Roadtrip: Cardinals vs Braves

If you know me at all, then you know that my husband and I are die hard Cardinal fans.  Actually, we just love baseball in general.  One of the perks of this military life is traveling the country and getting to live all over.  We decided to take advantage of this perk in regards to baseball and added an item to our ‘Marriage Bucket List’ (we each have our own individual ones as well).  We want to visit as many Major League and Minor League stadiums as we possibly can, preferably when the home team plays the Cardinals or the Memphis Redbirds.

Living in Pensacola, we have the Blue Wahoos minor league team, but we‘ve yet to go to a game.  Nick getting his schedule only the night before makes it near impossible to plan things.  However, in just a week he will be finished flying and we’ll have a few weeks to complete our ‘Pensacola Bucket List’ which includes attending a Blue Wahoos game.

Pensacola obviously doesn’t have a Major League team but Atlanta is only a 5-6 hour drive from us so we knew we’d be visiting Turner Field.  We got lucky enough that the Braves were playing the Cardinals over a weekend so we planned to attend this series.  We had to hold off on buying tickets until the week of the game because with Nick’s flight training, everything is up in the air.  Once we knew his schedule, we were good to buy tickets.  Our original plan was to attend both Saturday and Sunday games but they changed Sunday’s game to a night game (7:05pm start time) which meant we couldn’t attend.  We were a little bummed but seeing one game was definitely going to be better than seeing no game!

Saturday morning at 5am we headed to Ft. Rucker, Alabama with the pups.  We dropped them off with my sister and Kyle and then continued on our way to Atlanta.  We wanted to get there a few hours before game time to walk around the stadium and explore a bit. 

We had a really great time at the game!!!  Their stadium is really nice and the Braves fans were great.  I was shocked at how many Cardinals fans were in attendance.  I am not joking when I say half of the stadium appeared to be in Cardinals attire.  Our fans are just amazing!!!!  What’s even more awesome is that a “Let’s go Braves” chant was started and within two chants, “Let’s go Cardinals” was ringing throughout the stadium so much louder than the Braves fans!  (Just another reason we’ve been dubbed the best fans in baseball! ;) )

The game itself was pretty freaking boring and we lost which didn’t help, but despite those two things, we had a great time!  This was my first Cardinals game in another team’s stadium…heck! It was my first major league game outside of Busch Stadium and it didn’t disappoint!  We had great seats just a few rows up in third base line/left field corner by the foul pole and we got to see a lot of our favorites before the game and in the bullpen.

Sexy Waino (Wainwright for you non-STL fans)

A few people (Atlanta natives) had warned me that Braves fans can be rude and disrespectful but we didn’t experience any of that!  Everyone was so nice and welcoming and there wasn’t any rudeness or disrespect.  After the game, one Braves fan made a comment to me about losing the game (in a joking manner).  I refrained from reminding him that (at that time) we were the best team in baseball.  And that we’ve upset their beloved Braves in 2011 and 2012.  Instead, I just smiled and reminded him we still have long way to go until October.  But again, this was all in good fun! 

{{Please excuse this rant:  My only complaint would be that they tend to make fun of their fans a lot.  They have two different “games” (for lack of better words) that they put on their jumbo screens.  One is an “Oblivion Cam” where they zero in on someone (usually a larger person shoving their face full of food) and start a timer to see how long it takes them to notice they’re on screen.  The other is a look-a-like game.  They post a photo of someone/something (Snooky, Jabba da hut, Mama June (Honey Boo Boo’s mom), Duck Dynasty members, etc (basically, all unattractive people) and find someone in the stands who resembles them.  I’m sure this is meant to be in good fun, but to me, it was cruel.  Maybe it’s because I don’t find humor in cutting other people down and I’m a big advocate for ending bullying.  And that’s exactly what this is.  How do you know that person you just zeroed in on isn’t already suffering from severe depression or self-loathing?  By putting them on the screen, publicly making fun of them to THOUSANDS of people, you just set them back in healing or recovery from their issues.  Again, I’m sure the Braves staff think this is humorous but I think it’s just downright mean.   But then again, our society thinks cutting down others is amusing and a great form of entertainment.  Which is really sad.  But I’m just not the type of person who likes to sit around and gossip or make fun of others.  But this was my ONLY complaint and it obviously didn’t ruin my time so it’s not a huge deal.  It’s just something I’d wish they’d do away with.  Until we as adults stop things like this, bullying in children won’t stop.  They’re learning from us.  But I’ll get off my soapbox now.}}

