Here's Why I've Been MIA

So... a gap of what? 7? 8 months? Is basically unacceptable. Obviously, I am still living life.. It's just that life has gotten a WHOLE LOT more hectic!

1) In June we went back home for our friend's wedding.

Oh wow. I am realizing just HOW MUCH there is to catch up on!!

2) I started a job!

It's been hell.

No, really.

But I do enjoy working, and definitely love earning a paycheck.

Even if my job is what cost us $5k in hail damage on my car... but that's another story for another day.

3) Evelyn's in daycare!! She loves it.

But we don't like it so much.

She's gonna be going to going to a new provider here soon, and for that I am excited.

4) I am in school! 

I am insane. I really am.

And this only keeps getting more challenging, transferring credits and commuting to the other side of Denver, and managing a work schedule (That refused to work with a school schedule.)

It's absolutely bogus. It really is.

*Exhausted*

Family Vacation: Orlando, Florida (Part 1)

January 22-29, 2014 we were the crazy parents who decided to take a 2 year on a plane and to the most magical place in the world: Disney World!

Evelyn waiting for us to grab breakfast at the airport.
This is about as long as she held her own luggage, though.

The flight went fairly smoothly, thanks to an iPad mini with movies on it.  =) After we landed, we picked up our rental car and waited until my mom's flight arrived. Then we headed to our hotel, Shades of Green, a DOD resort for military families, which is on Disney grounds.

Shades of Green Resort

That night we met with some of Kyle's family friends for dinner at a different Disney hotel, Art of Animation. While we were there, we enjoyed the designs of "Cars" (my daughter's favorite movies) around the grounds.

Evelyn was so excited to see her favorite characters!

She was even reciting the words to some of her "Cars" book as we walked through the displays.

Luckily, the rooms at Shades of Green are larger than the average room, and they had a perfect Evelyn-sized bed! We even had adjoining rooms with my mom so that we had even more space when we were moving around, and especially after the baby (who is not so much a baby anymore!) went to bed.

Thursday, January 23, we went to our first Disney park: Magic Kingdom. We were fortunate enough (sarcasm) to have a child who wanted to walk everywhere - and by the end of the trip, refused to hold your hand. But, it was still the tail end of Martin Luther King Jr. week, and the park was insane. Even I was getting scared about the crowds and lines everywhere. Maybe we just happened to be with the group that day, I don't know.

Evelyn's first look of the castle - a very confused look, that is.

Posing in front of the castle in the morning rush.

Had to see the New Fantasyland! PS: Lefou's Brew was pretty tasty ;)

Evelyn's first ride: The Journey of Little Mermaid! She was still pretty confused.

After her ride on Dumbo (she screamed when it was time to get off), she understood that rides were FUN & she wanted to do more!

We stayed to see the Electrical parade, but sadly did not get to see fireworks at any park during this trip.

Now, lines were bad considering it was not by any means a school break time, but we never had to wait too long for any given ride (30-45 minutes) - we just avoided lines that were really bad. We did not get everything done in one day at the Magic Kingdom, and did return once again.

But this is a long enough post for now, so more about this trip later!

Weekend Getaway: Las Vegas

December 15-18, the hubs & I had a babysitter (Gammy! Thanks again!) and flew to Las Vegas! As per our norm, we had a busy, non-stop trip. (Apparently, we don't believe in "relaxing" vacations!)

As soon as we arrived, we rented a car, and hit the road to.... Eat at In 'n Out burger! Oh yes, husband enjoyed that quite a lot, and we are sad that they are not in Colorado.

This was my husband's first taste of the legendary In n' Out burger!

Then we continued on to see the Hoover Dam! We did the dam tour, which was pretty awesome, and enjoyed the scenery afterwards.

We were fortunate enough to cross the border to Arizona while we were there, even if it was just crossing the line and taking a picture of it for proof...

Then after taking our obligatory touristy photo:

We headed out to see our first show: Rock of Ages!

