golden Gate Bridge plaque

And the bridge...

Mister is a Wildcat and our (amazing, sweet, awesome) BIL was able to score us tickets to the Cotton Bowl!  Even though KState lost, we had a lot of fun. Thank you, Jared!

The two most annoying girls sat in front of us

2011 according to our blog…. In March we finished watching 180 episodes of Seinfield. May took us to Kansas to watch my SIL, Stephanie, graduate from highschool.  We started getting in as much lake time as possible in June and also celebrated our thirdwedding anniversary. There was a vacation to Table Rock Lake in July.  And in August we went to Cleveland and Cedar Point.  My sister, Jamie, got married in September and we took a boating trip to Broken Bow Lake.  In October we went back to Kansas and I also made the decision to sell the Jeep.  November was a memorable month with our trip to Paris!   I didn’t blog about Christmas, but we went back to a cold Kansas for a great time with family.  Here is wishing everyone a great 2012!

At the end of the year it is fun to look back and see what search terms brought people to this website. 

Most common searches were  variations of:  Jason Walker & Won’t Stop Getting Better;  Boating SNacks; and DQ / Dairy Queen Blizzard. The Dairy Queen searches surprised me, but a shout out to the Cookie Jar Blizzard!

One time searches included: self lecturing; animals dying; fractured proximal phalanx of 5th finger; need better adjective.  The “need better adjective” made me laugh because I often tell myself that.  “Worst”  and “Grossest”one time search was for “girl sucking crawfish” (FYI… I love crawfish but I don’t suck the heads).

But my favorite search of the year was “how to fix crooked pinky without surgery”.  If only, if only….  I do find it funny that this search was related to 2010, though?

My sister and BIL were very generous and watched Mack for a few days over Christmas. I was worried about Mack fitting and being a pest to their dog Bailey. But my BIL texted the below… they did just fine…

I came across two boys in the neighborhood with a table set up on the street corner. I figured they were selling hot chocolate or Christmas cookies. I knew I had change on me and decided to stop… It was a fun surprise to discover they were actually selling cakeballs!  While I was there their mom had a look of panic as she realized they didn’t have any napkins or plastic baggies.  I made it work and there were no complaints from me or the mister!

I can waste a lot of time on YouTube!

A list of Christmas randomness…

We watched Elf this past weekend. That movie currently holds the place as my favorite Christmas movie and always makes me laugh!

Lots of treats are staring to show up at work…I go for the cheap popcorn every.single.time I am given the chance.

A co-worker informed us he didn’t know who George Strait was…. now, he is not originally from Texas so we will give him some leeway… but he has been here for 2 years?  Currently “Christmas Cookies” is playing in heavy rotation on the radio. Good stuff!

In addition to cheap popcorn and silly Christmas songs, I am loving the cheesy Christmas movies!

I have not finished Christmas shopping and amazed by all the people I know who are finished.

My baking has drastically slowed down this past year. Apparently I am a stress baker…who knew?  But we have a christmas party this upcoming weekend and I have way to many new recipes I want to try, plus too many holiday favorites I want to make….

And, for anyone else who doesn’t know George Strait:

A post about the miscellaneous stuff!

I love bread… anyone who knows me isn’t surprised. I told someone that my favorite part of Paris were the croissants and I got mocked…they really were soooo good!

Mister’s face that he makes so I don’t use his pictures:

A “fail” pic from The Hall of Mirrors:

McFlurry’s… they didn’t blend the stuff in (those are KitKat and M&Ms).  Ice cream was used for bribery to go to museums…

I took French in highschool… I can say “Hi, my name is” and “I don’t understand”, but I was surprised at how much I could remember / comprehend when it was written (especially when it was a show I knew!).

And how I looked a good portion of the time:

We used Rick Steves’ Pocket Paris guide - it was prefect for our 5 day visit, had enough facts / stories without being a history book, and fit perfectly in my bag. Although it didn’t have the info on this sight - a bridge on the Ile do la Cite:

Those are locks and a shop owner explained that couples go to the bridges and place their lock on the railings and then make a wish and throw the key into the Seine.  I wished we had a lock.

Also, we didn’t have any encounters with any “rude” Parisians. Everyone we encountered was so nice and helpful. There was one instance of me being a rude American as I made my way on the metro to the airport, but Iwill have to tell you that story in person so I can act it out!

On our last day in Paris we hopped on the Metro and went to the city of Versailles. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to Versailles as it would take so much time and I wasn’t too sure I wanted to go check out some palace…but on the other hand, my SIL swore it was one of her favorite things from her recent trip to Europe. So I stuck the trip on our last day and wavered on whether or not we would go up until the night before. But… I’m really glad we went!  Since it was November, we didn’t have to deal with crowds and were able to walk right in. But, since it was November, the fountains in the gardens were also turned off and many of the statues covered.

From the Venus Room – Louis XIV as emperor:

The Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI was signed on June 28, 1919 (no, I had to look that up):

Picture of the Gardens taken while in the Hall of Mirrors:

I have several pictures of random architectural details and i know nothing about that kind of stuff, but it was all just so pretty!

Doors:

Ceilings:

And more ceilings!

Stairwells:

And then we went outside to see those gardens we had gotten a glimpse of. Oh my goodness… the gardens!  They were awesome – and I am saying this from seeing them in November!

The view down the Royal Drive:

Latona Basin:

We walked (a lot)

and just looked at everything….

The Orangerie where Louis XIV had orange trees to amaze visitors:

And us:

After Versailles, we went back to Paris and saw Napoleon’s tomb and the Musee de L’Armee (The Army Museum). The Hotel des Invalides, a former veterans’ hospital, is where Napoleon’s tomb is. The hospital has a gold dome that we could see from all of the city.

Napoleon’s tomb… it’s gigantic!

The Army Museum has lots (lots) of stuff!  There is a lot of history in France to cover. Most random – this was Napoleon’s horse:

And the courtyard:

And that is the summary of our 5 days in Paris!  Loved it!