The Cardinals/Braves game was definitely a great experience!!!  I'm happy to put the check mark next to Turner Field!  And excited to explore more stadiums!  I'm so happy to have a husband who shares this same love of baseball with me.  These adventures together are going to create a great scrapbook!

Grandpa Update: Complications and the Start of Treatment

It's been a while since I've posted an update.  A long while actually (which means this will be a long one.  Just warning you now.)  My family hasn't wanted vast details posted on the internet and I hate thinking about my Grandpa going through this all so I've just been holding off.

I gave an update a while ago, but after over three weeks in the hospital, Grandpa was FINALLY released.  He faced a few issues that kept holding up his discharge such as the drain that just wouldn't stop draining (a quick, simple surgery fixed the apparent thoracic duct that was cut during surgery), delayed eating, rise in blood counts, etc.  Nothing major but with a surgery so severe and the intensity of his cancer, any small thing was a hold up.
Needless to say, he was very excited to get out of the hospital.

Being home was an adjustment but he and Grandma handled it well.  Unfortunately, shortly after getting home (the very beginning of July), he got shingles.  Thankfully, they weren't painful and didn't bother him.  (I think he's just trying to mimic my cancer journey ;)   I went into the hospital to get my portacath put in.  The IV was in, I was just about to go to the OR, when they asked if I had any bruises, cuts, or scraps.  I mentioned that I got bit by a bug and had developed a rash.  Come to find out, it was shingles and surgery {and thus chemo} had to be postponed until it was cleared up.  But mine was like his and we are both fortunate.  No pain, no itching, no discomfort.  Just a nasty rash.)

Grandpa then had to go off his heart medicine for a week to prepare for his feeding tube surgery, which was scheduled for July 16th.  (As you can imagine, blood thinners are not conducive for a surgery.)

That week, July 12th, Grandpa met with his medical oncologist (the ones responsible for chemotherapy).  They have decided to change up his treatment plan.  Originally, Grandpa was going to be hit with a very intense, very debilitating radiation treatment scheduled for five days a week for seven weeks followed by chemotherapy.  Now, they believe the best route is to start with chemotherapy.  This is a very aggressive cancer and they need to try to get any remaining cancer cells in his body (chemotherapy is the intravenous drug that circulates throughout the bloodstream seeking out fast growing cells, such as cancer cells, and destroys them.)  It was determined that Grandpa will start with chemotherapy on July 18th.

Two days later, the 14th, I was at the National Museum of Naval Aviation with Nick's family when I got a call from my brother.  Grandpa was on his way to the hospital because he was having a stroke.  It took everything I had to not buckle at the knees and fall down the IMAX stairs.  I couldn't breathe.  I just wanted to hop on a plane and be by his side.  Was he going to be okay?  How much would he suffer from this?  How would this affect him physically?  Especially with already having so many issues on the left side of his body?  What if this greatly affects his mobility?  Strokes can have awful effects.  How would this affect him emotionally?  He just seems to keep getting pummeled by complications.  At some point he'll break, right?  What if it's now?  What if he loses his strength and decides this is too much and he gives up?  This can't happen.  I had so many questions and it's so hard to not be there and get updates via text message.  Thankfully my amazingly awesome cousin, Teeny, text my siblings and I updates every 5 minutes for the next hour plus.
Thankfully, shortly after getting to the hospital, his stroke started to reverse itself and he was starting to regain the feeling on his left side.  It was the best text I got all day.  He underwent a few tests to see how severe the stroke was, or if it was another TIA like back in the spring.
As always, Grandpa recovered from this like a boss.  And he's still in amazing spirits!!!!  We also found out the cause of the stroke.  Essentially, him going off his heart medication in preparation for the feeding tube caused the stroke.  It, for lack of better terms, (this is how the doctor explained it to us), branched off from the older TIA.  The doctor described it by saying the brain will give off TIA symptoms because it is an addict in withdraw and is missing it's drug, aka his heart medicines.  It was good to know the cause but we were worried that it would continue to happen.
Thus, they decided to keep him off his heart medicine and keep his feeding tube surgery so we don't have to chance this again (because he needs this feeding tube.)
Thankfully, Grandpa was discharged from the hospital the day after the stroke....because he's such a strong determined man.  And then the very next day, the 16th, he went in to the hospital, again, this time to get the feeding tube put in.

