What We've Been Up To

So it's been awhile since my last post. Sorry about that. I'll get better I promise, John might even write a post..maybe haha. 

Since my last update, I got to go visit John in Columbus! It was so much fun finally getting to see the base. Thank you fall break! I was there right before Halloween so we went to Country Pumpkins which was a corn maze that had a hay ride and a pumpkin patch. John had never been to a corn maze and had never been on a hayride. Weird right?!? That is what happens when you grow up at the beach though haha. He enjoyed it and it was a great fall date activity. Here are some pictures from it!

Oh! The weekend before I was supposed to go to Columbus was our homecoming here. I was at the start of the parade route with the band when I got a text from one of my friends that she was coming to see me. I broke away from the crowd (it's kind of hard to find someone in a 360 member marching band) and turned around to look for my friend. When I saw her I also saw someone else with her. That someone was John! He had driven the 8 hours from Columbus to surprise me. Needless to say I was so happy. That had been the longest we'd ever gone without seeing each other and I still thought I had a week to go! He is pretty good at the whole surprise thing. 

And now here we are. John has been at IFS for a week now. He had his dollar ride today and it went really well! He always did awesome at his test he had this afternoon. I'm so excited to get this pilot training going. It is gonna be a tough year but it is going to be so much fun. I have one last football game before my band career ends after 11 years. I also am officially graduation in May. There is so much to look forward to in the future and I just can't wait. 

Until Next Time (which I promise will be soon),

Steph

Catching up!

Hey y'all! 

It's been awhile since my last post, I'm sorry. It's been crazy busy, John moved to Columbus and is all settled in now. He loves it there! He is working in the office at the airfield for his casual job and is getting to meet some of the people he'll be working with during UPT which he is enjoying!

Here's some pics of his dorm.

It is pretty small but he loves his little apartment.

As for my life...last week was my last Razorback Marching Band early week. Early week is the week before school starts where we have band practice everyday from 8:30-8:30. It was a long long week but I wouldn't have traded any of it. I love my band family.

Monday started my senior year of classes. So weird to think that it's my senior year. So far so good. I love being back here. Saturday is our first football game and the start of my last marching season EVER. It's a bittersweet thought.

Well that's what we've been up too lately. Thanks for reading everyone! I'll post again soon!

Disney Day 4: Magic Kingdom

It is no secret that I am a Disney Addict. That is why Magic Kingdom is my favorite park. I turn into a little kid again. I would want to stop and see everything haha.

Our day at Magic Kingdom started out with a little but of rain. Just some sprinkles but we weren't gonna let it ruin our last day at Disney

Here we are bright and early at the park

First up at Magic Kingdom was John's favorite ride. Space Mountain. We rode it probably 4 or 5 times

We met lots of characters at the Magic Kingdom. 

Including John's best friend Stitch 

Some other new friends

And the most important one of all

 

We also got surprise fast passes to Mickey's Philarmagic. It was 3D show that involved scenes from lots of the Disney Classics. We were probably the oldest people in there who didn't have kids with them but we both really enjoyed the show. Though I think I annoyed John because I sang along to every song haha.

 

That is ok, because he got his payback on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride. I really need to work on my shooting skills...

Of course it would probably help if I would open my eyes...

For dinner at we ate at the Crystal Palace. It was a buffet with a great view of the castle. Best part was it was a character dining experience with the hundred acre wood gang :)

Here's some pics from dinner

 

And they all gave me a birthday card!

We planned on ending our night at the magic kingdom with the fireworks show and then the parade. But as soon as we got out of the Haunted Mansion it started pouring. Just minutes before the fireworks were scheduled to begin. Oh No! We ran in the downpour to the castle and were told the fireworks would sill go on. Right before they started it stopped raining! Thank goodness!! 

Because I would've hated to miss this

After the fireworks we rode space mountain one more time. Then we got front row seats for the parade. Remember the birthday button I got? Yeah apparently Tinker bell can recognize those in the dark, she yelled at me from the parade. John got a kick out of that one :)

Here's some pics of the parade

  

And here was our favorite float

And here is us leaving the park. I really didn't want to leave haha

This post doesn't even begin to cover everything we did at the Magic Kingdom. It doesn't even cover half. If I wrote about everything I loved you'd still be reading this next week haha. I know I'm a Disney addict but seriously even if you aren't you should still go at least once. They have so much to offer even outside of the parks. Two water parks, mini golf, real golf, great food, shopping. Heck we even rented a boat before we left. Haha I know I sound like an advertisement but I just think everyone should experience the Disney Magic at some point. This was the best birthday present I could've asked for and it was a great way to end our summer together before John went to Columbus. Saying goodbye sucked, I bawled like a baby at the airport, also got asked if I was an unaccompanied minor too haha. But we've got plenty more adventures ahead, and I definitely can't wait to see what they are.

