Published by Crissa Ritner June 28th, 2007
in news.
We’re wiped! We slept in this morning and it took me forever to get ready, so we finally ended up at Six Flags at 11:00am (www.sixflags.com/stLouis/). We pulled up and were both so excited! We love roller coasters so he did a great job picking out our activities! We spent 7 hours at the park, walking around and checking out all the roller coasters and rides. Our favorite roller coaster ended up a tie: The Boss and The Batman. The Boss was an extremely long and steep wooden coaster while the The Batman was a coaster where your feet dangled off and went super fast!
After the downpour at the zoo yesterday, we went ahead and bought ponchos for today just in case. And boy were we thankful we did! There was such a downpour that every single person in the park got soaked: except us. 
Today was SUCH a blast! The coasters were great and we’re excited to hit up Cedar Point as well!!! Whoo-hoo!!!
One of our favorite parts of the day: eating lunch together in the back of the Beast (the name of the Explorer we’re using) in the parking lot. Oh…one more: getting back to our room and seeing a “Congrats†note from the housekeeper because my wedding dress is hanging up to air out. That was pretty fun, too.
Published by Crissa Ritner June 28th, 2007
in news.
What a day!! Josiah and I slept in, grabbed some free breakfast (we love the hotel continental breakfast; there’s just so much selection!) and headed to the zoo! I really enjoy the zoo and I hadn’t been in almost ten years, so today was so exciting for me.
The St. Louis Zoo (www.stlzoo.org) has over 11,000 animals and we saw almost every single one of them! We couldn’t find the tiger which was a bummer, but we did see a lion, gazelles, sea lions, flamingos, tons of venomous snakes, butterflies, kangaroos (but we were used to them ), and our personal favorite, the penguins! Only because Josiah took me to see Happy Feet the day he proposed.
We took the train around the 77 acres of the zoo and were able to see some of the most exotic and beautiful animals ever. We had such a great time being together and enjoying the outdoors; although it rained quite a bit! We got stuck in a animal-medicine cove and chilled out there for 20 minutes and ate our sandwiches we had packed. It was still an adventure though! It kind of felt like Noah’s Ark for a while; all those animals and tons of rain.
After a long day we found a little Mexican restaurant around the corner and tried it out. Josiah quotes “That was a dang good meal.â€
One of our favorite parts of the day: the dang good Mexican restaurant we ate at!
Published by Crissa Ritner June 28th, 2007
in news.
I found out where our first few stops are for our honeymoon!! We drove to the outskirts of St. Louis today for a few nights. We plan on going to the St. Louis Zoo tomorrow and then Six Flags, a Cardinals game, and checking out downtown by the arch!
Today was our longest stretch of drive: 8 hours of driving from downtown Oklahoma City. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous as we entered the green Ozarks. Thank goodness Josiah likes to drive; I didn’t have to drive at all! So nice. I did happen to get all of our thank you notes completed from our wedding gifts, though! That took a good four or five hours. I felt very accomplished as well today.
One of our favorite parts of the day: having lunch at Braum’s together and talking to each other for so long.
Published by Crissa Ritner June 27th, 2007
in news.
Today was 24 hours of being married and it didn’t automatically feel different like I thought it would! Josiah and I have been blessed with a few nights at the Skirvin Hilton—an old historic hotel that was remodeled and reopened last February. It’s absolutely gorgeous!
We kicked off the day with a nice hot breakfast together and then walked downtown to look at the Oklahoma City National Memorial. (http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/)
The two of us met some of our best friends and parents for dinner at the Bourbon Street Café and had quite a few good laughs throughout the night.
One of our favorite parts of the day: getting to rest! We were exhausted!
Published by Crissa Ritner June 27th, 2007
in news.
Meet the new Mrs. Josiah Ritner!!! Josiah and I enjoyed our day from getting ready with friends and family to the ceremony to dancing at the reception as a married couple! It seems so surreal but we are really married!
Make sure you check out our website on July 6th; all of our photographs will be posted online on that day. You will need to check here to find out the webiste and login code to view them. Don’t forget July 6th!
Now that Josiah and I are traveling through hotels with free Wifi (we love free internet) we are trying to journal our adventures almost daily (short summaries ). We appreciate everyone being so involved in our lives, supporting us with prayer, wedding gifts, helping out with the wedding and so much more; we want to make sure everyone gets to enjoy our story together!
Thanks again to everyone! Please continue to pray for us as we build our new foundation together with God as a married couple. Don’t forget July 6th!
Published by Crissa Ritner June 12th, 2007
in news.
Josiah and I are together in Oklahoma, FINALLY! He flew in Friday from North Carolina (it was supposed to be Thursday, but his flight in Chicago got canceled…God is teaching me patience).
It was soooo good to give him a hug and see him in real person! We immediately went to Sonic (which I love) and then headed to the jewelers and picked our wedding bands which was really exciting. It’s coming so soon and we don’t realize how fast time is going by!
Our whole engagement has been challenging but fun; I’ve realized how living a single life is all about me and now how selfish I can be in situations. Marriage is a huge step of maturity!!! But we’re learning and having fun even though not everything is a piece of cake!
This past month we’ve been incredibly blessed; just last Thursday my church threw a bridal shower for us and blessed us with gift certificates to Target and Wal-Mart and resteraunts for our honeymoon-road trip. Thanks to Jacqui and some other wonderful ladies, it was a blast! Credits for most laughter goes to Bobbi McDowell….let’s just say she is very creative in making marriage fun! After the shower we all met up at Sonic for free root beer floats and talked through the night like we were all teenage girls again…I had so much fun!! Once again, it was a blast and we were soooo blessed. Thanks ladies (and gentlemen who weren’t there)!
This post is just a little bit of me rambling…we haven’t been updating as much due to limited internet at my house (we live waaayyy out in the country). Today we’re planning the ceremony programs together…a little more than a week and we’ll be married!
Love you all and thanks so much for your continued prayers and support. We appreciate it and will keep you updated on what’s happening. Oh! As well as letting you know where to check out the online viewing for our wedding pictures when they’re posted. Stay tuned!
