Birthday Fun and a 30 by 30 bucket list

My 29th birthday was this past Sunday and I had a wonderful day! Actually, I was celebrating the next day, too! Thank you for all the birthday love y'all sent my way!! The emails, tweets, texts, IG comments were so appreciated!!

Sunday morning brought a fun trip to a local bakery, Queenies, with my sweet little family of 4. We enjoyed walking around Utica Square, followed by a delicious breakfast. After breakfast, we made our way to Woodward Park to take in the beautiful colors of Spring.

Later that evening, we celebrated with some of our best friends, Mia and Dustin. {Missed you Ang and Andrew!} I was so excited to go to Cheddars and enjoy a Cookie Monster! Have y'all had one before? You need to, they're amazing! I wasn't able to get a picture because the kids and I {though mostly the kids} inhaled it! Mmm, so good!

The next day, my mom made a delicious Cinco de Mayo dinner and we celebrated with my family. {Thanks, Mom!} I don't know what I was thinking because I completely forgot to take pictures. {I guess I was subconsciously going Hands Free :)}.

I was completely spoiled and received nearly everything on my wishlist and then some! These babies are mine and I am so grateful! I'm excited to put my Mamarazzi skills to use with my new lens! :)

So, the idea of turning 30 hasn't bothered me too much and I haven't really given a '30 by 30 bucket list' any thought. Until now... I think it might be fun to put together a list of big and little things I'd like to accomplish before I turn 30. However, I'm hoping y'all might have some fun suggestions. 30 things is a lot!

I've come up with a few ideas, but I'm wondering, what do you think I should add to my 30 by 30 list?!

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The day G and I became besties

Did you know Giuliana Rancic and I are besties?! What, you didn't?! Well, we are. :) Let me tell you how it happened...

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter (or obviously here :)), you know we recently made a trip to the Chicago area to spend some time with family. While we were there, Robert and I had the chance to go on an overnight date in Chicago. Let me tell you, we had the best time together! It was exactly what we needed! This trip is when G & I became besties, too.

On the train ride into the city, I snapped this pic of Robert and I and posted it to my Instagram and Twitter with the caption seen below. After posting, I put my phone away and enjoyed my time with my Hubby.

 

 

We made it to the city and set out for our home for the evening, Hilton Garden Inn. It took us a little bit to make our way there, we kept getting turned around, but it was worth the trouble. The hotel has recently been remodeled and was so nice! And so perfectly located for the things we were planning to do. I highly recommend it if you're making a trip to the city and need a hotel.

Once we made it to our hotel, I pulled out my phone to see what was going on in the social media world and I was shocked with what I found...

Giuliana had retweeted our pic!!

I can only imagine what a nerd I looked like as I jumped up and down telling Robert what had happened, but I didn't care. G retweeted me! Now, I realize she only said two words, but honestly, how fun is that?! Our picture was retweeted to 3.2 million followers. Haha! Kinda fun!!

By the time our dinner reservations at RPM rolled around, I was pretty certain that if I ran into her at the restaurant, we'd instantly become besties. :) Although we didn't see her or Bill, we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner and the rest of our date in the City.

So, what about you? Have you been retweeted or mentioned by any of your favorite celebrities?

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Game Night

It's no secret that I can be a bit competitive. I enjoy trash talking, though I have definitely been known to eat my words, and I absolutely want to win. I'm not crazy aggressive to where you wouldn't want to play with me, though, all in good fun. :)

When Robert & I were dating & engaged, we loved to play card games. We'd play by ourselves or with friends, but at some point every weekend, and often throughout the week too, we'd enjoy a game night together.

Through the busyness of life, we haven't enjoyed game night together as regularly as in the early days. But every once in a while, we enjoy a cutthroat game of Speed or Dutch Blitz.

This past weekend we enjoyed just that! We spiced it up a bit & enjoyed chocolate fondue with fruit {and some animal crackers thrown in, that's how we roll} and played Speed & Dutch Blitz. 

What about you? What are some of your favorite games to play? Do you have a favorite at home date night?

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*I found this quote after I wrote this post and thought it was perfect! :)

 

Linking up with Sassy Wife/Classy Life, The Ledford Life, Frankly My Dear for Tuesday Tea.

 

Pensacola fun

On the Saturday between the week with my parents and the week with Robert's family, we spontaneously decided to head over to Pensacola for the day and see what we could see. We had to be out of the condo by 10:00, but couldn't check in to the beach house until 4:00. Our family coming in had asked if we could check in early, but there was only a slight chance we could get in by 2:00 or 2:30. So, we left the condo around 9:15 in search of coffee and Mucinex D for me (I developed a short lived (thankfully!) cold almost overnight our last night with my parents and really wanted to breath :)) and just decided drive along the coast to Pensacola.

We found a cute, local coffee shop along the way called Mojo Coffee where we picked up some delicious coffee for us and juice boxes for the kiddos. We continued on our way, following signs for the Naval Air Museum. We decided to stop by and see how much it cost to get in and all the info on the air museum. We quickly found it after our coffee stop and discovered that the air museum was free!! (Apparently this is pretty common knowledge, but it was very exciting news to us!) So, that sealed our plans for the day and we were thrilled!

