Family vacation in Orlando: Magical

Happy August friends! I feel like its always so crazy how fast the summer goes. And then you see school supplies in Target and it's like BAM over. Except it will still be hot for like three more months. You'll see.

July was ca-razy for us. It went like this.

1. Start orientation for my new JOB.
2. Fourth of July
3. Trip to Orlando with Caleb's fam
4. Trip to Indiana with my mom
5. Buy a house
6. Start my new JOB for reals.
7. Sleep for like two days straight after all that.

So I have a lot to catch up on. Let's start with Orlando. We went on this magical trip with Caleb's family to celebrate his parents' 30th anniversary. Amazing.


Because Disney World really is the happiest place on earth.

We arrived to the Disney resort late on a Wednesday night. And that place is huge. So huge that we had a small tiff about navigating through it. No worries, we got to our hotel with unharmed.

The next day we set out for the Magic Kingdom. As soon as we got inside, I saw Cinderella ride by in the parade. I cried a few tears of joy. Magical.

George, ready to get his Disney on.

Cinderella's castle!!! And a few ominous clouds...

We hit up the teacups and It's A Small World. Junie B and I bonded. As you can see, our excitement was equal.

We rode the Pirates of the Caribbean. Which I'm pretty sure was the last straw for George and June. They bounced. Good thing, because storms broke loose. We hunkered down at the Peter Pan ride. It was indoors, obviously.

The storms passed. We rode Space Mountain. The best ride ever. Then we tried to tour Cinderella's castle on our own. We were denied.

We finished off the night with the electric light parade (amazing!) and the best fireworks I've ever seen. I also may have shed a few tears at this point.

Thanks tall dude, for getting in my pic.

My first trip to Disney World was magical. That's all there is to it.

The next day we headed to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.

In case you were unaware, this is where Harry Potter World lives. I don't know if its really called that, but we call it that. Actually, its called The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. But I like Harry Potter World.

Audrey and I, getting ready to respect the spell limits.

We rode a lot of rides that day. A lot. By the end of the day, I couldn't ride any more rides. Harry Potter, the Hulk, Spiderman, and more. We rode the main HP ride like 4 times. I lost count. We went to the sweet shop in HP world and ate things like chocolate frogs and fizzing whizbees. Again, magical.

Caleb and Jordan, with Hogwarts in the background.

We finished up the day with dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Which I love so much I didn't take a picture of. But I do love some Hard Rock.

After a couple theme park-packed days, we took it easy the next day. Got our shop on at the Mall at Millenia. Which is a wonderful, magical place all on its own. I've been there before, for our first anniversary. It makes me feel like a rich person. Just to walk around there. Also, we visited IKEA. Is there a campaign to bring them to KC? Because I will be part of it.

For our final day in Orlando, we hit up the beach. I almost drowned and got super sun burnt. Again, magical. We had a delish dinner at PF Changs.

Hello, sun burnt shoulder. Good thing it matches my neon dress. (R to L: Zach, George, Jordan, Audrey, Jim, Bev, June, Caleb, Audrey, and me!)

Spending time in Orlando with my sweet in laws was just...magical. I know.

There's no place like home. And no shoes like ruby slippers.

We went home last weekend for a few days, short and sweet. We wanted to meet the new June bug. And she is so sweet! All these pics are from my iphone. Since I'm slightly obsessed with it and its picture taking capabilities.

And we are kind of obsessed with her big brother, who is growing like a weed! Seriously, this kid is adorable and hilarious. He changes so much every time we see him!

 We got lots of family time and included a trip to the Bass Pro Shop. My mom and bro just love the fish.

I also visited my Grandma Voth, who is 90. Wow.

 I had an afternoon with the besties and we hit up Pryde's in Westport. Ok, I did not even know this existed and I lived like a mile away from there for two years! Amazing kitchen store. Check out this chandelier made out of whisks. Love it.

 There is a pie shop inside the store so the whole place smells amazing.

 Cara modeling a sexy gardening hat.

Does anyone else love the owl trend that is happening right now?

Also, I'm in love with the instagram app on the iphone. I can't help it. All those wonderful filters...

 Love.

Caleb and I went to the Kansas sampler store to stock up on Kansas gear. I found this super sexy Dorothy wig to complete my Halloween costume. They said no one had ever bought one before. Ha.

Back to work on Halloween. I channeled my Kansas girl spirit. Red shoes: check. Mini Toto dog: check. Awesome Dorothy wig: triple check.

Are those red shoes dress code appropriate? I think not!

And there is our quick trip in a nutshell! I'm spending today cleaning, doing laundry, and doing errands. And going to the gym to get my butt kicked again. I could barely walk this weekend!

Last chance for the giveaway! I'll announce the winner later this week. You know you want some free Mary Kay! I also have been cooking up a storm, so I'll post some recipes as well.

