Wes & Erica's vacation photo album // Shawnee, OK// August 2026

The day before we leave town for an actual vacation is a good time to finally post about our last (mini) trip. 🚗 We took the dogs in for their grooming appointment in August. It takes a couple of hours, so we decided to head out to Shawnee to visit the mummies while we wait. We've been watching The Lost Treasures of Egypt docuseries on National Geographic (currently on the final season😞) and I've been really wanting to see some artifacts in real life. Lacey reminded me of the Mabee-Greer Museum of Art; we supposedly went in high school, but I do not remember anything about it. A quick google search confirmed that the mummies were still there and open to the public. Hooray!!

We stopped by the 👢Kicks 66👢statue on our way out of town. It's cool but probably looks better at night when it's lit up. Part of me wants to drive around to visit all the Route 66 statues they're putting up all over the state, but another part of me is okay with just seeing pictures of them on Instagram. LOL 

When I was planning our day out, I picked two activities for us - the art museum and the Monks' Market at St. Gregory's Abbey. I didn't realize they're on the same campus! We started with the abbey. It was still pretty early, but with it being the hottest summer on record, it was already 100℉ by the time we got there.🔥 🌞I wanted to walk around and look at all the old architecture, but it got unbearably hot within the hour. 😫 We still managed to walk around a bit before heading inside. The Monks' Market was a lot smaller than the website made it out to be, but it still had some neat stuff. There was an arts & crafts section with crocheted items, the thought of a group of monks having a crochet night made me laugh a bit. I bought some lotion and k-cups. ☕The coffee selection was the largest part of the market, and I plan to return in the winter or spring to buy some more (it'll be nice to walk around campus when Oklahoma isn't under an Extreme Heat Warning).

The tools & devices used to make the host were my favorite part of the abbey's history lesson. 

There was one other visitor at the abbey with us. He suggested that we walk along the hallways to see the old photographs and history. We learned about Fr. Greer and his role at the abbey & museum. I also took the self-guided tour of the church. ⛪The church was small, but jam packed with art and relics. Each chapel was like a mini-museum dedicated to a saint or monk. One of the chapels had the ropes to ring the big church bells. The three white ropes were used to signal daily mass and other normal events. The red rope was reserved funerary purposes and for when a monk passed. 🕭 The stained-glass windows were part of the self-guided tour but it was a little overcast the day we went, so it wasn't as bright or colorful as it normally would be. Still very beautiful though! 🕈 One of the monks was playing the organ while I walked around the church, which was very neat to have live background music. 

The last thing I did at the abbey was walk the labyrinth. (Wes gave up and headed to the museum lobby to wait for me... it was probably 105℉ by this point 😡) On the way into the center of the labyrinth, I was meant to meditate on things I need to let go of, then when I got to the center, I was supposed to reflect on how much more calm & peaceful I felt. I did both of those things, but I was completely drenched in sweat, so I cut through the path to walk out. I don't remember what I was supposed to meditate on as I exited to return to the hustle & bustle of real life. St. Gregory's Abbey is an interesting (and free!) way to spend an afternoon. I definitely recommend going, but not in the summertime because none of it is properly air conditioned. 

The vase on the top left was used to store preserved salted eggs, which is one of my top favorite Chinese foods, and made me very hungry because we were nearing lunchtime. 🥚

The little statue on the bottom left represents my daily anxiously discombobulated state. 😫 But the ivory girl in the center is the cool collectiveness I strive for.

And the shrunken heads were just too weird to not take a picture of. When the travel brochures say this museum has variety, they mean it!!

Now onto the art museum! 🎨The museum is small but has a ton of neat stuff... all types/genres of art from all over the world. I liked that it was condensed. I felt like I could spend more time with each piece and it was nice to not have to walk around so much after touring the monastery. Fr. Greer studied art in France and travelled a lot. 🌍 He knew that his fellow monks and community in Oklahoma wouldn't get the same opportunities as he did, especially in the 1800s, so he collected artifacts from his travels and brought them back to start the museum. The best part was that the museum actually felt like a random grouping of souvenirs brought back from a lifetime of travels. I could imagine Fr. Greer being like, oh this painting has significance and would also look great next to this vase!