Note: It was basically AMAZING, and if you go to Vegas and enjoy 80s rock go see it! My only regret is not buying the awesome show shirt they were selling after the show. We went back for it, but they were always closed. :/

We were tired after the walk back to our hotel room at Paris Las Vegas, so we crashed and burned.

We walked through a LOT of hotels, ate some delicious food, and had some delectable beverages.

Some highlights include:

~Mezzo mix from Coke World (German orange coke, which is my absolute favorite and it needs to be available in the US immediately!!)

Happy wife sporting a white chocolate peppermint mocha and mezzo mix!

~dark chocolate raspberry M&Ms

~Frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity 3

Very delicious, but so rich neither of us could finish!

~Blow Pop Martini from the Sugar Factory 

We also did some super lame (read: awesome!) touristy things such as:

~Ride the rollercoaster at New York New York (ow)

New York New York Hotel

~Go to the top of the Stratosphere at night to enjoy the views (worth it!)

~Go to the top of the fake Eiffel Tour at night to enjoy the view (Note: It is across from the Bellagio, which means, you can watch the Bellagio fountains go off from above!)

~ Watch the Bellagio fountains & the volcano erupt at the Mirage

Tuesday night we finished off our trip with tickets to see Cirque du Soliel's Ka!

It was a busy, exhausting, whirlwind of a long weekend, but it was a lot of fun, and we hope to make it back there again someday!

Oh, and no. We didn't gamble. ;)

Until next time, Vegas!

Bucket List: Starting off 2014

Hi all, sorry for the delay, but I've been spending quite some time thinking about this, and a lot more time going through old stuff that has me reminiscing.

And without further ado... my bucket list!

~~~~~

In no particular order...

Visit all 50 states.

Live in Europe again.

(Or at least go back to visit.)

Get another degree - I go back & forth on what though.

Get a job in my field.

While being a full time wife & mom.

Be active!

Read the books that interest me (instead of just adding them to a wish list.).

Read Harry Potter series back-to-back.

Write a book.

(Even if it's just for me.)

Slow down, and live in the moment.

(Aka: Put down the phone, and live life.)

Be positive.

Try to relax & not be so anxious!!!

~~~~~

Maybe these are too general for a bucket list, but they are the goals I have nonetheless. I have no timeline, since my life is very chaotic at times and follows wherever the military decides they need us. And with that means working around more than the average everyday setbacks & challenges. But, I feel better going forward having an idea of what I would like to accomplish.

Playing Catch Up: The End of 2013

The second half of 2013 was clearly busy and crazy, and full of... stress!

At the beginning of September, I ventured back to my home state (by car) with my mother and 2 year old daughter.

All of this & more somehow fit my car plus 2 adults & 1 child in a carseat!

September 12, my daughter had surgery on her eye to correct her lazy eye. It was no big deal, as far as surgeries go, but stressful nonetheless, as my husband was still deployed.

Then there was all the flooding in Colorado. Actually, that happened the same day as her surgery, and we were lucky to get out of the hospital before we were stranded!

On October 26, husband came home!! It was pretty nerve-wracking driving to the airport & waiting for him to come through the customs doors, but amazing to be back together again!!

First family picture in 6 months!

We were able to walk around on Halloween together!

Somebody didn't want to take anymore pictures!

Evelyn is no longer sleeping in a crib! Instead she plays, talks, changes clothes, and eventually goes to sleep.

Loving her new toddler bed!

Gammy came to visit us in December!

Gammy & Evelyn at Breakfast with Santa - she was not a fan of Santa yet!

And mommy & daddy took a trip to the fabulous Las Vegas!

We saw Elvis with an ipod in the parkinglot by this sign. Apparently, Elvis is an Apple man.

And, of course: Christmas!

Christmas morning, 2013.

And I will go into some of these events more closely in the coming weeks. As usual, we have more than enough on our plates in the next month or so, but I will do my best to keep everyone updated!

Happy 2014, everyone!