daydreaming the future

The end of spring break was rainy and cold. But when you love coffee shops, those are the best days. We made the most of our Saturday afternoon by visiting one of our favorites and discussing couches, end tables, and where to put a gallery wall.

activity. coffee at topeca and sketching out our new home

dinner. elote

Our besties, Alex and Mary are moving to Italy to be missionaries. When we knew that they would be moving out of their precious house right around the time we wanted to be out of ours, the timing seemed perfect. It was. Next month we are moving into a new home! We are so excited about the fully updated house with everything we've dreamed of (read: laundry inside the house). Sam had the greatest idea to sketch out what what we want it to look like when we get in there.

I thought for a moment when I was young that I wanted to be an architect, but realized later that I loved the finer points of math and science too much, and engineering won out. However, I like sketching out house plans as much as the next guy. So I grabbed a straight edge and my HB pencil and went to work. 

By the end of our time there, I was feeling so much more excited about moving. It's so nice to have a plan. The delicious cappuccino didn't hurt either. 

I discovered sweaters over dresses way too late in the game. So easy and comfy. 

dress. similar here

sweater. target

scarf. similar here

I keep thinking Jordan is getting all these new skirts. The joke's on me though, she's just doing some creative layering. Clever wife. 

pants. gap

hoodie. gap
shoes. toms

Our most frequent staple in downtown is Elote. It's a free-range, earth-friendly, organic, feel-good-about-yourself-and-about-the-salsa kind of place. Wednesday night is their $2 puffy taco night. Go grab a few of those for a mid-week treat. 

 I highly recommend the fried avocado tacos. They are amazing. But the absolute best part of elote is the salsa. My favorite that I've ever had.

 I went with the special. But to be honest, my favorite thing at Elote is their sweet potatoes. Perfectly cooked--just on the border of crunchy and soft. 

Turns out we had one of our friends wait on us! It was the best, especially when her other two tables were the owners of the restaurant and Zac Hanson. We felt like we must have been important too. 

We are trying out new poses because if we're going to be putting up a blog post every week, you (the readers) are going to get bored of looking at us if we don't do something more interesting. Pose suggestions, however comical, are appreciated (comment below!).

Here's hoping the first days of spring find you and yours happy and healthy! 

double date

We both graduated from the University of Tulsa. I still maintain that it is the greatest place on earth. This year, the city of Tulsa got to host the Conference USA basketball tournament and on Friday night TU was playing in the semi finals. 

dinner. white owl

activity. TU basketball game

Two of our good friends, John and Katie, just got engaged a few weeks ago. They were gracious enough to go on a double date with us. Since John is the current TU Student Association president and Katie is the potential future of that position, a TU basketball game seemed like the perfect venue for our date.

They are seriously THE cutest. They may love TU more than we do. Maybe.

Although the game didn't end up quite the way we hoped it would, it was a really great change of pace from our usual dates. We even had popcorn and nachos as a pre meal snack!

After the game we went to White Owl Pub for dinner. I had it in my food passport and had been wanting to try it for the longest time. We were not disappointed. The restaurant is way larger than I expected too. There's even an upstairs!

 Chicken tacos. I love street style tacos so much.

 This burger quickly became one of my favorites in Tulsa. Bleu cheese for no extra cost? You can't beat that. 

I was slightly jealous of John and Katie's mac and cheese though. This was our first time at White Owl and I'm sure there will be a next time. This mac and cheese demands it. 

I had to wear blue because of the game, but these pants are practically glued to my body anyway. Most comfortable colored jeans in the world. 

pants. j.crew

shirt. thrifted j.crew 

sandals. steve madden

shirt. similar here

pants. j.crew

There are wildflowers blooming in our backyard. Sunshine and flowers make everything better.

Over all I think it was definitely a successful double date, but you'll have to ask John and Katie for the unbiased opinion. Jordan and I sure had fun! 

We're going to try something different this blog post: tell us about your favorite double date spots or activities in our comments section! We would love some new ideas!

passport

I spent the majority of this week in transit to and from Chon Buri, Thailand for a customer meeting. I asked Jordan if she wanted to plan the date because I would be gone all week and she agreed. I came back to a beautiful wife and a super fun date, all planned out!

I was more than a little nervous about planning our date. I learned that it's much easier to pick out an outfit for a date than to organize the entire thing. This experience made me so proud of my husband for doing this every week.

