We Made It!

*HUGE sigh of relief* I am beyond ecstatic that this semester has finally come to a close! Well, besides a few assignments that is. Let me tell you, if I could, I would slam that door closed on the face of those assignments and tests; take that academics! Haha. I cannot describe how happy and relieved I am to not have to worry for a few weeks about assignments, tests, or anything academic. Especially because Christmas is on it's way and I can't wait to finish my shopping! What girl wouldn't?

In other news, we made it home safe and sound from our vacation. Can I just say how much I appreciate the ground and normal motion after our vacation??? From my first flight, to the rental car, on to every type of ride at amusement parks, I never knew how great it was to be in steady motion and safe on the ground. Not to say that those things weren't a blast because I normally don't get to do those things everyday, but MAN. SO. MUCH. MOTION.

It was so nice to be able to spend time away from work and school to be with the love of my life. We got to see and do so many wonderful things despite the bumps in the road that we hit during our time on vacation. With all the amazing tours of the different studios in California along with some amusement parks, I would say that it was a successful time away from our normal day to day lives.

Here are some pictures from our trip! Enjoy! :)

First off, OH MY YUMM! Qdoba is so delicious! They have the most amazing Mexican Gumbo ever! Located by the Scottsdale Fashion Square, we treated ourselves to this amazing place during our night stay in Phoenix before our flight.

Here we go! Leaving for out first flight together! I've never flown before, so it was an interesting experience.

View from the plane. I was the highest in altitude I've ever been. How scary! Luckily, I had the most handsome man sitting next to me, comforting me when the plane took off.

THE most gorgeous driver I have ever seen. I was lucky enough to drive around with this hunk for our whole vacation  in our VERY compact rental car.

Knott's Berry Farm! This amusement park is so much fun! All Peanuts themed, you can hang out with Charlie Brown, Sally, AND Woodstock!

Well look at who we ran into :)

Enjoying a smooch from the most gorgeous man in the world. MmmHmmm.

Big smiles as we rode our first couple rides at Disneyland together!

This photo absolutely cracks me up! Haha. Austin in mid yell as he records the plunge on Splash Mountain, Me as I scream for dear life, and the creeper guy behind me with a look that I am happy that I didn't witness LOL.

We ran into a VERY hungry whale while we were at Disneyland! Austin with his anticipated churro. YUM!

This whale also needed a nice flossing after a delicious churro lunch. Haha.

The Castle in all it's glory! Disneyland was all decorated for Christmas. It was ridiculously beautiful, especially at night cuddled up in my loves arm as the chill in the air approached.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is my all time FAVORITE Halloween movie. The best part? It works for Halloween AND Christmas!

The most amazing clam chowder bread bowl. I excitedly introduced this to Austin and I think he is HOOKED. What a great way to end our first day at Disneyland!

MAN OH MAN. His gorgeousness seriously mesmerizes me. How did I ever become so lucky..... sigh. The Hollywood walk of fame. We found Austin's favorite, Denzel Washington.

After some searching, we found the hand prints of the Harry Potter cast. Every Harry Potter fan's dream! Heehee. My hands fit Emma Watson's perfectly, and funnily enough, Daniel Radcliff's hands were smaller! :)

The entrance to the Dolby Theatre tour that we went on. They hold the Academy Awards here. We are talking about golden statue awards, whole streets being closed, and an extremely amazing building! It was so much fun!

This tour was the most amazing tour I have ever been on. I was so glad Austin suggested it. SO many films and television shows are filmed here. Shows like The Big Bang Theory, Ellen, Gilmore Girls, Friends, Pretty Little Liars, and movies like Back to the Future, and Harry Potter are ran through this company. With city, residential, and town areas that are changed with street accessories and a little paint, you would be surprised how many different scenes from movies and television shows are actually located here. The 2 hours was TOTALLY worth it!

I was one happy camper! Not only did I get to touch the Harry Potter stars hand prints, I  also got to see this crazy car from the second movie. It actually RUNS. It doesn't look that way though, which is the magic of movies :). Although Harry Potter wasn't filmed at this site, it is ran through Warner Brothers still. J.K. Rowling wanted all of the actors to be British and to be filmed in England. The California site did have a TON of memorabilia from the movie! I was so surprised to see some of the things that I saw throughout the movies. However, we weren't allowed to take any pictures :(.

We tried hitchhiking but it didn't really work. Haha. Just kidding. We also got to see Austin's favorite childhood cartoon's vehicle. The Mystery Machine! 

Well lookie there! Can anyone guess what popular television show this scene is from?? If you were a teenager around the 90's I'm sure you could guess..... anyone? No? Okay........ FRIENDS! Yes, this is the actual couch where the cast spent a lot of their time during the television series. It was SO cool to be on an actual television set!

The Central Perk. The expresso machine you can see on the show actually works although it isn't shown in this picture. It was definitely odd to see this in real life when we have seen it on television a ton of times.

