July

We're back from vacation!  A wonderful time it was, but we are certainly happy to be back and in the routine of our daily life.  While Tim has 2 more official weeks of vacation, Paul started back to work for his school's summer jump start program on Monday.  Looks like its going to be a very heavy workload for him & its an early start back to the school year - which sucks for sure. 

Lots of highlights to bring you up to date on, so here you go...

Vacation -
We left on June 30th (at 6am) on a driving trip for this year's vacation down to the Gulf of Mexico & spent 4 days in Galveston, TX.  What a wonderful, relaxing time listening to the waves & spending the days at the beach.  We spent a day at Schlitterbahn burning our feet - it was HOT!  We enjoyed local dining establishments with food fresh from the gulf - our favorite was the Sunflower Bakery & Café with one of the BEST crab cakes served eggs Benedict style.  Awesome!  Leaving Galveston was hard, but we then went through Houston where we stopped for some lunch with a coworker of Tim's and on up to Dallas to spend a week with dear friends who recently moved there.  It was quite a fun time getting the opportunity to catch up on each other's lives & do some retail therapy.  We even spent a day at Southfork!  Yes, the home of the recently deceased JR Ewing - we even got to see the scene of the crime inside the house.  Yes, it was the first time they filmed inside the actual home at Southfork & it fittingly was the shooting of JR.  Awesome day followed by a pool party with some new friends.  Some of the best meals we had on vacation were in Dallas.  H3 Steakhouse, Oak, Meddlesome Moth, & Pakpao Thai to name a few.   Met some new friends at Pakpao Thai who shared desserts with us.  So nice & such a fun experience.  We spent a day at Six Flags over Dallas also where we ran into another one of Tim's coworkers.  Crazy!  That was a very fun & adventurous day for us.  Lots of rides - good times.  After Dallas, we took off for the large metropolis of Blanchard, OK to visit Tim's brother's family.  There, we enjoyed some great family time & going off the grid for a few days.  Got a great tip on pizza dough (from Sam's - who knew?!?) which we're using multiple times in the menu (as we try to do more pizzas).  We returned just in time for Paul's high school/college friend's wedding & reception on Sunday the 14th.  So, yes, if you did the math, we spent a wonderful 2 weeks traveling for vacation time.  It was so nice & relaxing to have the time with family and friends. 

The next week -
We had 3 days to rest from our vacation before Paul's sister & her boy came in town from DC & Paul's Grandma came in town from Virginia.  We took them to the Drop Bar & Haus in Martini Corner for dinner & lunch, viewed the Steamboat Arabia museum in River market, walked the Plaza, & had some KC BBQ at Gates.  On Saturday, they visited the Negro Baseball Museum & Jazz Museum in the 18th & Vine district.  Later that night we had a family cook out, & Sunday was family photos & a late lunch at Cheddar's.  On a personal note, Paul and I went to the Excelsior Springs Animal Control Center and picked up 3 new fur babies for our household on Saturday.  So far, so good!  All have settled in & are playing nice with each other.  Lots of lap time & cuddle bugs with us - we're very happy with them.

Whew! It's been a very BUSY month!  After all that, it's hard to believe that we did take the time to create the July menu after our return, but we did.  It's another month of new recipes we've never tried.  Recipes will certainly be posted soon - they've been really good so far.

Here's what's on the menu this month:

July 15 - Chinese orange BBQ Chicken
July 16 - Shish Kebabs with Spanakopita Orzo
July 17 - Roasted Vegetable Melts
July 18 - Drop Bar
July 19 - Gates BBQ
July 20 - Scruggs' Family BBQ
July 21 - Cheddars
July 22 - Summer Corn Fettuccine
July 23 - Cajun-Spiced Chicken Pizza
July 24 - Bluestem (Groupon)
July 25 - Shrimp & Chicken Jambalaya
July 26 - Chicken Tacos
July 27 - Jumbo Shrimp & Cilantro Pesto Pizza
July 28 - Open
July 29 - Green Salad w/ Yogurt Dressing
July 30 - BLT - Bacon, Leek, & Tomato
July 31 - Chicken Cutlets w/ Orange & Arugula
Aug. 1 - Canadian Bacon, Baked Egg, & Mozzarella Pizza
Aug. 2 - Shrimp Taco Salad
Aug. 3 - Open
Aug. 4 - Open