The first artifact he acquired was from Egypt. 𓁁 The museum has three sarcophagi with two intact mummies. They were the coolest things I've seen in a while. 😮 I am obviously no archeologist or Egyptologist, but felt like I could be in the moment. I remembered all the random nuggets of information I learned from the National Geographic docuseries and related them back to the items in front of me. 𓀴 I could feel how astonished the archeologists felt when they discovered the tombs and how careful they had to be to lift the mummies out, like I was part of the team in episode 5... maybe I let my imagination wander off too far. LOL We were the only ones at the museum, so I got to linger at the mummy exhibit for as long as I wanted. Super cool! 

My favorite of the three.

After I had my fill of wonder and awe at the museum, it was time for lunch. We went downtown and ate at The Owl Shoppe. 🦉 It had just opened for lunch and the restaurant was already packed! I thought this would be a sign we'd have a delicious meal, but it was just so so. 😒 I got the avocado steak tacos and Wes got the quesadilla. His came with a side of chips & salsa. The salsa used chili powder instead of actual peppers so it had a weird gritty texture (I tried a bite). Wes said he didn't mind that, but he didn't like how bland it was, and it could have benefited from some garlic and lime. My tacos were also really bland. Their redeeming qualities were the fresh made guac and street corn. We saw the chef cutting kernels off the cob to make the street corn as we walked in. That corn was the best part of the meal!

There were a couple of antique shops that I wanted to explore while we were downtown but camp called not long after lunch ended saying the dogs were cleaned and ready to go home. We managed to visit the Junk n' Treasure antique shop before we headed out of town (saw some interesting stuff but nothing worth buying). I also wanted to try the ice creamery but we were both too full for dessert. 🍦 All in all a successful day out. Next up, we're going to Grapevine, TX for their annual GrapeFest wine festival!!🍷🍇

I was so excited for the mummies that the actual art in the art museum became an afterthought. LOL There were lots of gorgeous paintings though. I almost forgot to include them in this post!

Wes & Erica's vacation photo album //DFW, TX - Food//March 2026

I saw an Instagram ad for The Balloon Museum last year and knew I had to go!! Installation/immersive art has become one of my favorite things to visit.

Earlier in March, Wes & I finally took my belated birthday trip to Carrollton, TX for 3 days of eating & shopping. 🚗 It kind of became an "OMG, I can't believe we both survived the insanity of our Q4 2025 & Q1 2026 work schedules" celebration trip. 🙌 I usually like to try new restaurants, but we've been keeping a list of places that we want to return to so that's what we did this time around. We also visited two art exhibits ... and I took A LOT of pictures so that'll be for the next blog post. 📷

I got us matching Nimbao shoes for Valentine's Day; we took them out on their first trip 💗 #romantic LOL

We got into Dallas for lunch. 🐖We went to the Arlington location of Hurtado BBQ back in 2024 and wanted to try the Dallas location this time around. It was much bigger and nicer; the Arlington location is more of a BBQ stand and this is an actual restaurant. Hurtado is Wes's favorite BBQ place, so I asked him what he thought and he said the food was just as good as he remembered. 😋 I (unknowingly) got two spicy sides -- elote and bacon potato salad-- so my meal was a little too hot, but it was still really good.

Coconut Paradise won a poll for Best Dessert Spot in Carrollton. All their desserts look very tasty but are also very perishable, so we can't ever try more than one thing. 😔

After lunch, we stopped in Coconut Paradise for drinks to bring back to the hotel. We always stay in the Marriott Courtyard Carrollton Dallas; one of these trips I'll actually take some pictures of it. 🏢 It is in the best location - right by the highway with Carrollton Town Center on one side of it, and the Korean shopping center on the other side. And it's right next to Wal-Mart, for when we forget to pack something. LOL Wes got the guava longan coconut water and I got the rose lychee soda from Coconut Paradise.

We went to BCD Tofu for dinner. 🍚 It was a Tuesday night, but the parking lot was packed. All the best restaurants are in Carrollton Town Center so it shouldn't have been a surprise, but I didn't expect so many people to be dining out on a weeknight. We both got the soon tofu combo, which came with traditional Korean banchan, tofu soup, and a smaller version of an entrée. I forgot about the combo and initially suggested that we each get a tofu and split an entrée, but Wes reminded me about it; and good thing too because it was SO MUCH food!! Everything was delicious, as usual. 🐟 I went with the mackerel this time.

