We Heart Wednesday!

Over at BrieMarie it's time for We Heart Wednesday! Rules are that you have to get all your images from We Heart It. This is my first time on this link up, but I've been watching for the past 8 weeks. And I like it a lot so here we go!

I have always had an obsession with the beach. The ocean. The water is calming and comforting and always makes me feel more centered. Having lived at the beach for awhile, haha, and come back to East Tennessee, I've discovered my love extends to water in general. So here I have for you. I Heart Water.

 

What's on my phone?? The Jumbo Edition

So, I've been super MIA lately. But I'm back now. I know you were worried. And lucky for you, I have a Jumbo edition for you. Because since I last participated, I have been in Hawaii, Tennessee, Arizona, California, back to Arizona, and back to Tennessee. Please enjoy. Oh, and go link up too!







In order to leave Hawaii, we had to ship the Jeep out. Hubby was very sad and broken up at the thought of being without the Jeep, but no worries, we now have it back in pristine the same condition we left her in. They put the vehicles in these really big Matson containers.

For my last birthday in Hawaii, we went to the beach. Big surprise I know. And look what hubby drew in the sand for me. I think he might like me a little. :)

In Arizona, Brandon took me to a really cool Western store and I got some new boots! I'm in love.

Brandon has 2 younger siblings who are still in school, because they are minors I will not release more info on them but to say he went and spoke to their classes! In fact he spoke to the ENTIRE school. This is him looking handsome. :)

In California, first up was Knott's Berry Farm. The Oldest Theme park in America. And the location for spotting this beauty. For the record, my MIL helped me sneak up to grab a good picture. Later she pointed out that he had matching flip flops on his NASTY feet, but I didn't get a picture of that.

We didn't get to go to Disneyland this trip, but we did get to shop in Downtown Disney! I love me some Belle. :)

This is the Oh-so-attractive Hollywood Boulevard. I know, classy right? But hey, I can say I've seen it.

And Oh, the Los Angeles traffic. Not a beautiful thing.

In San Diego, we got to hook up with our friends. This is their adorable baby, Merrick. Don't the hubs and I look good with a baby????? 0:)

Oh Mission Beach, how beautiful you are.

And what do you get at Mission Beach Park? Lemon Ice.

And one of my Favorite parts. Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego. Beautiful, quaint, and super Irish. Sooooo fun.

I hope you enjoyed the jumbo edition! Hope to see you next week!!

I'm Alive

I promise. I have just been so busy with travel and now I feel like I'm dying with this stomach thing. I'll be back with the rest of the story and much more later on!! Please stay tuned and thank you for bearing with me.

<3

The adventure never ends.

So I promised more, here it is! (If you missed part one, you can find it here.)

We boarded our flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles with high energy and excitement at the prospect of being home, wherever that is. Early on in the flight we spent our time making fun of the people on the plane around us. Don't get proud on me, you know you do it, too.

But that was where the fun ended. You know how all airplanes are freezing? Yeah, we did, too. So we prepared. I brought my fuzzy socks, we wore sweatshirts and pants. AND IT WASN'T ENOUGH. Not only did we freeze the entire way, it was so cold, I got sick. Like with a cold. I was miserable. To top it off, the couple in front of us were super uptight. They were hippies in the Timberland boots wearing, Subaru driving, trail mix eating, Fiji water drinking kinda way. And buddy, they were annoying. The female kept looking over her shoulder every time we breathed the wrong way. Ugh. So how did my wonderful husband and I respond? By picking on her. :)

She was trying to use my reading light to do things like check her headphones or her socks, or her ipod. So I started turning it off when she turned to use it. Then when she turned back, I turned the light back on. Everytime someone around her blinked wrong, she hand sanitized like a germ freak, so Brandon started fake sneezing on her head. She kept looking at us for talking or making sound, so we started singing Marine Corps cadence. Etc. This was the highlight for our trip. haha. I'm chuckling just thinking about it.

We got to LA and immediately boarded for Dallas. That flight was pretty simple. In Dallas we got to begin the process of unchecking our babies so we could let Memphis potty and clean Gracie's litter box before rechecking them for the trip to Knoxville. In 5 hours. This was an ordeal. We finally got ahold of the babies and got to go sit in the cold with them for lack of a better place. Upon reentering security we got to do the entire process again. And guess what, once again Brandon had to pull the animals out of their kennels.

This time, while going through security ourselves, TSA decided my CLEAR PLASTIC cup was a danger and had to be separately scanned and my hands were GSR tested. haha. I'm seriously probably on a terrorist list somewhere.

We finally arrived in Knoxville tired, hungry, and worn out, but in 1 piece. Or technically 4 pieces with 2 carry ons, 2 personal items, and 5 suitcases.

.... To Be Continued.

Next up our Knoxville to Arizona adventures and times in Arizona!

You've waited long enough!!

So our journey began 2 days after Christmas when they took our HHG's. Then the next day, we cleaned like crazy people and they took our house. Then the next day we drove across island and they took our Jeep. It was a couple of days full of feelings of loss, but we survived!

The 30th was my birthday. Hip Hip Hooray. I love my birthday. You got to see one of my most awesome presents (meeting Zach Braff), but in addition I also got my nails and toes done, my hair done, Bubba Gump's for dinner, and a great evening drive back.

The 31st dawned bright and early and we did some last minute things to prepare for leaving like playing donkey kong and mario on wii packing up our bags and babies and heading out! We arrived at the airport about 3.5 hours before our flight because we were traveling on orders with 5 suitcases, 2 animals, and 1 unloaded firearm. I'm sure you can imagine the ticket counter nightmare that was. It took hours of trying to determine the weather in Dallas (one of our layovers) to decide if our animals were even allowed to fly there. Once the man finally decided that yes, they could indeed fly there he came up with the bright idea that since we had a 5 hour layover we should uncheck them (they operate like baggage), hold them a couple of hours, and recheck them on to Knoxville. Lemme tell you what a great plan that was.

So now it's time to drop them through TSA checkpoint. Keep in mind, I have a scared doggie and KITTY. So Brandon takes them over to the checkpoint and is told he has to remove them from the kennels. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HONOLULU AIRPORT. Where there aren't even walls. My kitty has never been outside and is scared poopless. But, the other option is they don't fly, so out they come. Brandon was bitten and scratched all over in an attempt to keep fat sweet Gracie from bolting. But we made it. We got it all done and it was time to head through security. In security we were chosen for that new body screening thing. We had planned on refusing but there was a breakdown in communication so we did it. The cool part is metal doesn't effect it. haha.

We finally made it all the way to our gate with a *little* time to spare, sat down and ate our sandwiches. Next up, was boarding....

To Be Continued.

MIA in the USA

I've been pretty MIA lately. Between moving, visiting Tennessee, and now visiting Arizona, I've been pretty darn busy!! But I promise I've been making tons of memories and adventures to share with you all and I will be putting up a BIG blog here shortly for you to enjoy all of my adventures. Please stay tuned!!!