That surgery went smoothly.  Quickly and smoothly.  Thankfully.  It seems to be the very first thing to go well (speaking relatively in a medical sense that is) so we're happy about that.  He did have to stay overnight for observation but we knew that weeks before this so that wasn't any new change.  The next day he was out and I'm sure Grandpa was happy to not see that hospital bed for a while.

The next day, July 18th, Grandpa went in for his very first chemo treatment.  His treatment plan is as follows:
He'll have treatment on Thursday, get the next two Thursdays off, and return again.  After two chemotherapy treatments, they will perform a scan and see if the cancer has grown.  If it has grown any, then we know his cancer is not responding to treatment and chemo will end there and he will go straight into radiation.  If the cancer has not grown, he will continue with chemo for another two treatments (a total of 4) and then start radiation.
The radiation is still going to be very intense and will still be every day for seven weeks.  It's going to knock him out pretty badly.  They suspect he'll lose about 30ish pounds and eating will become a very difficult task for him seeing as radiation is going to completely fry his esophagus and throat.  (I experienced this same thing and it was horrendous.  I only had the bottom of my esophagus radiated and even that was unbearable and I was unable to eat.  It was just insanely excruciating pain.  I dropped from 120 pounds to 100 pounds, which is obviously not ideal when you're 5'8".)

Chemo lasted about 3ish hours and he did well.  He didn't really feel anything while there.
I called him that afternoon and spoke with him and he sounded great!!!!  I called the next day and he was still feeling and sounding great!  He said he hasn't experienced any side effects of the therapy which is great!  In time, he might start feeling weak and he will lose his hair in about 14 days, but thus far, things are great!!!!  Medicine has advanced so much and hopefully with his intravenous anti-nausea meds in conjunction with his pill form to take at home, he won't experience any sickness.  (I didn't get sick too often.  I would get waves of nausea but I never actually threw up because I had some awesome medicine!  Thank you scientists, research and all that donate to it!!)



I want to thank my friends and family who've continued to text, email, and call me check on Grandpa (I do apologize for the lack of updates) and on myself.  It truly means the world to me to know that my Grandpa has remained in your thoughts and prayers.  PLEASE keep praying for him.  His road is only going to get worse and eating is becoming more of a difficult task for him.  He needs to continue to eat food and not just rely on his feeding tube to keep his strength up and beat this awful disease.  So please, please, please keep praying for him!


As for me, I'm doing okay.  Right before the stroke I hit a rough patch.  Grandpa and I talked and he asked me lots of questions about treatment, life with cancer, and life after cancer.  It broke my heart.  I do this a lot.  I have and continue to help so many people with this.  I've talked with so many people about these exact same issues and concerns.  But when it's your own Grandpa?  Your own Superhero?  You don't ever expect to be trying to ease your hero's fears and concerns.  I was happy to do it and I know I helped him a lot, but it was difficult.  It was difficult to hear the fear about side effects of treatment.  It broke my heart to hear him ask me when he would feel normal again.  It wasn't so much his question that hurt, but that I knew I was about to give him the answer he didn't want.  That he would never feel normal again.  His life, like mine, has changed.  A lot.  And will continue to.  Our bodies have changed.  It's affected us mentally.  I tried to ease his mind that he'll soon find his new normal and in time, he'll forget what his old normal was.  I will admit, I still long for my old life at times.  It was simpler.  Filled with less worry, fear, discomfort, and pain.  But I find myself thinking, "I don't even remember what _____ was like?"  He'll get to that point.  It sucks that the new normal is not a pleasant one.  And for him, he had his normal for 83 years, whereas I only had mine for 21 years.  I was still learning and growing.  Grandpa will have a harder adjustment.  But he can do it.  I'm confident in that.  Thankfully, he took our conversation well, like he does everything.  By the end of it, the fear had left his voice.  He was optimistic again and ready to fight the world!!!  And that is the reason he's my Superhero.  His moments of fear and concern only last a short while and then they're gone.  That is why I know he can tackle this.  He can and will win this fight!!!!