I take a picture of the outside of each restaurant we visit -- regardless of how many times we've been there, and Wes goes, damn how many pictures of 85℃ do you need?? LOL

The next morning, we went to 85℃ Bakery for breakfast. One opened up in Edmond, OK but it isn't as good as the ones in TX. (There wasn't as much selection at the one back home.) My one complaint is that 85℃ changed their policy and now they won't heat up the savory pastries for you. 😒 I guess they assume everyone is getting their stuff to go, and can heat it up at home or work. Anyway, I got an 85℃ roll and a chocomatcha bun, and Wes got a coconut something and a guava something else. LOL I tried their sea salt caramel coffee again because it was listed as a "favorite" drink. It was way too salty the last time I got it, but I customized it to "less salt" this time and it was really good. ☕

🍹Blue Sushi has a really generous happy hour, running until 6:30pm!! I ordered from their super expansive happy hour menu.

For lunch we went to the Walnut Hill location of Blue Sushi Sake Grill. 🍣We went to another location one other time but decided this was the better one. Blue Sushi has Wes's all-time favorite sushi roll -- the Godzilla roll. 🐲 He got that along with the cherry bomb. I got one roll with faux tuna and a roll with actual tuna, for a side-by-side comparison. They both tasted the same to me. LOL The vegan tuna roll had a bunch of other stuff in it, so maybe that masked the vegan-ness of the tuna. It also had vegan caviar on top, which was a first for me.

I always want to be seated in the Godzilla booth, but we've been seated in the same section two years in a row. And we had the same waitress as last time, which is crazy because the last time we came here was in 2024!

We originally planned to drive into Dallas for dinner at Nando's, but thunderstorms were in the forecast so we stayed in Carrollton. ⛈ We had dinner at DAQ Korean Chicken (it was a Mad for Chicken the last time we were here). The concept, and Wes noticed even the decor & table arrangement, was the same though - spicy Korean fried chicken. 🍗Wes got the chicken tenders with Korean sweet sauce. He wasn't impressed saying it wasn't spicy or complex. I got the shrimp fried rice, which was good but definitely needed the sauce that came on the side. It would have been way too bland without it.

🌧💧The thunderstorm warning turned into a flash flood warning throughout the evening. 💧🌧 It started pouring while we were eating. ☔ I was hoping we could wait it out, but the rain was not letting up. Luckily, we parked pretty close to the restaurant so the walk to the car wasn't bad, but all the close spots at the hotel were taken so we had to park pretty far away and were completely drenched when we got to our room. 😫 The worst part was that DAQ wasn't even that good to be worth getting all soggy for. 

Our last meal of the trip was breakfast at the food court in Ranch 99. I always get my congee, but I might have to change it up the next time we go. They had so much good stuff out!! A lot more than previous times we've been. 🍲 They had their entire line up of dim sum options, rice bowls with pork belly, and so many good lunch & dinner options that I wanted to buy, but Wes reminded me that perishables don't do well in the car for the long drive home 😔 After eating, we got our grocery list items from the store (mostly stuff for my mom; we found the absolute cutest Ranch 99 tote bag!) and headed home.

Oh yeah, I mentioned we did some other (non-grocery) shopping. 💸 A friend told me about Dillard's Clearance Centers in Lewisville & Irving. Wes needs new work shoes, so we went to both locations to look for some. No luck. 😑There wasn't much at the Lewisville location and the Irving location didn't have men's shoes at all. I did end up with a new work out top for Pilates. I say "non-grocery shopping", but we mostly got food & snacks. LOL There isn't much else we really need in our minimalist life... but there is always room for snacks. 🍭🍪 We stopped in the Denton Buc-ee's on the way home and loaded up! They had an entire baby aisle, and I wanted to buy everything for Ezra, but Lacey & her mom take frequent Buc-ee's trips with him so I restrained myself.

No unicornos at Kinokuniya but there were some in the impulse aisle at Ranch 99.

There was some cute stuff at Daiso and Teso Life, but I didn't buy too much. We only got snacks from Teso. I think it's because a Daiso opened in Oklahoma, so it's no longer a treat to come here. I was super disappointed with Kinokuniya 😠 Lacey & I have started collecting trinkets to set out as ⭐good luck charms⭐ to help us during crochet night. I had an entire list of tokodoki ones I was going to get for us. Kinokuniya had literally every other blind box imaginable, but not a single tokidoki.

The Dallas Art Museum had a collection of Surrealist art as part of one of the temporary exhibits. 

In between all our amazing meals, we went to the Balloon Museum and the Dallas Art Museum. 🎨We had two very different experiences at each art exhibit. Give me a minute to get my pictures together and I'll write all about it!! 

