Springfield

we travel onto springfield, missouri via arkansas. here i am at mammoth springs a little park we stopped at on our way. it was nice to stretch our legs and take in a bit of the beauty around us

downtown springfield. we spent the day walking around the cute little shops and antique stores there. a most wonderful, relaxing anniversary day we had! 4 years with my man! time has truly flown by! we celebrated by going to red velvet and getting a sweet cupcake! salted caramel chocolate! amazing. it was fun going to a shop from a fellow blogger.

one thing i was looking forward to was visiting the home of laura ingalls wilder. the home where she lived with almanzo as a married couple! it was a treat to hear all about my favorite childhood character.

Memphis

 we had a great time in Memphis!

riverboats on the mississippi river

 outside graceland.

 beale st. a dream come true for jason! he loves his blues! we had the pleasure of hearing some great local music at a bar one night, called the juke joint.

 we visited  the rock n soul museum! a great history on the beginning of blues and rock and roll. it was interesting to see how music brought people together, when the racial divide was very strong. 

overall it was a great little stay we had in memphis, minus a silly little parking ticket.

lets talk about food...

  i'm not going to lie. one of the most exciting things, to me, on this road trip is experiencing the local food! memphis was full of southern delights! we dined at two very no frills  bbq joints. central bbq and a&r's. look them up if you should ever stop there! ribs were super and slaw with everything. "coleslaw" for my friends up north.

 a friend of mine suggested we eat at lamberts in springfield, missouri. they are famous for throwing hot dinner rolls at you! keeping your head up was important! they had yummy home style dishes with something called "pass arounds" 3-4 extra side dishes they walk around and serve you as you dine. pretty awesome idea if you ask me. we tried fried okra for the first time. 

oh and the rolls were amazing!

 we stopped at a local bakery in memphis called muddy's bake shop! homemade cupcakes and baked yummy's. the store was an adorable with a vintage flair! we had a strawberry cupcake with lemon frosting and banana nut cupcake. so inspiring to me!

 best fried chicken!

bourbon fudge! we got some of this on our way out of kentucky at a local monastery. the monks make fudge! who knew?!? anyway it was quite bourbonrific!

more fun foods to follow!

 we begin our journey on a misty morning.

 visiting one of my former roomates! its been great to catch up with friends. she took us around blacksburg. hiking in jefferson national forrest. saw the site of dirty dancing at mountain lake in the beautiful blue ridge moutains!

 we may have stopped at the "world's largest apple" ( winchester, va )

 had a marvelous time catching up with these folks and meeting royal for the first time. he is the cutest!

we are trekking on to tennessee. quick stop in nashville and onto memphis.

snapshots from the home interior

hello september. i'm glad your here. augsust was so busy. most of my reason for not updating till now. progress is being made on the home front. a lot of construction going on in the kitchen and laundry rooms. the few room that are able to be unpacked and lived in are starting to get some love. hanging pictures, organizing stuff, a plant here and there. the above is our kitchen. more pictures to come, but we are pleased with the progress so far.

i've been meaning to share this photo (above). our friend, kate , has used our house on occasion for band photoshoots and other projects she's been working on. she's an amazing photographer. our house is full of textures and she just happens to compile them into some beautiful artwork.

road trip preparations

photo found here

starting to make a packing list.

pretty sure our car is going to look a little like this...

and that is making me very happy.

the amount of days left to work is not.

gearing up

so i've been a bit absent from this space, i know.

we have been planning and preparing for our cross country roadtrip. we are finally making this dream of ours come true! a little delayed since i last posted here.

a lot of life has happened since then! buying a house, quiting one of my jobs, starting up my baking business. 

we begin our journey soon and have the greatest intentions of posting some our adventures here. so check back here shortly, if you'd like to follow us around the usa this summer. we hope you will.

xoxo kristi & jason