pin-spired #5

I'm linking up with Mel, Shay, & Sheaffer, to post a few outfits that I created this month!! 

Here are the three outfits I created this month..........

Outfit #1: White, Tan, & a pop of Teal

I was going through my pin boards this month and I realized I had this outfit pinned like four times.  I guess I really liked it!! When I was packing for my cruise I realized I had every piece to put it together.  I wore this on one of the casual nights on our cruise.  

Jacket: Target // Shirt: Old Navy // Capris: Old Navy // Wedges: DSW // Necklace: Online

Outfit #2: Coral & Chambray

Coral is STILL my favorite color this season, and I just love it paired with chambray.  I actually have tan rainbows, but I decided I like the outfit better with my matching coral sandals!!

Shirt: Kohl's  // Shorts: Kohl's // Sandals: Target

Outfit #3: Yellow & Teal Stripes

I saw this outfit pinned a while back and just loved the bright colors!! It's just so fun and summery!!

Tank:  Old Navy // Shorts: Old Navy // Necklace: Handmade by a friend Sandals: Rue 21

 If you are new to my blog, thanks for stopping by!!

Sit down, stay a while, and feel free to follow along!

2013 Summer List

School is officially out for my little man so it's Summer Time for us!!

We had so much fun checking off our Summer List last summer

that we decided to make it a summer tradition.  

What are you doing this summer?

the happiest place on earth

{Tuesday, May 14th- Disney World}

When we were shopping around for different cruises, as soon as we saw that there was a cruise that left out of Galveston that went to Disney World we were sold!! Matt and I have both been to Disney World, but I have heard that you experience it in different ways at different ages.  We both thought it would be fun to go as adults without kids before we take our own kids someday.  This cruise was our chance to do that.  

We had one day with a park hopper pass to squeeze in as much Disney as we could.  We docked in Port Canaveral so we had about an hour bus ride into Orlando before we even got to Disney World.  We got off the ship and loaded our bus around 6:45am.   

Our first stop was Hollywood Studios.  It is the smallest of the parks so we felt like we could hit all the high points quickly and then move on.  We arrived at the park around 8am before it opened at 9am.  They let us in the park around 8:40 though.

Our morning got off to a rough start because apparently we didn't completely understand the Fast Passes.  I went to go get in line for Rockin' Roller Coaster and Matt went to get our Fast Passes for Toy Story.  We didn't know that you had to have both of our cards to get the Fast Passes so I ended up having to meet Matt in the middle of the park to get my card.  Once we both got back in line at Rockin' Roller Coaster they announced that they were having technical difficulties and didn't know if or when they would even open.  We were so frustrated and didn't really know what to do.  

I decided to go ahead and wait in line while Matt walked next door to Tower of Terror.  I had no interest in riding it.  It is one of the things I remember doing as a kid so I didn't need a fresh memory of it!  Dropping multiple stories in an "elevator" isn't really my thing!!

Rockin' Roller Coaster ended up opening up while Matt was finishing Tower of Terror so we got both of those rides knocked out pretty quick with 10 minute wait times.  There was one drop on Rockin' Roller Coaster that I didn't care for but other than that it was really fun.  However, I definitely don't love roller coasters like I did as a kid!!

Other things we did at Hollywood Studies......

Star Tours

This was a really neat 3D simulator ride.  I know absolutely nothing about Star Wars but I still enjoyed it.    We barely had to wait for this ride.  Maybe 10 minutes. 

The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow

We had to wait about 15 minutes for this show. It was a little theatrical show in a cave.  We all just stood in a room and watched it.  It was literally the dumbest fifteen minutes of my life.  If I could have squeezed my way out to walk out, I would have.

Toy Story Midway Mania!

We got a Fast Pass for this ride.  Our fast pass was at 10:10, so we did all the other things at Hollywood and then did this last before we moved on to another park.  The Fast Passes are a genius way for you to be able to do other things while "waiting in line" for another ride.  This was definitely my favorite thing at Hollywood Studies, but also one of my favorite things at all of the parks.  Basically it is a giant 3D video game where you shoot targets.  Each target has a point value, and you are trying to get as many points as you can.  You compete with the person you are sitting with.  Just in case you were wondering.......I beat Matt.

If we had longer I would have loved to see The Little Mermaid Show or the Beauty and the Beast Show, but we had to move on.  We hit the high points of Hollywood Studios in about an hour and a half.  It wasn't crowded at all!!  We left Hollywood Studios around 10:30.  

Our second stop was Animal Kingdom.  We really weren't planning on going here but when we finished Hollywood Studios so quick we decided to squeeze it in.  I was excited to go here because neither Matt or I had ever been as it wasn't even open the last time we went.  It was so pretty.  I loved how you really felt like you were walking through Asia and Africa.  The plant life was absolutely beautiful and I loved seeing all of the animals.  Animal Kingdom is soooooo big, especially compared to Hollywood Studios.  I don't even think we walked through it all because we were in such a hurry.