Happy Monday!

Nashville Nicole

Happy Friday! On a scale from 1-10, with 10 being ecstatic, I am a 10 that I am not at work today. I even cleaned my house after a class I was taking on Wednesday so that I won't have to clean today. Smart, people.

Anyway, last weekend we ventured out to Nashville, home of country music, the Titans, and my darling cousin, Nicole. Some vendor at Caleb's work gave him and coworker box seat tickets, so they football-ed it up while Nicole and I ate and shopped.

We brunched at Marche: mimosas, french toast, and omelets. Ah-mazing.

We shopped at the Mall of Green Hills (free valet parking? yes please!). And then met up with Caleb after the game for some pizza at Nicole's place of employment. That I don't honestly remember the name of. But it was delish!

Love this girl. She is gorgeous, awesome, and has VERY cute clothes. And she is tall, so I wore some wedges so we could be kinda the same height. I am very very jealous of tall people.

Quick but successful trip to Nashville! Cuzin luv forevah!

Sorry to switch it up, but I messed with this photo and like the b&w. I also love the original of this photo which includes Nic's boyfriend creeping in the background. Loved him, fo reals!

I love weekends.

Kansas City goodness

This post is a little belated since I got back from Kansas City late Saturday night. I was going to post on Sunday but then I was hanging out with my hubby all day. I worked on Monday and Tuesday (and it was a little crazy). Yesterday I was going to post, and then after spending most of the day shopping, I realized I should probably clean. I did buy three pairs of shoes at Target though. On sale. And they are super cute.

Anyway, our trip to Kansas was a success. We went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter, which was amazing. Caleb did make our group stand in line outside the theater starting at 7pm. It was really, really, really hot. I should have taken pictures of all the hilarious costumes people were wearing but I just wasn't in the mood. I was too dang hot. But the movie was seriously awesome. And they had butterbeer, which was super hilarious.

Butterscotch schnapps, cream soda, and a glow stick.

We spent the weekend hanging out with our families and celebrated Caleb's mom's birthday! We had a birthday cookout and spent the evening watching George do funny baby things. Because we are all obsessed with George.

Tell me this picture doesn't make you smile.

Caleb had to leave on Monday (boo work) and drove the whole 12 hours by himself. My husband is a rockstar. I got to stay for the rest of the week and spent lots of time hanging out with my family and friends. My parents celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary last Friday and we headed out to the Royals to brave the heat. We got some shady seats and loaded up on buck night goodies, so it was a good time.

27 years, people.

We also saw our all time favorite player, Johnny Damon. I like to call him Johnny D. And we cheered for him even though he was playing against the Royals and we love the Royals. Johnny D. played for the Wranglers (a previous Royals Double A team) when we lived in Wichita and we loved him. We have loved him throughout his major league career, long hair, and two wives.

Johnny D., you can totally get 3,000 hits. I believe in you.

Not only was it buck night, my parent's 27th anniversary, and Johnny D. day, it was also firework night.
I do love some good fireworks.

Saturday was my last day in Kansas. Kerry and I headed out to George's first birthday party. It was freaking hot. I am a committed aunt.

He is starting to walk!

It was so hot, the candy all melted. The kids didn't seem to mind though.

Layne, the other birthday boy, sucking melted gummy candy out of the package.

Birthday boy with his parents and super cute cake.

Kerry and I took some notes for our future children's bday parties as we sweated it out. (By future, I mean distant future.) So so cute! Check out Audrey and Jami's blogs here and here!

BFF pic (minus Cara! We love you Cara!)

I had a wonderful week but was so happy to get back to my hubby. I love Kansas City. And my man.

I hope you are having a wonderful week! This is my last day off before my work weekend so I'm trying to spend it getting some stuff done and not thinking about work! Happy Thursday!

Happy Birthday Mom and Dad!

I know, I said I was going to post about my closet cleaning that was supposed to happen yesterday. But then I worked yesterday. Because I am nice and traded someone who was sicko. (You owe me!) I however DID clean that closet today. Its pretty epic. And I will post about it. With before and after pictures. On Friday.

As for right now, I would like to post some pics for my parents. Because their birthdays are the same week. (January 21st and January 26th) And they are awesome. And my mom has a milestone birthday this year!!!! But don't worry, Mom, I'm not telling which one...(40???)

I think this pretty much sums up my dad...

And I love the pics of my mom and I at one of my wedding showers...

They helped make my beautiful and perfect wedding possible...

And they are Wii Fit pros...

I love how as I am getting older, they become more of my friends as well as my parents. And the older they get, the more fun they have! Happy Birthday Mom and Dad! I love you both!

There's no place like home...Part Two

Ahh nothing like spending your Friday night eating leftover pasta, watching Chopped, and blogging. Aren't you jealous? I know, I know. Ha.

