Austin Adventure

Weekend #1: 

You can't go to Texas without going to Rudy's right? 

At first I was so hesitant. A restaurant gas station? Seriously? 

It was actually pretty good. They have giant BBQ sauce bottles you have to shake like a maniac to get any sauce out of. Plus you eat off of waxy paper on the table. An experience you just can't pass up. 

Weekend #2: 

We road-tripped it down to Austin for the weekend. 

Wondering who this guy is? [The guy we spent every weekend with.]

This is Jon Johnson. (Aka Squared) 

He and Boyd were roommates at BYU 

 

We went paddle boarding down the river/lake in Austin. 

It was really fun and we didn't even fall in! 

Boyd and I got sick of switching back and forth while we were paddling, so we decided to paddle side by side our boards touching so we could be lazy and only have to paddle on one side. Plus we kinda like each other so it was cute.

 Next stop: Gourdoughs Specialty Doughnuts

It's like heaven in a food truck

You take your classic delicious yummy yeast doughnut and top it off with sweet deliciousness 

The picture below is a 

"miss shortcake" Cream Cheese Icing with Fresh Cut Strawberries

The other doughnuts we tried while we were there (yes, we went multiple times) 

"mother clucker" Fried chicken strip with honey butter (yes on a doughnut)

and "heavenly hash" Marshmallow with chocolate fudge icing topped with fudge and brownie 

If you ever have a chance to visit Austin TX, you must go to Gourdoughs. 

We totally waited in line, outside, for over an hour, at 11:30 p.m. 

Was it worth it? Uh, yeah!

Marshmallow with Chocalate Fudge Icing Topped with Fudge Brownie Candy - See more at: http://www.gourdoughs.com/doughnuts-austin/heavenly-hash/#sthash.hwOqaF8M.dpuf

Marshmallow with Chocalate Fudge Icing Topped with Fudge Brownie Candy - See more at: http://www.gourdoughs.com/doughnuts-austin/heavenly-hash/#sthash.hwOqaF8M.dpuf

Fried Chicken Strip with Honey Butter

Fried Chicken Strip with Honey Butter

Fried Chicken Strip with Honey Butter

Fried Chicken Strip with Honey Butter

Weekend #3: 

Pretty much Boyd and I went on a food eating rampage. 

We tried brats from a food cart, amy's ice cream, new york style pizza, and . . .

The Salt Lick. 

Boyd and I tried A LOT of Texas BBQ. 

By far the best we had was The Salt Lick. 

We went out one afternoon to take pictures. I wish I had brought my real camera. 

These purple things caught my eye. How fun. 

Oh, ThE pLaCeS yOu'LL gO.

This has been quite the year. We have traveled to various parts of the US and we are almost to the end of our externships. (Externships are 1 month long rotations at a hospital where we could potentially go for residency. Boyd slaves away for the month and they decide if they like him and if we like them) We would like to thank all the people who have opened their homes to us, who have given us a place to sleep, lots to eat, and best of all their company. We have had quite the travels and people always ask, "now where are you guys this month?" Fortunately, I have had the opportunity to travel with Boyd and it has been a lot of fun for the both of us to have each other.

Our Journey Has Taken Us To: 

 April:  Tampa, FL - Drive time 16 hours 

May:  Back to Cleveland, OH - 16 hours 

June: Salt Lake City, UT - 27 hours

July: Indianapolis, IN - 22 hours

 

August: Weekend trip to Ann Arbor, MI -  4 hours

Back to Cleveland, OH -  3 hours

September: Temple, TX -  20 hours

October: Back to Cleveland, OH -  20 hours 

Not to mention Boyd will be commuting from 

Columbus to Cleveland on weekends (2 hours each way)  

Total: About 144 hours of driving. That's about 6 full days. Almost a whole week. 

To give you an idea of the car time we have put in, we have listened to Harry Potter 1-6. 

We will complete #7 on our way back from Texas to Ohio. Not to mention we slept in our car on most of these trips. We are forced to leave Fridays after Boyd gets off clinic and are supposed to arrive on Sunday, which means we don't have time to stop and get a full 8 hours of sleep.

 Boyd and I play this game. When we get near the boarder of a state we like to dangerously slow down to take a picture of the state sign. It helps keep us awake (most of our trips I spend sleeping) and gives us something to look forward to. Plus we can check off the states that we have been to. 

(Including our Mini Vacation to Washington DC) Pennsylvania, Maryland 

Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida

Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah

 

 Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas

23 States in 1 year. 

I have a feeling if I tell Boyd we will end up traveling to 2 more states just to say we have been to half the states in one year. Shh, don't tell him. 

Boyd you are a driving machine. I think he is sick of driving. At 18 hours of straight driving I asked Boyd how he felt and he pulled this face.