After we took the obligatory picture with the big tree we headed straight to the Kilimanjaro Safari to get a Fast Pass.  Our wait time was about an hour so we walked all the way across the park to Expedition Everest.  The wait time for the roller coaster was about 25 minutes.

I actually really enjoyed this roller coaster!!

On our way to the safari, we saw this crazy cool lady on stilts covered in greenery. She would get in these crazy positions and then hold them.  It was amazing to watch!

We grabbed a quick bite to eat (and actually ate while we walked) then got in line for our Safari.  

We had great seats for the safari because we were in the back of our vehicle.  We could look out the side and the back.  We saw so many neat animals.  I think the only animal we missed was a lion.  He was hiding. 

We left Animal Kingdom around 1:00pm and headed to our final destination, Epcot.  

We decided to skip Magic Kingdom because we felt like so many of the things there are really geared for little kids.  We know we will be back someday with Pearson and we'll do all that stuff with him! I was a little sad that we went to Disney World and we didn't even get a picture with Cinderella's Castle.  Oh well, next time!!

The Flower & Garden Festival was still going on so we got to see all the amazing topiaries in full bloom.  They were truly amazing!! I didn't even get pictures of all of them. 

I didn't really get many pictures of us at Epcot but here are the things we did.........

Spaceship Earth

This is the "ride" that is inside the big ball at Epcot.  It's a very slow moving "roller coaster" where you can see yourself in the future.  It's nothing special but there was no wait at all and it was air conditioned!!

Ellen's Energy Adventure

Oh my word, this was sooooooooooo dumb.  It was basically a 45 minute movie where you moved from screen to screen in a big moving car.  It was a dumb story line and VERY dated.  I actually took a little nap during the movie since it was so boring.  There was no wait time for this as well. 

The Seas with Nemo & Friends

There was no wait time for this as well.  It was a cute little kiddie ride, but quite boring for adults.  They had some neat stuff to look at/do after the ride, but we didn't do any of it.  

Soarin'

One of our other favorite things at Disney.  This was a simulator ride  where we felt like we were hang gliding over all different places.  Some of the places even had smells so it felt so real.  I loved this "ride".

Living with the Land

This was a boat ride through a really neat greenhouse and fish farm.  It's sounds boring, but it was quite interesting to see how they grow alot of plants especially the tomato trees!!

Mission: SPACE

This was a simulator ride where we felt like we were astronauts blasting off into space.   We did the "mild version" because I'm a weinie. I thought it was still really neat so I'm glad we did the "mild version".

Test Track

We got a fast pass to this ride, but there was still about a 15 minute wait to ride.  Part of the wait was creating your car that you would be testing.   I really enjoyed this ride.  The fast test drive was definitely the best part!

After riding most things in the Future World, we headed to the World Showcase.  I remember not being impressed with this as a kid and I definitely felt that way again as an adult.  There really wasn't much to do but walk around and look at things.  It was starting to get hot and our feet were definitely starting to hurt after all of our fast walking around the parks.  

We walked through all of the countries and rode both of the boat rides through Mexico and Norway.  They were both really dumb and boring.  We actually waited the longest we waited for any ride for the Norway voyage and it was probably one of the least favorite things we did.  I definitely could have done with out both of the boat rides.  We stopped in Mexico and ate some overpriced nachos that we could have gotten at any ballpark and then ate a crepe in France that didn't even come close to comparing to our favorite crepe place here.  Overall, I was really disappointed with the World Showcase part of Epcot.  I really wish we would have just skipped it and headed to Magic Kingdom for the rest of our evening.  We had planned on staying at the park until closing time to see the firework/light show but we had done everything we wanted to do at the park and we didn't want to sit around for an hour and a half waiting for it to start.  We decided to call it a day and hopped on the 8:15 bus back to our ship.  We made it back on the ship around 9:30 and we were greeted by none other that Captain Mickey!!!

We ate a super late dinner at the Topsider Buffet and then soaked our tired feet and bodies in the hot tub while watching Cars!!

We had such a fun day at Disney!!!

pre-summer activities

I've was so busy this past week recovering from vacation (i.e. dealing with a child spoiled by grandparents and catching up on housework) that I didn't really get a chance to blog about some of the fun things we did last week.  I have also been catching up with our Disney Cruise blog posts, so blogging about what has been happening lately got put on the back burner.  I still owe you guys a Disney World post and I hope to have it up later today, but for now, here are some of our pre-summer activities of the late.

On Tuesday we went to the Ranger's Game with my parents.  They got free tickets and asked us to go with them!!  

On Wednesday, Pearson and I had a little picnic lunch at Sonic. 

It was 50 cent corn dog day so we ate for really cheap! He really enjoyed sitting at the picnic table like a big boy. 