Along the road to the museum, we stopped by a lighthouse to take some pictures. We didn't go inside, but it was fun seeing it from the outside. :)

Gift shop fun. I have no idea what this hat is all about.

 

 

After the lighthouse, we moved on to the main attraction...the Naval Air Museum! We had a good time roaming through the museum looking at the airplanes and reading the history. I'm kind of a history nerd, not that I know a whole lot of history, but rather, really enjoy learning about it. I would have enjoyed it more if I had been feeling better, but I still had a good time. We spent a few hours at the museum...even ate lunch at the little cafe on site. It was an enjoyable visit and one we'd like to go again.

 

Seriously, how handsome are they?!

 

 

 

On our drive home, we ran into some nasty storms...the severe weather alerts were all over the place. But, we agreed it was one of our favorite days. Just being together, doing something fun (and free!).

 

Until next time,

Kristal





Beach fun-part 2

Here are a few more of my favorite highlight pics from our first week at the beach. Hope you enjoy them!

 

 

 

Until next time,

Kristal

Beach fun

The last two weeks we've been at the beach. We had a wonderful time! Seriously, I can't say enough good things about Gulf Shores. This was our 6th year to vacation there and every year we're there, it feels more and more like home. It's just comfortable. Beautiful beaches, lovely people, small town feel...just wonderful!

We spent the first week with my parents. We stayed at a condo right in the heart of Gulf Shores. It's fun being close to the action of the city...close to good restaurants, shopping, other happy vacationers. :) Our weather was surprisingly rainy/stormy this year. We only had a couple days of really nice weather. One day was a complete wash out....I'm talking heavy, heavy rain all day! But, most days were a mix of sun and storms. And really, it was ok because we were at the beach!

Our last day with my family was beautiful!! The nicest day by far. We decided to go on a jet ski dolphin tour. It's a 2 hour jet ski tour with a guide who takes you all around the bay, showing you parts of Gulf Shores you can only get to by water, fun places to play on the jet skis and the best places to see dolphins. Robert, Collin and I went last year and had a great time!! This year, my parents and Emma went too. Let me tell you, I was nervous taking Emma along. But, we sandwiched her between Robert and I and she did great. I was so sore after the tour, though, from squeezing my thighs together and maintaining a death grip on Robert's life vest to keep her secured. But, it was fun!

Gulf Shores is only about 45min to an hour away from Pensacola. That being said, until this year we had never seen the Blue Angels fly by. But we got a real treat one day on the beach. They came by, on their way to Ft. Morgan, which is about 20 miles from where we stayed in Gulf Shores. They were doing all kinds of maneuvers and showing off. It was so, so cool!! I'm bummed, though, because I was wasn't able to get a single picture of them.

Well, that quickly tells about different highlights of our vacation. We're always thankful for time away with our family to slow down, reconnect and relax. Here are just a few pics from our first week at the beach. I hope you enjoy them!

This post became surprisingly long, so I might do a part 2 just more pics of our week. :)

Until next time,
Kristal

Duck Dynasty love

It's no secret matter that I, and my family, love Duck Dynasty! So this year we decided to change our route to the beach and stop overnight in West Monroe to check out Duck Commander and the town a little bit. I'm not gonna lie, I was really looking forward to this stop! Changing our route didn't really add any time to our trip, either. In fact, West Monroe was pretty close to a true half way point, making it a great stopping point.

Here we are...in our driveway about to head out. I promise, Emma isn't mad at the world here. :)

We arrived to West Monroe between 5-6. We had checked online to see when Duck Commander closed and found out they closed at 6:00. We really wanted to get over there before they closed in case we'd see one of the guys leaving. So after a quick stop, check in, potty break and diaper change at the hotel, we headed over to Duck Commander. We only stayed about a mile from there, so it didn't take long to find.

Something we were so surprised with was how many people were there!!! So many! Honestly, I didn't know what to expect but I thought we'd stop by, take a couple pics by the sign and be done. For some strange reason it never crossed my mind that other people would have the same idea and be there, too. Duh!

We lucked out getting there before 6:00. Although we didn't see any of the guys, we were able to walk through a "store" they set up in the warehouse with all kinds of Duck Dynasty paraphernalia. It was really fun just being there. Seeing what we see on TV, but seeing it in person. Remembering funny things that happened right where we were. It was just really fun.

We're here!! My brother followed us down to the beach, so he's the other guy in the pic.

 Yes!! The beards are back!! Very much looking forward to August 14! :)

Collin was very interested with what was in the hole. It was just a drainage pipe. Remember when they tried to fill this area up with water to test the duck calls on real ducks?! So funny!!

Collin really loves big trucks!

Remember the episode when they had the doughnut eating contest?! I'm telling you, I love the show!

After a fun time checking things out at Duck Commander, we ended our night devouring enjoying a cookie monster from Cheddar's. Yum!!!

While driving to the beach is always exciting, it was extra exciting this year with our stop in West Monroe. We plan to make it our new route to the beach from here on out. :)

Until next time,
Kristal