Wes & Erica's vacation photo album// DFW, TX // August 2025

We took a quick trip to Texas in August to see Ghost on their Skeletour (for Wes) and to see the Return to Infinity: Yayoi Kusama exhibit (for me). I've been told, more than once 😖, that our vacations seem like an exhausting to-do list instead of a relaxing experience, so this time those two activities were literally all we did -- no extra stops, no last minute plans.😊 (I actually also wanted to go to Fuzz Lab, but their hours are weird & there wasn't a location near our hotel, which meant we'd have to stress to fit it in, so we skipped it.) We got to spend quality time lounging around in our nice hotel and I got a lot of crocheting done on our downtime.

Probably the largest sandwich I've see in my lifetime. I ate about 3/4 of it.

Wes has a couple of coworkers from the Dallas division of Paycom so we're always getting good restaurant recommendations. We had lunch at Weinberger's Deli in Grapevine, TX. (Downtown Grapevine is super cute, and I would have wanted to walk around their historic main street, which is railroad and dinosaur themed, if it wasn't 102℉ that afternoon.🌞) The deli was packed, even though it was around 2pm when we got there. Wes got Morgan's Turkey sandwich, which had both turkey & pepperoni, and I got the Vera Cuban. There are soooo many different sandwiches on the menu; it was hard to choose but I went with vera because it had cilantro on it. 🥪 We both liked our giant sandwiches, but also both wished we had gotten something else (Wes the muffuletta and me the lamb special). Wes saw a billboard for Grape Fest, advertised as the best wine festival in the region, annually in September in Grapevine on our drive out of town. 🍷 It's been added to the 2026 vacation itinerary! 

We went to Nando's (Dallas location -- about an hour away but so worth it) for dinner. 🐔 I learned from No Such Thing As A Fish that the Nando's franchise is the world's largest buyer of South African art because they decorate each of their restaurants with art made by indigenous artists... like they actively seek out native & emerging artists to feature in their various locations. So, of course the first thing I do when we walk in is look at all the art on the walls! 🎨 The menu even had art on it and a QR code that takes you to the artists from that location's social medias. That aspect of the restaurant is super neat, and the food was delicious, too! 😋 I rarely see livers on offer so I got them (even though I much prefer gizzards). OMG they were so tasty!! Wes isn't a huge fan of livers, either, and he agreed that they were very good. They had several sauce options to choose from; I got the Peri-paradise sauce over the livers and the Peri-ranch over the Brussels sprouts (Wes went with medium). We also sampled the lemon & herb sauce, which Wes really liked but I didn't. We got the Naughty Nata (Portuguese custard tart) for dessert, to-go because we were stuffed but couldn't turn down a sweet treat. LOL

I should have taken a picture of the fighter jet/airplane decor inside. It was definitely a theme restaurant. 

The next morning, we had breakfast at West Side Café, an airplane themed diner that is close enough to some sort of base or training facility that we could hear jets flying overhead while we ate. 🛫 Not sure if they built it there on purpose to really lean into the theme. LOL I wanted to try their bacon, cheddar & chive "tater kegs" but they're only served at lunch. (My newest foodie goal is to eat a tater keg -- a large tater tot stuffed with something yummy.) I ended up with Mama Sue's hashbrown casserole and French toast instead. The food was okay. I liked that their syrup is warmed up and Wes liked that his bacon was hickory smoked instead of Applewood smoked. 

We had no plans until dinner that evening, so we stopped in Café Azul on our way back to the hotel to get coffee to sip on the rest of the day. ☕ The little coffee shop looked so familiar but I don't think we've been before. I got the Mexican mocha and Wes got the churro latte. We stayed in Fort Worth's Cultural District, and right across the street from the Kimball art museum. I checked their website to see if they had any good special exhibits but nothing peaked our interest. Again, it would have been fun to walk around the area if it wasn't 100℉. Man, I HATE summer. 😠 Ugh.

I've never been a fan of bologna but the slices we got on the meat & cheese plate were really good. Wes was not impressed.

Our next meal (late lunch... early dinner... whatever meal you eat at 3:30pm) was at Taste of Europe, another restaurant recommended by one of Wes's coworkers. There is a small grocery store with Eastern European foods at the back of the restaurant. The market had some interesting things that we wanted to try, but nothing was going to keep well in the car while we were out & about. I tried a chicken kiev for the first time. It was good and I loved the lemon butter. 🧈 I could dip anything in that stuff! LOL I tried one of Wes's perogies. It was so heavy; no idea how he ate all 10 of them. I guess we wouldn't be having dinner until late night after the concert so it was a good idea to have a nice meal beforehand. 