Nick Update: Almost Finished!

In exactly one month, I will be pinning wings of gold on the sexiest aviator ever!
Time is starting to go by so quickly!  Nick could very well be finished flying by this time next week!!!!!

My last update was back in early April so a lot has happened since then.

Me in front of Nick's helo, the TH-57

Nick started out flying the TH-57B (Bravo). It allowed to them learn the basics of flying and hovering.  They learned to autorotate, a term which sounded fun until Nick explained it's learning to "crash land".  Essentially, when the engine is cut, the blades autorotate and provide a little lift and lighter "fall" while they try to regain power or control.  (These are the things your wife doesn't want to hear.  While I'm happy he's learned to do this and it could save his life and his crew's life, I'd just rather not know.  A simple "training went well today.  I've landed safely" text will suffice.)

The TH-57B has one set of instruments (or gauges), no stability and although it can fly at night, they only flew during the day and it had to be flown in good weather. They start out in this learning the basics of flying a helo and hovering in about 18 flights. 

They start with the “contact” flights which is just familiarization and learning to fly a helo, then a checkride to determine if they’re safe for solo and then a solo. 

After their contacts solo, they do “super-FAM” (familiarization) flights to fine tune the previous skills.  Following these is “tactics” flights.  These are exposure to confined area landings (for example, landing in a gap of a trees), pinnacle landings (landing on a raised surface, like a plateau or building), external load operations (pick up weights and drop them, lift, transport).  Since it’s an “exposure” to them, they only do one flight for each of these 
Below are videos of him doing the external load operations:

Once they've "mastered" flying, they move up to the TH-57 Charlie model. This is a different model of the helicopter (but to me looks exactly the same):  It has two sets of instruments, stability control, and is capable of flying at night and under poor weather conditions (such as conditions where you don’t have to see outside.)  Again, they start out with familiarization flight learning the new helo.  It begins with basic instruments, which is learning to use JUST the instruments in the helo, without visual.  For these, Nick flew with a hood attached to his helmet that blocked his vision outside of the helicopter.  (An instructor sits in the seat to the left of him and is his eyes for the left side of the aircraft, with another student sitting behind Nick, acting as his eyes on the right side. Just in case.)  These skills will greatly come in handy when he’s flying over the water at night when it’s pitch black with nothing visua to reference. 

After these flights, Nick moved onto RI flights (radio instruments).  This is where he started flying to other airports in the area such as Mobile, Tallahassee, or his “cross country” flight to Memphis.  During this phase of flights, he uses the instruments that are receiving signals from navigations devices on the ground to fly.  Essentially, this stage allows them to learn to fly and operate under instrument flight rules (IFR) which allows them to navigate without seeing where you’re going using things like GPS, signals, etc.  This is THE most important and biggest stage of all of flight school because once he completed this, he was essentially “instrument rated” meaning that if he were a civilian (or Navy pilot) he could fly under instrument/IFR conditions without having to have someone else who was qualified for that. 

During this time, Nick was pretty non-existent around our home.  He was putting in about 10-12 hour days on base, coming home, showering, and going straight to the office to study.  He spent the rest of the night in there until about midnight (sometimes later.)  It was rough on him and he was downright exhausted all of the time.  (Good thing he loves what he does!)

After this, he did a “cross country” flight to Mobile where he took the helo off by himself (with an observer, but no instructor because there must be two people at the control at all times), landed somewhere else, shut down the helo, went and grabbed lunch, then came back. 