One thing I forgot to say..... a plane crashed. The wreckage was ridiculous. Don't worry though, this wasn't an actual plane with actual people in it. This was the plane that crashed in War of the Worlds. This can be found at Universal Studios. Trust me, the wreckage spans larger than this little stretch in this picture. It seriously looked life like!

This last picture is actually quite funny. Given, I know caramel apples aren't much to laugh about since they are so ridiculously scrumptious, but this particular apple was so hard to eat! The complimentary knife that they gave us didn't even cut through the apple, so reluctantly, I had to stow it on my carry on and take it home with us.

 

And We're Off....!

*BIG sigh of relief* These past few weeks have consisted of a ton of homework (big surprise), a couple tests, and getting ready for my handsome love and I's trip! Now that I have gotten ahead of the game by finishing up some work for when I am gone, I am ALL ready for this trip!

We are ready to walk down Mainstreet in glorious Disneyland!!



We are SO ready for this trip. Not only have we waited for a whole entire year to be able to leave, we have entered mere hours until we leave!

 

It almost seemed impossible given the circumstances that I had to go to the doctor (thankfully I am fine and okay to go) but so did Austin! Dang pinched nerves were really starting to pinch the wrong nerves for me as we scrambled to do everything we could to make sure he was better before we left. As Austin put it, it was a sign that both of us needed a vacation, and ASAP.

 

Thankfully everything worked out and we are now ready to go! With a three day weekend, consisting of a date day for Austin and I to enjoy the fall weather together and do some early preparing for Thanksgiving, we couldn't be happier that the time has finally come! 

 

 

My handsome love got me these on our wonderful day so that we could start getting ready for the baking season!

 

As soon as we get back, the decorating for Christmas can begin (after Thanksgiving of course by the rules of Austin)! Can I say how excited I am to decorate this year since last year was that icky first year where you have to buy everything and start from scratch. This year, we are ready to do some fun christmas craftin'. I can't wait to post about the fun things that we are going to make this year!

 

This week I also got to spend some time with an amazing friend at Denny's to find that they had a.... wait for it.... HOBBIT MENU! Now, I am sure that Hobbits still have the same capacity of stomach room as we do, and the portions are awesome :). They have "The Hobbit" food all in a seperate menu. Things like "The Ring Burger" and "Pumpkin Patch Pancakes".

 

 

Pumpkin Patch Pancakes with Pumpkin Cinnamon Whipped Topping. Can you say UH-MAZING??

  

Definately Stop by if you can, its for a limited time only!

 

 

With that being said, and you walking out the door to go get that scrumptious hobbit food, my next post will be after we get back from vacation!

 

Have a wonderful week AND Thanksgiving!

A Year and a Half With Forever to Go..

It's October and there are so many wonderful things that happen during this month. It is the first actual month of fall, the air becomes more crisp and smells of leaves and thick soups, jackets see the sunlight after being stowed in our closets for months, my birthday, and pumpkins come into season for halloween. One very exciting thing that happens in this month involves my handsome man and our journey together. October marks 6 more months till Austin's birthday and our anniversary and our year and a half mark.

October also puts us under the 1 month mark till our much needed vacation to Disneyland!

There are so many things in my life to appreciate at this time of the year. I am extremely fortunate to have an amazing family that always supports me, no matter what happens in the rough patches. I have the worlds' best dad who will do anything for anyone, an extremely hilarious sister who can always get me to laugh at little inside jokes we share, an awesome stepmother who, like my dad, would do anything for anyone and gets excited about the milestones that life has to offer. My whole family from one side to the other makes me feel extremely lucky to have and to be able to do the things that I am doing right now. With having the most amazing man in my life, I also get to enjoy his lovely family as well. Although there are some not so fun things happening around me, I know I can always fall back on our families to find refuge.

With our vacation nearing our grasp, that is something I am also very thankful for. Who ever may be up there knows we need it! Taking breaks from the real world is nice, especially when you are with the person that you love, and when you add Disneyland and other fun things to the mix, what could go wrong?? (knock on wood). 

There are many other things that I am thankful for, but one thing that is for sure, is that I have Austin in my life. Austin is one of those people that you meet that has the biggest, most thoughtful hearts I have ever met. I am so lucky to be able to receive the love that I do from him on a daily (and secondly) basis. From the second that I spent time with Austin outside of the normal setting, I knew he was the one for me (though, he likes to disagree :)). A year and a half later and those feelings are growing even more so every day. The support and love that he shows never ceases to amaze me. Never in a million years would I have ever thought I would have found someone so perfect and ridiculously handsome as he is. He is my absolute best friend and the only one I want to share my life with forever.

Are we perfect, even though we would like to think so? No. We have our ups and downs just like everyone else and any other couple out there. It is the love and respect that we show each other on a daily (and secondly) basis that keeps this relationship strong. We continue to be happy for each other and support each other like we did from day one. 

Now that we are at the year and a half mark, I can see all the things we have went through together and the things that have made us individually and jointedly stronger. It is such an amazing feeling to have found your soul mate!

I love you Austin.

Fall allows me to take such amazing pictures! :)

Ahh... the fall season