 On Friday we met one of my college roomies and her little boy at the Fountains in Fairview.  Pearson and Thomas were constantly going in different directions, so I never got a picture of them together. 

For some reason, Pearson would not step foot in the fountains.  He waned nothing to do with the water.    He happily entertain himself by running around the edge of the fountains and jumping every time he saw water coming up!!

On Saturday, we hung out with Matt's side of the family to celebrate our sweet niece's birthday!!

Pearson absolutely adores his cousin, Ethan.  I just love watching them play (and eat) together. 

We had an extremely low key lazy family day on Memorial Day.  We are very thankful for the brave so that we can be free!! 

Hope you all had a very Happy Memorial Day!!!

meal planning monday

Monday: Take Out! 

Tuesday: Goulash, Broccoli, & Cornbread

Wednesday: Parmesan Crusted Talapia, Fresh Veggies, & Salad

Thursday: Homemade Pizza

Friday: Burgers

Saturday Breakfast: Breakfast Tacos

Saturday Lunch: Leftovers

Saturday Dinner: Tim's Graduation Party

Sunday Lunch: Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad

Sunday Dinner: Meatloaf Meatballs, Mac n Cheese, Fresh Veggies

our last day at sea

{Friday, May 17th- At Sea}

Most of the cruises I have been on have been 7 Night Cruises, but this one was an 8 Night Cruise.  Having one extra day at sea was really nice.  We were SUPER lazy today!!  

I woke up at the crack of dawn because of the time change so I got up and took a little jog  around the track (which I actually did on 3 of the other mornings as well) then walked around the ship and took lots of pictures.  

We laid out by the pool for a few hours with our friends this morning but then we spent most of the afternoon in our room.  We got all packed up, watched The Amazing Spiderman and even took a little nap.  

After a lazy afternoon in our room we head up for a little snack.  I got an ice-cream cone and Matt got a few slices of pizza.

On our way back to the room we spotted goofy!!

 Tonight's dinner show was a combination of singing and dancing from the entertainers and the characters and also a magic show.  It was really good!!

These were our table mates for the week. 

{Erin & Sam and Amanda & Carlo}

We really enjoyed chatting with them each night and getting to know them over the cruise. 

 After dinner we watched all the Characters bid their farewell in the Lobby Atrium, then we headed to a late night Magic Show.

Our last towel animal was a little Texas armadillo!!

Overall, we really enjoyed our Disney Cruise.  We would highly recommend a Disney Cruise to anyone......with or without kids.  If you have kids, there is no reason to go on another ship.  Disney has so much for kids and is totally set up for families to have a good time.  If you are going without kids, they really do have a ton of things for adults to enjoy.  Plus it's not really much of a party ship like so many other cruise ships are.  We never saw any crazy drunk people and we never had to look for lounge chairs by the pool because most people are traveling with their families.  A Disney Cruise is definitely on my list of things I want to do with Pearson someday.  He would definitely love it and we wouldn't mind going on another Disney Cruise either!!

a quick stop in key west

{Thursday, May16th- Key West, Florida}

Our day in Key West was super fast.  We docked around 6:45am and left around 12:45.  We met our friends Steve and L'Loni for breakfast at 8am and leisurely got off the ship. (I told you we hung out with them alot!) Neither one of us had booked excursions so we decided to go in together and rent a little golf cart to sight see on the island.

Matt quickly moved to the front seat to be the Navigator so us girls could just sit in the back and chat!!

 Our first stop was the the southernmost point in the USA!!

Our next stop was The Key West Butterfly & Nature Conservatory.  

I probably wouldn't have chosen to go there, but L'Loni really wanted to.  It's was surprisingly really neat and I really enjoyed it. 

 One little butterfly decided to hitch a ride and hung out on my back for a little while.

 I was able to get so many good pictures of the beautiful butterflies.

 When we left they stuck a blue butterfly sticker on us as a little souvenir.  Matt actually kept his on all afternoon. I was quite surprised!!

 After driving around town for a little while and doing a little hat shopping for myself, we stopped for a frozen drink at a little walk up bar.  There were so many yummy choices.  I went with the Banana Breeze and Matt got a Mojo.  So good!!

 Our morning at Key West went by so fast, but it was getting really hot so we were actually ready to get back on the ship.  We ate lunch at the buffet then headed up to the lido deck for some sun.  I got to try out my new hat that I bought! I love it!!

We ran into Pluto before our show.  Our show tonight was sooooooo good.  It was called Dream.  It was basically a quick scene of all of the classic Disney movies.  Matt and I both left the show singing Disney songs. I was singing Bippity Boppity Boo and Matt was singing Under the Sea.  This show made me want to come home and watch every single Disney movie I watched growing up.

 Tonight was also our semi-formal night and lobster night.  Dinner was so incredibly good!!

 After dinner we went to a late night adult ventriloquist show.

We were greeted by a little elephant and note that it was time to change our clocks back as we were headed back to Texas.