If you have been on pinterest lately you've probably seen the food passport. I think about ten people pinned it before I took the time to look at it. It is genius.

step one: choose restaurants in your city

step two: fill a notebook with the names and addresses of the restaurants

step three: begin your adventure

I knew that this food passport could be incredibly useful to help us choose restaurants for dates. The girl over at Spotted Fox who came up with it used 52 different places so as to fill up the whole year. We probably won't use it like that, but it is a great way to organize the restaurants we want to visit. It's full of local Tulsa places we know and love but I also included restaurants we've been meaning to try.

So the food passport led us to the vault. 

dinner. the vault

activity. dessert picnic with chocolate covered strawberries and prosecco

I had actually heard of this place before from a co-worker but I didn't really know what to expect. The restaurant looks like a converted section of parking garage, but on the inside the retro 50's feel and up-scale dining is anything but utilitarian. The waiters all wear throwback garb and the food is delicious.

Crab Stuffed Avocados for our appetizer. SO GOOD.

 I generally don't hold with sliders (who wants 3-4 mini meals instead of 1 normal meal?) but these little burgers were fantastic. Served "chef's choice" on pretzel buns, they were just what I needed after a week of Thai food and airplane "dinners." The homemade chips were great too. The pickle spear is always reserved for Jordan, no matter whose plate it's on.

I got the vault pasta. Spinach, parmesan, sausage, eggplant. I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it. Good thing I brought home leftovers.

chambray shirt. j.crew

dress. similar here

shoes. steve madden

shirt. similar here

cardigan. gap

pants. j.crew

Originally I wanted to have a fun picnic after dinner while watching the comet pan-STARRS, but sadly it was cloudy last night. But we still had a ton of fun setting up a little dessert picnic on the back porch of our house. It's the first time we've ever used the porch.
My wife is nerdy enough to know about naked-eye visible comets. She's awesome. 

The wall isn't really that big, it's just that Jordan is really small. I'm proud of this shot, I think I'm getting a little bit better at photography. But when you have such a pretty subject it's not that difficult, I guess. 
The date went pretty well I think. I'm just glad I don't have to plan one again for a long time. 

movie night

Our date this weekend was pretty laid back. Sam has to fly around the world this week so a chill date was just what we needed.

dinner. red rock canyon grill

activity. root beer, popcorn, movie
breakfast. dilly deli

One of our very favorite places in Tulsa is Red Rock Canyon. If you have been reading this blog you probably noticed we aren't usually fans of chain restaurants. Although they have their place, we generally like unique locations. Red Rock Canyon is one of the exceptions. All of their food is super fresh and the atmosphere is fancy without being stuffy. When you go, splurge on an appetizer and get the calamari (it's better than ANY calamari we've ever had). And don't even look at the rest of the menu, ORDER THE ENCHILADAS. I couldn't get a picture that did them justice, but trust us. They are incredible.

Like we said, it was laid back this week. After dinner we went to a grocery store and grabbed some delicious popcorn and root beer. I had never made this kind of popcorn before but it was really fun. Put some special seasoning on it, and it's better than the movies!

I used to buy this stuff in bulk with Stead Bucks (fake University of Tulsa scholarship money). Now we have to pay real money. What's that all about?

striped shirt. j.crew

flannel. similar here

jeans. levi's

In our last post, I laid out a multi-faceted date plan that was just an example of what you can do on dates. But Jordan liked the idea of warming up blankets so much that I thought it might be a good idea to actually use that plan! 

It was so fun to snuggle up on the couch and introduce Sam to one of the greatest movies ever made.

via feast your eyes

I had never seen Ferris Beuller's Day Off all the way through. It may be the most inspiring movie I have ever seen. Warming our blankets was a fleeting pleasure, but it's also a cheap way to make your movie watching special!

Every time I wear these pants, my students make fun of me. One day bright pink pants will be mainstream. Here's hoping it's soon. Our waiter said it was the first time he'd seen someone wear pink pants in the restaurant.

shirt. similar here

pants.j.crew

cardigan.banana republic

shoes. ann taylor loft

The next morning we went to Dilly Deli for breakfast. Since we hardly ever go out for breakfast I thought we should share this Tulsa treasure. It's called a deli but it's much more. It has everything you could need: mismatched chairs, a bocce ball court, a cereal bar, and cinnamon rolls the size of your head. Literally. And the breakfast tacos are great too. 

Cream cheese icing makes this meal. Even if you are a large man, you'll need to enlist a friend to eat the whole thing. 
Enjoy your week! Next week I'm planning the date. Feel free to send ideas my way!