The Ghost concert was a phones-free event (so no pictures for the next few paragraphs😢). The concept was terrifying at first (no phones... what if there's a terrorist attack, medical emergency, bad weather??!?! 😳), but it ended up being okay. Ghost's frontman claimed that not having your phone made you "more engaged with the band", but honestly, I think it was to protect his proprietary material -- no concert footage leaked on YouTube. I may have been a bit more engaged but I was also 100x more anxious. 😵 The concert was at the very nice & CLEAN Dickies arena. The employees placed our phones in Yondr bags for us as we walked in, and there were more employees outside of the arena waiting to unlock our bags as we exited. I thought the process would be more chaotic, resulting in a crush... and none of us having a phone to call for an ambulance, but it was very well organized. Kudos to the Dickies arena staff! 👍

Wes loved the concert; Ghost is one of his favorite bands, and that's all that really matters. My opinion is just blah, blah, blah, noise. 💀 This was our second time seeing them live. (First concert was at their 2022 Imperatour) I thought that maybe the first show wasn't amazing because the venue wasn't packed and our energy was off (it was in Lincoln, NE... not exactly a hotbed for heavy metal music). But this time, the Dickies arena housed a sold-out crowd and the vibe was top notch, and I still felt like Ghost wasn't having the time of their lives like we were. 😑 I guess my main problem is that it sounded so rehearsed-- exactly as they do on Pandora; at one point I wondered if it was even live. I know, its a weird complaint that the band sounded too good but that's just me. 🤷

Overall, the show was fun & we enjoyed ourselves.  I've become a Ghost fan over the years and I could recognize the hits. 🎶They played a few of the songs that Wes really likes that they didn't play the last time we saw them; I think he really likes the new Skeletá album so it was a good tour to go to. We wanted t-shirts but the merch line was insanely long before the show. I volunteered to step out during a lull to grab the shirts we wanted, but by the time I got the merch booth, our sizes were sold out. 😒 We had planned to get sushi after the show (Blue Sushi Sake Grill was just 10 minutes away), but it took ages to get out of the parking garage and back onto the main street. We settled for Taco Bell on the way back to the hotel instead; their taco pizza was no replacement for delicious sushi, but beggars can't be choosers when it comes to dinner at 11:30pm.

Hands down the best breakfast I've had in a while!! 😍 Definitely the best mimosa I've ever had.

The next morning, we had breakfast at Lucile's. 😋 We've been keeping a list of restaurants to return to each time we're in Texas; Wes has Hurtado BBQ and Blue Sushi Sake Grill, and I'm adding Lucile's. We ate off the breakfast menu, but I'm dying to try their lunch & dinner options. Lucile's is a cute little house built on a median and inside is filled with open air New Orleans vibes. Super cute decor and very  welcoming. Wes said his bacon was cooked perfectly. I got the crab lump benedicts, with huge lumps of fresh crab. 🦀 Everything we got was so good!

After breakfast, we headed back into Dallas for the art museum. It was still kind of early when we got there, so we got street parking right in front of the museum. 😁 I don't think we've ever been so lucky with street parking. We were only planning to visit the Kusama exhibit, but our tickets came with free general admission so I paid the max time (2 hours) so we could walk around. We got back to the car literally as the parking app's timer went off!

Oh how nice it would be to be a woman spinning yarn in a shop with her husband and cozy dog. #wistful 

The museum also had a pair of shoes that Yayoi Kusama made; she stuffed the shoes with balls of paper-or maybe it was rocks- and painted them, so they were no longer useful. I think it is supposed to represent being saddled down with ills to where you can't function fully as a human anymore.

The Kusama exhibit wasn't really worth the price 😒 so I'm glad we got general admission into the museum as well. I thought it would be larger, but it literally is a 10x10ft box. With no ventilation. There are glass pumpkins all around and the walls & ceilings are mirrors so we were standing in a pumpkin field, completely surrounded. Very cool concept... but there is a time limit and we were accompanied by a museum guard. We could only go in there one time for only 90 seconds. (When we went to the exhibit in Bentonville, we could go in as many times as we wanted and linger for as long as we liked.) I didn't mind the time constraint, but what ruined the experience for me was the guard. She clicked her stop watch when we got in and did not take her eyes off us; she was just doing her job and there was no way for her to be invisible in such a tiny setting, but it was truly distracting. We were free to take pictures & selfies and talk or whatever, but it felt so weird with her there. 😫 I couldn't feel engaged or immersed in my "immersive art experience" (which made me think of the Ghost concert the night before and decide that, yeah, I actually was pretty engaged then after all). 