Time for part two of the home visit!

We spent an afternoon with Zach and Audrey in Kansas City at the wonderful Boulevard Brewery. In case you didn't know, you can take a FREE tour with FREE beer samples at the end. It is super fun and the brewery is beautiful.

The room with barrels of beer was my fave! It smelled SO good!

Delightful.

We had so much fun. Just another reason to love Kansas City.

Next up: Kiewit district meeting. This where everyone in the whole district gets together. The guys have lots of meetings. The girls have fun group events, go shopping, and get gifts. This year they gave us Vera Bradley makeup bags. That's right ladies, if your man works for Kiewit you get a sweet bag. Oh you don't want to move about the country at random? But the bag is so awesome...

Anyway, we had fun seeing people that we miss from KC and going to the four course dinner parties at night. And we stayed at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center, which was pretty sweet. I didn't take lots of pics because there is no where to stash my camera in a little black dress.

I love city views so here is the morning and night views from our 30th floor room. You are looking at the Sprint Center and P&L. And somewhere towards the left is the place where we had our wedding reception. Awww. There is also one of Mat sleeping. He loves those meetings. And me and some sweet girls that are surviving TN with me, Paige and Natalya.

Our last day in KC we went to the KU vs Nebraska basketball game in the epic Allen Fieldhouse. This is one of our favorite places in the world. Caleb got four tickets for Christmas (from his awesome wife) and so he decided to take Jordan and Mat.

Check out that sweet NCAA championship trophy.

Again with the refusing to smile. Embrace it.

It was a great game and KU won! (Duh.)

Other highlights of the trip:
-snow days!
-going to Westside Family Church again...we miss it
-Mi Ranchito
-Chipotle
-seeing my beautiful Grandma Voth
-meeting Caleb's sister Audrey's middle school classes
-seeing the super cute Alana Ryan and Ashley Wills
-a late night Applebee's hangout with my brother
-just spending time with our families!

Loved this trip. I miss Kansas City and can't wait to live there again!
Have a wonderful weekend! I will be saving lives, teaching a new grad the ropes, and telling doctors what to do. Aren't you jealous?

One last photo for you to enjoy...

Rock Chalk!

Tune in Monday for the closet clean out...before and after pictures promised!

There's no place like home...

So we went home for ten days...and it was wonderful. We were pretty disappointed that we had to miss Christmas with our families but this was a great time! I kind of took a massive amount of pictures...and even missed some stuff I should have taken photos of. Oh well. But this post will come in two parts because there is just too much stuff!

Family Christmas dinner with the Bakers...we finally got to meet Tessa, Jordan's super cute girlfriend! It was her 19th birthday so we had to celebrate. And I'm pretty sure Joe hates taking pictures as much as Caleb does.

Obviously we are in love with baby George. He wants to crawl so bad!

So freaking cute. Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks??

More of us and George. Obsessed.

He loves hanging out with Grandma!

I got to see my bffs, Kerry and Cara. Kerry made a yummy dinner and we sat around and drank some wine and had some girl talk. I miss that a lot here! And I took no pictures of it...sad. But I love those girls! We didn't go ice skating like I promised Cara. It was just too dang cold! Next year, Cara, next year.

My beautiful Grandma Frank was in town too! She taught me how to make a blueberry pie for the Voth Christmas dinner. We had a blast.

Grandma is a pie making pro.

After Voth Christmas dinner, the boys all disappeared and my mom did facials for the girls. She will give you a FREE Mary Kay facial if you want one!

So fun!

Part two will be posted tomorrow night...don't fret. 

I went to the gym this morning (only because I had to go downstairs to move my car...and figured I should make the trip worthwhile). The guy that works there said "Oh hey, I haven't seen you in awhile!" Thanks gym guy. Maybe that's why I huffed and puffed my way through the tredmill and eliptical. I think I can, I think I can...

I also started the state of the house project today. (I've been working the last couple days, give me a break.) I cleaned and organized the bedroom. It took like...an hour. I even cleaned under the bed and put up pictures. So I was pretty happy with myself to get it done in such a short amount of time. Even though this is the least cluttered room of the house. It was a good way to start out the project! I also remembered why my house is cluttered and a mess. Because I work all the time. And on my days off here are the things I want to do: 1. lay in bed and watch the Today Show and drink coffee, 2. go to the gym, 3. bake things, 4. catch up on all my dvr'd shows. *Sigh* I will not give up. 

I'm working all weekend and so my sweet hubby who has been working his butt off all week can play xbox in peace. Closet cleaning time on Monday. Watch out closet!

The hub is going to a concert tomorrow night so when I get home from work I will post the rest of our fun trip! Have a beautiful weekend! And enjoy your snow days all you lucky KC people!