After this it was on to “low levels”.  Despite the biggest hurdle being accomplished (the instrument rated part I just mentioned) and the rumors that flight school was all downhill after that, there was still a lot of work to do for the remaining flights.  Low levels (there were 5 of these flights) required a great deal of planning, preparing charts and planning routes at low altitudes, beginning at 500 ft and later flights at about 200 ft above ground.

Next was “formations” (4 flights), which is exactly what it sounds like.  Helicopters (two of them) flying in formation together.  The last was a low level formation flight at 200 feet.  He has just finished this block of training and now he's moving on to Search and Rescue flights.  This is just one flight and it gives him exposure to search and rescue, which includes running search patterns.

Following those will be his last block of training, NVGs (night vision goggles).  It sounds pretty basic (and fun) but apparently it's more complicated and exhausted than one would expect.  

After that, he's flight school complete!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

I hope all of that made sense.  Nick tries to explains things to me in terms I understand and therefore I tried to do the same for our friends and family.  I probably know a little more than the average person since my husband is in this field and talks aviation all the time, so I apologize if I still used phrases or words that didn't make sense to a non-aviation follower.  I tried to remember things Nick said that provoked a "uhhh huh?" look from me so if I didn't explain something well enough, shoot me an email or comment under this and I'll try to furhter explain.  I know you all back home love these updates so I tried to be as thorough as I could to let you peek into what Nick's life has been like (and why you rarely see him on our Skype sessions, hear him in the background of our phone conversations, or why he himself doesn't communicate often with you all.  I promise, he loves you all, he's just busy.  I live with him and barely see or speak to him!  Give him a week and he's all yours!!!!)

Nick's Family Visit

Nick and I were fortunate enough to have his Uncle Scott and Aunt Debbie come visit us for a week!  This was their first trip here and we could not have been more excited!!!!!

For those that don't know, Nick's uncle and aunt are like second parents to him.  His parents are not a part of his life anymore but these two make up for that vacancy tenfold.  We could not ask for any better relatives than these two.  They support us and love us just any parent would.  They go above and beyond what any parent should, let alone an uncle and aunt.  I am so incredibly blessed to have married into a family like his.  So many people complain about their in-laws but I can say with 100% honestly that I LOVE my in-laws!

Their visit seemed to fly by but we made the most of it.  Nick only had the weekends off work but we spent those days touring his base, visiting the National Museum of Naval Aviation, going up in the Pensacola LightHouse (it was our first time up!  And boy is that a workout!  Nothing compared to my leg day workouts!!!!).

Stairs that go up the top of the light house

How would someone survive that fall?!  

The Pensacola LightHouse is said to be one of the most haunted lighthouses in the US.  In the basement, we watched the entire Ghost Hunters episode about the light house.  So neat!  I want to do the Ghost Tour at night here!

Nick and his Uncle Scott in front of the T-6B Texan II, the plane he flew in Primary Training

Explaining about his helo's engine

Professor Nick explaining how the helo works

Nick explaining the areas of his base

Nick and Scott in his helo as he explains it all to him

During the week, Nick's family and I headed to the beaches.  It was really great to spend so much time with them, alone.  We only see them when we go home and it's always so busy.  We're usually around at least five other people so it's not real quality time.  It was so great to spend so many hours, relaxing by the beach, and just talking...hearing stories about Nick's childhood and his family.  I truly cherished these days with them.

Bushwacker of course!

Bud Platinum

Nick had an early flight and was able to join us for the last half of the day.  So of course we stopped for sno cones!

We spent our evenings going out to dinner, sitting at home having adult beverages, and going through old family photos!

Lunch view

Lunch

Nick's family's homemade amaretto, over ice.  Delicious!

Of course we had dinner at McGuire's.  And what's a McGuire's outing without an Irish Wake?

Lunch on the beach

This also happened to be Nick and my first visit here as well!

Wine and delicious spinach artichoke dip!