We tried to find all the new acquisitions since its been a few years since our last museum visit.

The fuzzy pink closet was my favorite! Bottom right: my spoils from the gift shop. I've looked through the Dalí cookbook and there is nothing that I can make as a home chef 😢

We've been to the Dallas Art Museum once or twice before so we just took a quick tour around this time. Wes wanted to revisit the East Asian collection, and I had to say hi to the mummy (I'm obsessed!) I think we saw all the new (to us) pieces, and hit all the collections on the map.

Mummies are truly the best; I am still mad that we missed the Immersive King Tut tour a few years ago.

Check out the amazing detail on these two! 😲

The artist sculpted wind in the one on the left. WIND. How do you sculpt the concept of weather?! It really looks like the man's garment is billowing, and it blew my mind.

The piece on the right is made from beads. Tons & tons of tiny beads!

It was lunchtime after our museum visit. We drove up to Mitsuwa Marketplace in Plano, TX. I imagined it was a shopping center (the website boasted of a food court and Kinokuniya bookstore), but it was actually a giant Japanese grocery store. It was cool to walk around and look, but it wasn't really what we wanted for lunch. The Kinokuniya was a small stall in the store; kind of disappointing 😞 but we can cross another Kinokuniya location off our list. There was another stall with gumball machines, but with blind box figurines instead of gumballs inside. Each cost 3-4 tokens, and tokens were $5 each... no thank you, I can buy a legit tokidoki Unicorno for cheaper than that.

I should have gotten a picture of all the blind box gumball machines.

Luckily for us, we were in the Asian district of Plano and had plenty of other restaurant options. We went to Sichuan Folk, which was just across the street. All the diners were Asian and the menu was in Chinese, so we knew this place would be good. 😄 They had beef soup dumplings, which was a treat (I usually only come across the pork or veggie ones). I wasn't going to get a spicy dish, but I figured I had to since we were at a Sichuan restaurant. 🌶 I got the cold sesame noodles. They were so good but so spicy!! Wes got a spicy pork dish.

There was a boba place next door so we got drinks for the drive home. I got my standard go to... the strawberry matcha latte.🍵🍓 I liked that it had chunks of fresh strawberry in it. Wes got a fruit tea, and he said he didn't like the chunks of fruit. Opposites attract, I guess. 😆 We had to order from a kiosk, which forced us to customize the drinks. No forgetting to add boba, or questioning the sugar level or how much ice you want. I think all boba places should install these because I can never hear the cashier, who always mumbles, over the loud trendy music. LOL

🚗We went to Buc-ee's to fill up on gas & snacks and take our last potty break before the long drive home. We usually try to leave town mid-morning, but decided to stay a bit later since it was summertime, so the sun would be up longer. My night vision has majorly deteriorated but traffic was fine and we got home before it got too dark. 🌓Another Texas trip in the books! And a relaxing one at that. So long DFW, see you next year for Grape Fest! 🍇

Wes & Erica's vacation photo album// Tulsa, OK // June 2025

The June theme for my sewing club's sew & share is A June Wedding and, boy, did I fulfill that challenge!👰🤵 Wes & I got invited to my friend, Miranda's wedding so I made my dress, a garment bag, and her gift. The dress code was formal (evening) attire so the garment bag was extremely useful. Wes still had to steam his shirt at the hotel, but my dress came out in pristine condition. 💅 The wedding was in Tulsa so we made a little trip of it.  

Preview of wedding pictures... there WILL BE MORE!!
Fun fact: Andrea made her bridesmaid dress (top left). And even more impressive is that she sewed it in two days 😲

We dropped the dogs off at camp Friday morning, and headed out. The Road to Oklahoma shop hop is every June & July, and even though I've been an avid shopper for the past 3 shop hops, I've never visited any of the fabric stores around Tulsa. Our first stop once we got in town was to change that! 

Got my passport and block pattern. And, the striped fat quarter was the free shop hopper gift!

