A Trip to St. Louis

This past week at lunch some friends and I got on the topic of St. Louis. They were bringing up all of the amazing things there were to do there and how pretty it was, etc. I pass through STL twice a year, but never stay long enough to do anything cool. I've always wanted to though. At lunch, we were seriously getting so excited for all the things to do--City Museum, Forest Park, shopping and a ton more. My friend Trinity lives in the St. Louis area and invited me to come and stay with her for 2 days! Believe me, I was stoked. It gets kind of lame when all you do is live in a small town and you're actual home is only 30 minutes away, and back and forth gets boring and routine. It was so great to go somewhere different and 100x more awesome than where I live. I don't know, but traveling is awesome. This weekend made me excited to go to every other cool place on earth.

First we were on the hunt for coffee and stumbled upon this sweet little farmer's market. I had to snap a photo of the pumpkins, because of…well, fall. And they made me happy.

While we were in St. Louis we went to the City Museum. Let's just say…it's my new favorite place. I don't really know how to describe it other than it's a giant play place for kids and grown ups. And not the lame plastic slide type of play place! There's a skate park but with no skates, so you can just slide down things and hang on ropes. There are a million slides and secret passageways, and there's a 10-story slide. And you can go on the roof. Even better--there's a Ferris wheel up there. And you can see the whole city of St. Louis. It's so awesome. We found this old, written on piano and Trin played some classy music, too.

We also visited an area called Forest Park. It was SO beautiful, especially with it being Autumn and all. Trin and I drove around for a good 30 minutes looking at the huge houses and scenery. We stopped on Art Hill to take some photos.

While we were there, we ate at a restaurant called Fitz's and they're famous for their root beer. We stopped at a record store across the street called Vintage Vinyl. Super rad record store. I purchased The Avett Brothers new album on vinyl! I also got a mp3 download of the album, so that was a plus. There's something about looking through all of those records and seeing my favorite artists on vinyl that makes me happy.

Our drive home may have been the best part. I always drive through STL in summer and winter to visit family in Ohio, but never in the fall. And man, were those landscapes beautiful. We kept pointing out little sections of trees that we liked all while we listened to the Mumford album and threw in a little bit of NPR here and there. Basically the best car ride ever.

Again, thanks for reading. I hope your fall is as swell mine so far.

Ha Ha Tonka - The post I never posted

This past Labor Day I visited Ha Ha Tonka State Park in Missouri with a group of my friends. I've always wanted to go there because I've seen pictures of how beautiful it is! And it truly is. If you ever have a chance to go and hike, or just to walk around with your friends, you should go. They have so many beautiful trails. There's also these really neat castle ruins that were the walls of a mansion built in the 1920s. It's a great place to take pictures, and that's just what I did :O)

These are only a couple, but they are my favorite ones. I loved hiking and hanging out with these wonderful people that I went with.

P.S. I just found this in my drafts. A month later. Did I mention I'm bad at blogging?! :)

A Summer/Fall Post

It's been way too long. I'm obviously not good at the consistent blogging thing.

So! Summer is already over. There it went. Now I'm back at school ready to take on Sophomore year. Pretty exciting stuff. But really, it's so weird to think that I'm already into my second year of college.

Anyways, my summer was crazy busy. I counseled 7th and 8th graders for two weeks and that was really great, as always. I've been going to the camp since I was in 3rd grade, and now to counsel there is a blessing. I helped with the 1st and 2nd grade campers as well, and I just love working with little kids. And working Vacation Bible School is always a fun time too.

I went to two awesome shows this summer - Death Cab for Cutie came to the Gillioz and it was one of the best shows I've even been too. Every time I listen to Death Cab now I think of how awesome it was to see them live. I saw Eisley in Springfield as well and they sound so great live.

Other than those things, I got pretty good at painting pottery, spent a large amount of time at Barnes and Noble, worked with the sweetest preschoolers everyday and taught them about Jesus, hung out with friends (a lot), tried to eat healthy, made new friends, went to Crystal Bridges Art Museum (YES), rode bikes, took photos and turned 20 years old in July. Woohoo! Not a teen anymore! Growing up! Ha! But, not really :o) I'm so thankful for all of my friends that came down to spend the day with me. They surprised me! I don't deserve such good people in my life. I got this awesome radio-cd-cassette-ipod-record player that I like a lot. Fun fact. :)

Also Batman, Dark Knight Rises? Did you see that movie? I don't know about anyone else, but I just have a huge appreciation for the arts. Especially movies. Man, I loved that movie. I could go on for hours. I also saw Spiderman. So good. Movies are the best thing. I saw Moonrise Kingdom, which was pure Wes Anderson awesomeness. I watched Fantastic Mr. Fox yesterday and have been listening to the soundtrack, so I've been in the mood to watch his stuff lately.

This is a very condensed version of my summer. Definitely one to remember! But I am so happy to be back at school. I hope your summer was swell just like mine!
Thanks fer readin' :o)
-Ashley

P.S. Some music i've been into lately -- Matthew Perryman Jones. Free on noisetrade. Get that. New Passion Pit album. Of Monsters and Men. And guys, I'm seeing Florence & the Machine in October. AH! Also, beyond excited for the new Mumford album on September 24th! So. Stoked. You too? Good.

A couple days ago I went to a local pottery painting place with my friend and snapped some photos just for fun. After painting, we ended up at a local dessert stand, Pineapple Whip.

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer!

-Ashley

I went and saw The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in theaters last Saturday. I had seen a preview while watching Sherlock on PBS and thought it looked worth seeing. Overall, I though it was good and I loved all the actors/actresses in it. Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, you know the drill. And they are all British. A selling point for me. :o) It was done by Fox Searchlight, and usually anything by them is the best. It was so cute.

There was a preview for the movie 'The Words' and it looks so amazing. I can't wait to see it. The way they filmed it, from what I can tell in the preview just looks nice. And they used an Imagine Dragons song (titled Demons) and that was awesome. I heard this movie was one of the best at Sundance this year.
Here's the trailer.

Also, if you haven't listened to Imagine Dragons, please do! They're really neat and worth a listen.

-Ashley

My last couple of weeks via Instagram.
    1. Cooking popcorn over a fire with some friends. A learning experience.
    2. Avengers premiere!
    3. Switchfoot comes to my hometown. That's Jon Foreman.
    4. A gloomy day outside. Me, inside.
    5. Waiting at the walk-in clinic, taking pictures of the wall art. You know.
    6. Finals.
    7. Studying on the broken bridge.
    8. Last day with my wonderful friends.
    9. Backdrop of a wedding that I attended. Beautiful.

It's been a while.

Yes. It's been a while.
All I have to say is that everything is going swell. My life is wonderful and I thank God for that. All of the blessings I have come from Him alone. I'm sorry that I haven't updated here! I can't even begin to explain the adventures I've had since last posting. I promise I'll keep up. I am so genuinely happy and just in awe of God's grace and mercy. And so immensely thankful.

So stayed tuned, if you will! I've gone from 5 followers to 3…what a terrible drop. ;)
Thanks for reading, as always.
-Ashley