I had never seen pictures of Nick pre-high school but he dug out a huge box of photos he took from his mother's abandoned storage unit and we went through them.  Um, can you say adorable?!  He hasn't changed much at all!!!!!!!

It sucked saying goodbye to them after such a great visit but we're happy we'll be seeing them in August when we venture home and again in late August when they head back for Nick's winging!  I truly am blessed to have this family in my life!

Anniversary Trip: Disney World

Sadly, I'm back from the most magical place on earth.  If you read my previous post, then you'll remember that Nick surprised me with a trip to Disney World for our anniversary.  I was originally bummed because we had to postpone the trip, but it ended up being the best thing for us!
First of all, with our original plans, Nick was going to request leave for Friday (because they certainly wouldn't grant him anymore than that.)  This would allow us to arrive late Thursday night and have all day Friday and Saturday at the parks, and possibly some of Sunday, depending on his schedule on Monday (which would knew would be intense because he's just in that crazy part of training.)
We decided to postpone until Fourth of July weekend and it was the best decision ever!!!!!!  The 4th fell on a Thursday and Nick's leave was approved for Friday.  This allowed us three full days at the parks and Sunday we didn't need to rush out of Orlando because that Monday, Nick only had an 8 hour class, which meant he didn't need to study or prep Sunday night for a flight like he normally does.  Not to mention, he's passed the super crazy stressful part of Advanced which means he was fully able to relax and thoroughly enjoy our little vacation.

We had an amazing time!!!!  I honestly cannot begin to describe how awesome our weekend was. Wednesday morning, my sister packed her car, including my two dogs, and headed back home to Alabama.  I took Mom to the airport and said yet another emotional "see ya later".  Then it was home to pack and go pick Nick up from base.  As usual, the Navy can't allow things to go smoothly so we headed out of town later than we had hoped and arrived at our hotel around 2am (ET).
{{Our hotel was so nice!  Nick found it and was really worried what it would look like.  Although the pictures and location seemed great online, it was significantly cheaper than the hotels surrounding it, so we wondered what mess we might be getting ourselves into.  But the worrying was for nothing.  We cannot figure out why it was so much cheaper because it was so nice.  It is located in Downtown Disney, right on the edge of all the shops, bars, and restaurants.  It's also the closest to Disney World parks (which meant we were the first dropped off from the shuttle after leaving the parks and the last picked up on the way to the parks, which was awesome!)  We had a room in the tower with a view of Downtown Disney and Epcot on the 25th floor and it was amazing!  So for anyone traveling to Disney World, I suggest checking out Buena Vista Palace Hotel and Spa.}}

Our park passes!  (Nick got to pick our characters)

We bought park hopper passes on base before leaving because they're 50% off the regular price.  And if you've been to Disney, then you know these passes are far from cheap.  These passes allowed us to visit Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios as many time as we want in four days.  Unfortunately, Magic Kingdom had blacked out these military tickets on the 4th.  I was super bummed because fireworks are some of my favorite things ever.  And the Fourth of July is definitely my favorite holiday.  Leading up to the trip, I was so excited to see the fireworks over Cinderella's Castle on the 4th.  But that couldn't happen :(  I was pretty sad and Nick was trying to find some fireworks displays out in Orlando somewhere so we could watch them but we weren't having any luck.

Thursday the 4th we woke up and headed to Epcot.  It was so awesome to see the Epcot ball, something I've only ever seen on television!  While walking around the gift shop searching for Minnie Ears (of course I had to have them for my first trip here!  I don't care that I'm 28 years old, I love Disney!) I overheard someone mention fireworks.  I then asked a Disney employee and sure enough, Epcot was also having their own fireworks display!  Cue excitement!!!!

Nick and I wandered the park, grabbing fast passes when we could and waiting in other rides' lines.  It was an awesome day and you couldn't smack the giddy child-like smile off my face if you tried!
Later in the day, Nick saw that Belle would be posing for pictures with guests in France.  Despite how incredibly hot he was (Nick gets hot VERY easily and is miserable when he's hot), he suggested booking it across Epcot to find her.  I asked if he was okay with doing it and he didn't even bat at eye and said "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"  Oh the things he does for me ;)  We made it across the park in time to see her and my trip was made!!  She is definitely the best princess, in my opinion.  After getting my picture with her, she asked "Is this your beast?", pointing to Nick, and we had him join us for a picture as well.