We went to The Quilting Studio. The store was gigantic with all sorts of fun quilting cottons. It was sort of a maze when you first walk in. 😵 There were several classrooms toward the back of the store, too. The shop hop special for the week was $2 fat quarters, but the specials change each Friday... the cashier forgot it was a new Friday so I got my 2 fat quarters at the discount! The only downside was that I had to spend at least $5 to use a credit card, so Wes had to grab all the change out of my car while I rummaged my purse for any cash I had. I guess I could have bought more to remedy this embarrassing situation but I'm trying to not buy too much fabric nowadays. 

I got the calamari banh mi and Wes got the fried chicken bowl. The cinnamon chips were weird as a side.

Next was lunch. 🥪 I saw an Instagram post about Lone Wolf years ago and have been wanting to try it each time we come to Tulsa... but then I find other restaurants I would rather try. LOL We finally made it, and while it was good, I kind of wish we ate somewhere else. 😕The restaurant was right next to Fixins Soul Kitchen (which was amazing... we had lunch there the last time we were in town) and Wes wanted to pivot to eating there again, but I stayed firm with banh mi. Like I said, the food was tasty; Wes said his chicken bowl was good, but my sandwich cost $13.50!! I've never paid more than $7 for a banh mi. Don't jack up the price because you "elevated" ethnic comfort food... ugh, so annoying. 😑

We still had time to kill before the hotel's check in time, so we headed to Scheel's after lunch. It is an enormous sporting goods & athletic apparel store. We were greeted by an aquarium at the entrance and a Ferris wheel in the middle of the store. We walked around both floors but barely looked at any sportswear. We spent most of our time in the pet🐕, snacks🍬, and toys 🏎 sections. In defense of our sportiness, I did look at Pilates attire and Wes looked at pocket knives... we just didn't buy any. We bought dog treats, candy, and Wes found some collectible Hot Wheels for a friend. 

My favorite hotel of all the places we've stayed at in Tulsa.

Our home for the rest of the day would be the Ambassador hotel. It is a historic hotel in downtown Tulsa. Our room was so nice!! It was a lot bigger than some of the others we've stayed in. The lobby had an alcove that was a photo booth, but the computer/camera didn't work 😞 We got to rest for about an hour before the wedding. I was going to curl my hair but my curling iron stopped working, so I took a power nap instead. Wes was worried we'd be late, but I know Miranda and I know weddings... both are rarely ever on time. LOL We had time to get all dressed up, drive to the venue, park on the street and walk to the ceremony, and still had about five minutes to spare!

I saw on their website that the Dresser Mansion has tours, so I'll have to add that to the to-do list the next time we're in Tulsa.

The wedding was at the Dresser Mansion. 🏡 The mansion is a historic site (with the actual National Register of Historic Places designation) built in the 1900s. The house is kept in its original state with art and furniture in all its rooms. We got to walk through a couple of the rooms on our way out to the back patio where the wedding was going to be held. I should have assumed a June wedding would be outdoors but I was so surprised (and a little annoyed) that it was. The mansion had such large, beautiful, air conditioned rooms.

Right as we got settled into our seats, I realized I left Miranda's present (that I spent an entire week working on) in my car! 😖 It was already a little past when the wedding was supposed to start, but I know these things never start on time so I asked Miranda's mom and the officiant if I had 5-10 minutes to run to my car to grab something, and they both said no. So we stayed put in our seats while I sweated & stressed out about the gift. I guess it would have sucked if we missed Miranda's grand entrance. She and her dad appeared on the balcony and came down the stairs for us. She looked so happy. 😊 (In hindsight, I would have had plenty of time to run to the car, grab the gift and make it back into our seats.)

The ceremony was beautiful. 💕 Miranda looked gorgeous in her dress! She and her husband had a wine ceremony where she poured some white wine into a goblet, then he added some red wine to it, and they drank the combination. The wine had been sitting out in the heat all afternoon so I doubt it tasted good but it was a cute gesture. LOL At the end, they were announced as Mr. & Mrs. Mulkey... he took her last name!! That was the first time I've seen that and thought it was so cool!!