What he looks like. (above) 

 What I look like. (below) 

 I wasn't ready for Tennessee, it's a sneaky state! 

Cleveland Indians

So . . . I was going to try to be cool and impress anyone who read this with my stats on the Indians. Something about them being a 1/2 a game away from the wildcard something something something.  I tried to look on ESPN to get the facts before I go posting something incorrect, like an idiot. Holy Moley. I got dizzy just trying to find what I was looking for. Sooo many numbers and words. 

Anyway, one thing I will dearly miss about Cleveland is being able to go to a major league baseball game. It has been a lot of fun and I've enjoyed it very much. I'm not a huge baseball fan but when you sit next to Boyd during a game, it's a lot of fun. He can tell you all sorts of things you didn't know. Maybe it's just a boy thing. We love going on dollar dog night, especially now that I found the secret relish dispenser. Ha, seriously. Boyd used to just get the hotty dogs and bring them back with regular ketchup and stadium mustard. He didn't tell me that you could get relish too. (I love pickles) Now dollar dog night is much more enjoyable. Yes, we are gross and totally eat like 4 hot dogs each. 

 I always ask Boyd why my head looks so huge.

 He said it's because I'm the one closer to the camera like this. . .

What do you do when you get bored at a baseball game? you take pictures of course. 

Plus we were kinda upset about our crappy seats. The kid at the team shop told us our seats were on the isle. What he didn't realize was that he meant to tell us the end of the row, not near a walkable isle. Lame. Plus we were a lot further away from where we usually sit. Oh well.

Our Indians were loosing and we got really really bored. 

This is Boyd's uhh, I'm ready to go home face. 

Alice's Baptism

 Happy Baptism Day Alice. We are so proud of you and the wonderful person you are. Boyd and I absolutely adore you and we think you are so much fun. Thanks for being so awesome. I'm glad we are team Alice/Allison.

Haha, Boyd and his "awkward hand."

How fun is is to have so many cousins 

To celebrate: More fireworks! 

Happy birthday and baptism Alice.

Blueberry Picking Remember?

Boyd and I took a weekend trip up to Michigan before returning to Ohio. 

Carrie and the girls took us blueberry picking. 

Truthfully, I have never been a huge fan of blueberries. Most of the time they are flavorless and the skin is so tough it gets stuck in the back of your throat. Enter Fresh, Handpicked, Amazing Blueberries. Hello. My view of blueberries has changed. These berries would burst in your mouth, were so sweet, flavorful, and yummy. Blueberry picking is also buckets of fun. The bushes are up high so you are not reaching down and they are easy to pluck off the branches.

 

 So I started experimenting with my kick butt point and shoot. I'm pretty impressed.

 

Introducing the Allison Berry. 

Sometimes I think I have OCD. I was only picking the Biggest, juiciest, darkest, plumpiest, bluebrries I could find. Consequently, I only found one or two worthy berries per bush. While other members of our berry picking crew had almost full buckets mine poor bucket was only 1/4 full. My favorite part was hearing the girls call "I have an Allison berry" then they would come running through the bushes just to give me a single berry that they deemed worthy of being in the Allison bucket.

Emelie and Alice were glued to Boyd's side.

 

Uh oh! Lost bucket. 

  

REMEMBER?!?! 

Funny Flo  kept saying "member?" (remember) the whole time we were there. 

"those bathrooms (outhouses) Member!?!?" 

"Blah jah bah ma ba, Remember?"

Remember?

Dear sweet Emelie, 

At the beginning of our adventure Carrie told the girls we should pick about 1 full bucket. 

Emelie and Boyd were so determined to do so.

 When it was time to go I could see the inner turmoil going through Emelie's head. Carrie had said it was time to go, but she still didn't have quite a bucket full

 (She only had about 1 inch of bucket space from the tippy top of her bucket) 

She didn't know if she should listen to her mom's

 first request: pick 1 full bucket 

or 

her second request: time to go 

She did both.  It was hilarious. 

Emelie was frantically picking blueberries as we walked toward the car, filling her bucket. 

In the end we had 13 pounds of blueberries! 

 Thanks for the fun times 

So what do you do with blueberries? 

Make homemade blueberry muffins with streusel topping

Dayton Ohio: National Museum of the USAF

Boyd and I made a pit stop on our trip from Indianapolis to Michigan. 

Dad Bills was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base when Boyd was little. 

This particular museum has a special place in his heart.

 

The BEST part of this museum was the flight simulator. 

It was so so so awesome. 

You can barrel roll and shoot planes. 

When you initially step into the "plane" they strap you in with a 5 point harness, which  can only mean one thing. . . you get to literally go upside down. 

While we were flying I looked up at my hair and noticed it was touching the ceiling. Then the blood started rushing to our heads. We had a ton of fun flying and we, surprisingly, did not get motion sick.