Afterwards, we wandered around World Showcase, which is a really cool area that portrays the culture and cuisine from countries such as France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Norway, China, United States, Japan, Morocco, United Kingdom, and Canada.  Each place has buildings and landscaping to represent their culture, as well as various restaurants of their unique cuisines and of course gift shops.  We had a really good time walking through each country.  I even got to see Snow White during this!  (She too, asked for Nick to join us in a picture asking "Is this your prince?").

Nick in the Japanese Garden

After taking in the countries, we went to claim a spot for the fireworks show.  It was AWESOME!!!!!!  It was the best fireworks display I've ever seen.  The fireworks were perfectly coordinated to music and they honored our country so well.

This was by far the best Fourth of July I've ever had.  I was with my absolute best friend, in the most magical place on earth, watching a phenomenal fireworks display, and celebrating my anniversary.  It truly doesn't get any better!

Friday we headed to Magic Kingdom and I was just in awe of Cinderella's Castle.  I've seen it all over...the beginning of every Disney movie, in television shows, in movies, and here I was, standing in front of it...walking through it!  With meeting Belle and standing in front of the castle, my trip had been complete.

We spent the rest of Friday wandering around Magic Kingdom. We had breakfast in Gaston's Tavern (of course his cinnamon rolls are ginormous!) and I even got to go inside Belle's library!!!

The rides were fun and we managed to hit everything we wanted to.

That night, we again claimed a spot to watch the evening's entertainment.  It started with an awesome Electrical Parade.  It's just large lighted floats and characters strolling down the streets towards the Castle.

Afterwards was Celebrate the Magic.  They projected images on Cinderella's Castle and it was amazing.  My iPhone camera didn't capture it all that well but it's definitely something everyone should see!

Following that was a fireworks show. I thought Epcot's were the best I'd seen but this display put that to shame!  This was AMAZING!  So incredibly patriotic!  The Castle again had images upon it with music perfectly set to the fireworks.  It was the best thing ever.  I was on cloud nine!  Between the 4th and this day, I was just overwhelmed, but in a good way!

Friday night we made a plan for Saturday since we wanted to hit two parks in one day.  We'd start with Animal Kingdom, hit the rides and attractions we wanted to see and then head over to Hollywood Studios.  Having a plan in place was the best decision ever.  It made tackling these two parks in one day so easy.  We didn't even get to Animal Kingdom until about noon and we were finished at both parks by 7pm!  We ended the trip with Rock n Roller Coaster and it was by far our favorite ride.  We are roller coaster junkies and unfortunately, these parks are geared towards smaller children so they don't have a lot of the extremely fast, upside down type coasters.  But this was one of them and it was so awesome!  The entire coaster is a limousine, indoors, and in the dark (for the most part.)  You take off at an insane speed (for my STL friends, you shoot out just as fast as Mr. Freeze at Six Flags.)  Then the coaster flips you upside down and whatnot all the while you have various Aerosmith songs blasting from the speakers next to your head!  As you go throughout the ride, various signs are lit by black light as if you're driving down the streets of LA on the way to a concert.  I mean, what's better than a coaster with Aerosmith blaring the entire time?  Nothing, that's what!

That evening, we headed back to the hotel, cleaned up, then headed to Downtown Disney.  This place was so fun!  It's just a large area with various bars, restaurants, shops, and entertainment.  Every other bar/restaurant seemed to have a live performer out front.  We finally picked a restaurant to have dinner, settled on the second floor patio, and enjoyed a freaking awesome performer.  He performed everything from classic rock to current mainstream music.  We had a great time talking about how amazing this trip had been, talking about our future, and enjoying the evening.
Afterwards, we walked around the shops and just enjoyed the atmosphere.  If you're ever in Disney World, definitely plan to spend a night at Downtown Disney.  I wish we had spent more than one night there; but now we definitely know where to go when we come back.  And our hotel is the perfect location for that!  It's also nice because it's open until 2am so even after the nighttime entertainment ends at the Disney parks, you still have time to head here. I wish we had known that on our first two nights!