They had personalized Pop figures (bottom center left) #soadorable
One of our wedding gifts was a guitar pick with their picture on it (Miranda is a musician); also freaking adorable! (right, third from top)

There was an open bar so we all hung out and drank after the ceremony. Fun, but less so because it was outside in the early evening heat. (🌞 It would be another 2-3 hours before the sun set.) Initially, Kelly from sewing club, was the only other person I recognized, but then I noticed some other familiar faces. We all stood about in the +90℉ heat and talked about how hot it was, but was thankful it wasn't storming. Yay for summer in Oklahoma. 😒 By pure coincidence, we sat at a table with Kelly and Donna... Miranda's two other friends who sew! We had homemade authentic pork tacos made by one of the groom's friend's family. 🌮 The tortillas were so good!! I ate four 😋 I was hot, starving, and slightly buzzed by dinner time so I forgot to take any pictures of the meal.

We watched the first dances, cake cutting (🍰cake was also delicious and I ate it all before I remembered to take a picture), and listened to toasts after dinner. I've been to plenty of weddings, and I think Miranda & Josh have the most caring and genuine friends. Their toasts were so heartfelt; I almost started crying when Andrea started crying during her maid-of-honor speech. Then Josh gave a speech about how happy he is to have joined their family and how much he loves Miranda.💑 I would have been weeping along with him if I wasn't so mad about how hot & sweaty I was. One of his seemingly drunk friends grabbed the microphone after his super emotional speech to give an annoying bro speech, which I thought was kind of rude but it was a good segue into the next round of activities for the night. We had the anniversaries dance (Wes & I came in third with 10 years; Miranda's parents won with 48 years!), the shoe game, and the bouquet toss. 💐We were chatting with her before the toss and I was about to take a picture with her when the DJ announced it. I was like, we'll find you later for our picture. She insisted that we take it now, so I stupidly replied, but you have to toss your bouquet. Then I remembered she's the bride and I should take a picture with her and everyone else can wait. I was four drinks in by this time... and there was no water. Insanity. We were all outside, there was an open bar, jug of lemonade & tea that kept getting refilled, but no water. There was a small jug of water at the beginning of dinner, but no one knew where more was after it ran out (and trust me when I say I asked around). The bartender took pity on me and gave me a cup of ice with a little bit of melted water from the bottom of his bucket. 💦 I knew it was time to head out when heat exhaustion and dehydration started setting in. LOL 

The wedding was a ton of fun and the food was amazing (much better than your standard wedding catered fare); I'm extremely glad & thankful Miranda thought to invite us and let us be a part of her special night. 😍 My dress was literally stuck to me by the time we got to the hotel. I showered, drank an entire bottle of water and promptly fell asleep. I didn't even notice when Wes got in bed. 😂

We got there just before the rush. I've learned that if we're going to a popular breakfast spot, it's best to get seated before 10am.

The next morning, we went to Bramble for breakfast. It was so good! I got the birria chilaquiles; highly recommend. They had a breakfast cocktail menu but all I wanted was water. (I would definitely go again and I'll get a mimosa then.) Wes said he liked his breakfast, but the sausage wasn't as done as he'd like and the latkes were a little over done... if only they met in the middle.

I told myself I was only buying fat quarters for the shop hop block patterns, but I couldn't pass up the Ruby Star fabric with the dainty bows.

We stopped in Sand Springs on our way home. I had another fabric store to visit! We went to Quilt Nuts. It wasn't as big as the shop in Tulsa, but I liked it more. The owner was friendlier and the store just had more welcoming vibes. Most of the fabrics weren't my style, but she had Ruby Star Society on the clearance rack!! 😲 This NEVER happens. I asked how much it was discounted and she said 70% 😮, so I had to get 3 1/2 yards. Main Street in Sand Springs had a ton of cute little boutiques & antique shops, but we couldn't browse because we had to pick up the dogs from camp early. We did stop into Boulder Coffee for a driving home drink. I got the Almond Joy cold brew, but without coconut syrup, so it was more of a chocolate covered almond-flavored cold brew. 🥤 Wes got a plain cold brew and said it tasted average. 

I am so jealous of this lush & healthy basil plant. Mine is dead. 😢

It was a short trip out of town this time, but we enjoyed it. 😀 I really liked the hotel we stayed at, and am glad we got to attend Miranda's wedding. I would consider her sister, Andrea, a close friend but I was a little surprised when we got Miranda's wedding invitation. Wes & I have been to a bunch of weddings, and I think (and Wes would agree) that we felt most welcome & comfortable at this one. It was like we all knew each other and were ready for a good time... more like an evening out with friends than a formal wedding. We talked to everyone, including Miranda's parents, and everyone was just so authentically happy to be there. 💗 Best wishes to Josh & Miranda Mulkey!!