Thanks for reading everyone! Until next time! 

Disney Day 3: Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was a semi-new adventure for me. The last time I was there it had only been open for a few weeks.

I also found my one of my favorite rides there. Expedition Everest quickly became one of my favorites. We rode it about times ha ha.

Here's my favorite of our pics. We got the front row.

 

The safari was also a highlight. Even though a lot of the animals were asleep or stayed far away from the car it was still exciting. A baby rhino crossed behind our car (John and I were in the very back) and he was so adorable. What wasn't adorable was when his mom started running after him...that kinda freaked me out haha.

The hippos were all cooling off together

This guy was sure a cutie

Another highlight of our day was I got to see my friend Katie. She was on the Disney  college program but recently accepted a full time job position. I hadn't seen her since she left Arkansas so that was cool. We watched a show about birds with her and it was so cool. They brought out all different types of birds who did tricks and it was a little comedic. It was definitely worth checking out. 

I loved this guy 

Here's Katie and I

We also watched the Festival of the Lion King show. It was so exciting. The dancers and performers were incredible.

We also checked Rafiki's Planet Watch. This is an area of the park where you can see different animals. The park vet is there and depending on when you're there you can see them working on an animal. 

John got to pet a snake

And I didn't have much luck getting the pigs attention

And we got to see Rafiki

And here is a picture of us in front of the Animal Kingdom centerpiece the tree of life

Stay tuned for a highlight of the Magic Kingdom (my favorite)

Disney Days Part 2: Epcot

Hey y'all I'm back!

This time to tell you about the highlights of our day at Epcot

We got to Epcot right as it opened. First thing we rode was test track. Before you get on the ride you actually design a car then after the ride you find out how well your car performed. Of course John's car beat mine

Here is mine

And here is the winner

We also rode Mission Space which is a flight simulator. Of course John loved that. At the beginning it kind of made me disoriented but it ended up being really fun.

Another highlight of our day at Epcot was walking around all the different countries!

John got a margarita in Mexico

And I got sang too

We met Mary Poppins in England

John had to pose in a tribute to his Viking 9 days at USAFA

For dinner we ate Moroccan food. Now I'm a really picky eater, but Epcot is John's favorite park so I wanted him to pick where we ate. When he told me where we were eating I got really nervous. I ordered the coush coush because it sounded good. It was delicious! I'm glad I ordered it instead of the basic chicken dish that I'd felt like would be safer. It was outside my comfort zone but it was definitely a great choice!

Here are the musicians from the resturant

Of course there was tons more we did but these are the highlights to what was a great day a Disney! 

Disney Days!

Hey y'all! Sorry it's taken me so long to post again. I've been meaning to catch y'all up on our trip to Disney but I've been busy since I got back. So instead of making it one long post I decided to split it up day by day. 

So on to the trip!

We stayed at the Disney Port Orleans Riverside resort. It was beautiful. I would love to stay there again if we returned. 

Here's the resort

 

Also this trip was my birthday present from John and he told them that when he booked it. So when we checked in they had a Birthday Button awaiting me and a celebration button for John. When I wore it in the park everyone yelled happy birthday to me and all the characters we met pointed at it. I got a birthday kiss from Mickey haha

Day 1: Hollywood Studios

So day 1 didn't go quite as planned...John had to get his officer uniforms altered before we left so we got put behind schedule.

But that was ok! Cause as Disney resort guests we got extra magic hours in the park and got to stay until midnight.

When we got there we had dinner reservations at the 50's Primetime Cafe. I loved this place. They had it set up like dining rooms in houses. And everyone was family. "Mom" was in the kitchen making dinner. In the first five minutes we were there I got in trouble for having my elbows on the table and John got in trouble for having his phone out. They had really good food, I had friend chicken and John had "leftovers" so his was a mixture of some of the entrees. It wasn't really left overs.

Here is a picture of my brownie sundae dessert! It was pretty yummy.

After dinner we rode all the rides we could including John's favorite Rockin Rollercoaster. (We're in the back)

And we had to ride our favorite ride. Toy Story Midway Mania. This became our favorite early this year at Disneyland. Even though John beats me every time, I still do a fair amount of trash talking. But obviously it didn't help. I got schooled

Also during our short night at Hollywood studios. We saw the nighttime show fantasmic. I loved this show! It brought back some of the older Disney characters that I grew up with and it was so cute. I'm a Disney addict if you can't tell haha. My favorite part was at the end when the riverboat came out with all the characters on it. Steamboat Willie (mickeys first role) was driving the boat, it was so cool.

Here's a picture, sorry it's a little blurry

And with that we officially closed down the park and had a great first night at Disney!