After we got back to our hotel room, we changed into comfy clothes, opened a bottle of wine, climbed in bed, and toasted to the wonderful past two years and to an even more exciting third year!

Sunday we decided we didn't need to head back to the parks.  We had accomplished everything we wanted to.  Instead we headed to the local mall so that Nick could visit Apple (we don't have one in Pensacola) and get his phone fixed.  For the past 5ish months, his sleep/wake button on the top of his iPhone 5 doesn't work.  Which means no turning it off, no locking it, and no screen shotting.  It's been rather annoying for him.  But we were in and out within 10 minutes with a new phone.
We decided to grab lunch at the food court before hitting the road.  Upon checking out what they had, we saw they had a Cheesecake Factory.  It's one of our favorite chain joints so we decided it was a must.  It's vacation so we indulged in oh so bad for you food (I got the Macaroni and Cheese Burger....a burger topped with cheddar cheese and a giant patty of fried mac and cheese!)
With our bellies full, we headed home.

The trip home wasn't that bad.  We stopped in Enterprise, Alabama to pick up our two exhausted dogs and then continued on our way home, arriving back in Pensacola around 8pm.


This was the best trip ever.  This was actually Nick and my first getaway vacation as a married couple (other than our honeymoon) and it was a great one!  I love Disney and love being a little kid.  When it comes to amusement/theme parks, Nick is just as much a little kid so he had a blast too.  We thoroughly enjoyed this time together and it was great to finally get this time with him. The last two month have been so incredibly stressful for him.  We really haven't seen or talked to each other outside of the necessary "Let's pay the bills", "What do we need from the store?" "What's your schedule tomorrow?"  (that last one is always a stupid question because it's inevitably a 12 hour day followed by a long night of studying).  Nick was finally able to relax and smile and laugh this weekend.  We were able to be our silly and cuddly selves.  I was finally able to hear all about what he's doing in training and discuss what our Navy life will be looking like in the next few months.

I cannot thank Nick enough for preparing and planning this trip.  Even though it was our anniversary, this trip was more for me than him.  Yes, he had a lot of fun and loved seeing me so happy, but if he had his way, he would have visited Harry Potter at Universal Studios or possibly some other city (Vegas?).  But it's just like Nick to be incredibly selfless and put me before him.  But don't worry, he had a lot of fun and I made this trip worth it for him as well.


As for gifts...mine to Nick is a secret to you all.  Sorry.  As stated in my card, Nick told me to pick a cotton t-shirt from the gift shop.  Unfortunately, the only shirts I liked were small children's shirt.  I might be tiny but I'm not THAT tiny.  They'd have been belly shirts with my long torso.  So the t-shirt was nixed but we each got a beach towel (which works out because living the beach life and always having so many guests, we realized we don't have nearly enough beach towels.)  We also added an ornament to our collection (we buy an ornament for almost any occasion...one for each duty station, each vacation, each experience, etc.).  As mentioned earlier, I also got some Minnie ears.  And for my last souvenir, a beautiful Belle mug to drink my teas (and rare occasion of coffee) out of.  (I'm still on the hunt for a Chip tea cup.)

Thank you, Nick, for a fabulous weekend!  It honestly could not have been any more perfect!  I will always wonder why God chose you for me, but I am forever grateful!  I know life for you has been incredibly busy and you barely have time to sleep and eat, so I truly appreciate you taking the time to plan this all for me and for us.  I'm so happy we were finally able to experience Disney World together!!!  It was a perfect first weekend getaway!  I Love you!!!!

[To view all our photos (because I don't use Facebook too much anymore) you can check them out HERE.  I warn you, there are a LOT because I also use this sight as a third back-up system for my photos.  But you can skip through the phases of photos you might not find interesting such as all the DinosaurLand pics I took for my brother or all the firework pics if you aren't into that sort of thing.)