2013 Christmas Explosion Photo

Sorry if the title was misleading. There's no ACTUAL explosion here, just a metaphorical explosion of Christmas cheer. I talked Rhett into doing a quick picture with me in my studio upstairs. He doesn't really wear his Christmas sweater anymore, but I still adore mine! He tends to like trends until they actually become trends, then he moves on. Of course I had to get Chipper one to match us! Lois at Dragonfly Inspires on Etsy made it special for him, and she did a wonderful job. I haven't let him wear it longer than just a few minutes at a time because I'm afraid he'll eat it. Unfortunately since I was using a remote to take the picture, there was no one behind the camera to get Chipper to look that way. I still got one of me and him where he was doing his cute head tilt though. Isn't he adorable?! The correct answer is, "yes, Kristi, he's beautiful. And you should brush your hair once in a while."

I also grabbed a shot of me and Rhett for our annual Christmas ornament. It actually turned out really cute! Of course we look like the Michelin twins because of our huge sweaters. I promise we haven't gained that much weight over the past year.

If I can talk Rhett into doing this just once a year, I'll consider myself pretty lucky. Anyway, I am getting ready to do my "Things to do in 2014" list so I wanted to go ahead and get my Christmas pictures posted before that. I mean Christmas photos after a New Year post would make NO sense, right? I'll see you guys on the other side!

Anniversary Trip to Disney World

If you follow me on Instagram, you've already seen all of these photos from my anniversary trip last week. If not, well it's all new content, hooray! Rhett and I went to Disney World for our honeymoon, and we decided to go back for our first anniversary. It's probably too expensive to do every year, but we'd like to keep going ever so often because we love it so much.

This time I signed up to do a 10 mile race while we were there! While the race itself was pretty fun, I was overall disappointed with the experience. I did it alone, so that probably didn't help. Between them not having women's shirts (seriously?! The run had to have been at least 50% women) and runners having to stand around for what felt like an eternity before starting off, I was just kind of blah about it. The trip was still fun though! We saw all the parks of course, and we even went to a few attractions that we missed last time. I tried to take a few photos each day with my phone since I forgot my point and shoot. I took my dSLR, but never used it. The idea of carrying it around all day, just didn't appeal to me. I didn't want to risk hurting it right before shooting a wedding this coming weekend!

Day 1: We got Magicbands when we arrived! They are testing them out right now. They work as your room key, dining plan and park tickets, and you can connect a credit card to them to charge things you want. Of course it makes buying stuff easier, which is good for Disney. We went to Magic Kingdom first, and we happened to be walking by the castle right as a parade came through! Last year we were ALWAYS peering over people to see the parades, so I was excited to be so close. Day 2: I got up and ran around our resort, which was nice and peaceful with a river. It was so hot, but I guess that's Florida for you. We went to Epcot for the day. Not many things are as mesmerizing as that ball! There's just something about it, I can't help but just stare at it.

Still day 2: We ate at the Germany section of Epcot at Biergarten! It was a buffet and everything was delicious. I tried schnitzel, which was yummy. The entertainment (pictured) was great there too. Day 3: We went to Hollywood Studios for the day. Rhett LOVES Tower of Terror, but I hate it. I honestly feel miserable on that ride, but don't tell him that (I don't think he reads this so...). I like to ride it with him because I know he loves it so much. I always look like I'm about to throw up in the photos from the ride. That top right photo is from when we were waiting in line for T of T. I just thought the mist was gorgeous! We also did the backlot tour, which we missed last year. Still haven't done Toy Story Mania! We don't care enough to rush to the park early enough to get in line. That ride is always a long wait. We went back to Epcot for dinner in the Canada section. Le Cellier was great! Rhett had the bone-in ribeye, which was so tasty.

Day 4: race day! We spent the morning at Animal Kingdom, which is probably my favorite park besides Magic Kingdom. I know most people like Epcot the best, and I really love it too, but I just love the animals so much! Since I was running that night, we went to see Gravity in Downtown Disney to give me a little rest. Of course there's a lot of walking involved getting around DD, so I still ended up feeling really tired by race time. Whatever, I survived, and I did halfway decent. My time was not what I wanted, but it was much hotter than I expected so I didn't push as much as I could have. I don't want to be carried away on a stretcher because I had a heat stroke! I did manage to run the entire thing though, which I never thought I could do. I walked for about 10 seconds at 2 water stops because trying to drink out of a cup while running is just a recipe for disaster/face planting/choking.

Day 5: Our last full day was our anniversary! I convinced Rhett to take this photo and one other one in front of the castle. He HATES getting his picture taken. I honestly think he does it just to aggravate me...and it works. Thankfully, I have at least two pictures of us on our anniversary. We spent the day at Magic Kingdom again, but we didn't do much. We got some floats at the Plaza ice cream place and just enjoyed the sunshine. For dinner we went to Jiko at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Those zebras you see are right outside people's windows! Life goal: stay in a savannah view room at AKL. How awesome would that be?! Jiko was pretty good. Our entree's were decent, but the appetizer we got was so delicious! It was 3 different African breads and 4 sauces. We didn't leave a single bite.

After dinner we headed back to Epcot to watch Illuminations, which we missed last year. It was so wonderful! I'm so glad we did that. It was the perfect end to our anniversary celebration. We packed up and headed back the next day (bye, Port Orleans!) I was sad to be leaving, but also pretty excited to get back home to Chipper. I missed that crazy little dog! I don't think he behaved for his sitters, so I feel really bad. Luckily they are family, so they still love us anyway.

I hope you all have had a great fall so far. I'm really enjoying this beautiful weather! I know it won't last long, so I'm going to soak it up for now.

Always 10

This past Friday Rhett and I FINALLY got to go down to see the Braves retire number 10 and honor Chipper Jones. We bought tickets as soon as they went on sale, so we've been looking forward to this for a while. I booked us a room at a Double Tree in Buckhead so that we could eat a delicious cookie before the game. The hotel was pretty nice, although the 6AM trash convention outside our room was an unpleasant surprise. I have never seen it take that long for a trash truck to pick up the trash. I gave up trying to go back to sleep at about 6:20. Ridiculous!

Anyway, after we checked into the hotel and had our cookies, we headed over to the nearest Marta station to catch the train. The whole Marta system is pretty neat! With game day traffic, it was quite tight on the train, but I imagine on a regular day it's probably not so bad. Some of the stations are definitely sketchy though. I probably wouldn't ride it alone, I'll just put it that way.

We were worried about getting to the game on time since we had to wait so long for the train and the shuttle, but we made it just in time to see the number retirement ceremony! If you're not a baseball fan, this is a ceremony to honor a retired player and hang their number up at the field. The number will never be worn again by a Brave. It's Chipper's forever! He was inducted into the Braves Hall of Fame earlier that day too.

It was just SO AWESOME to be there to witness this moment. Rhett has been a Chipper fan as long as he's been a baseball fan, which is a long time, so I know it was really special for him. The game went really well and the Braves came out on top! There were several good plays and some home runs to keep things interesting. This was probably my favorite major league baseball experience to date.

After the game we hopped back on the shuttle, then on the train back to Buckhead. It was nice having a crowd around so I didn't feel so vulnerable. We did see a guy get arrested at the Marta station on the way back, so that didn't do much to put me at ease. I'm probably just a wimp, but I'm used to my little North Jackson bubble :)

We woke up the next morning (early because of the stupid trash pickup) and headed to the Georgia Aquarium. This post is already pretty long, so I'm going to save the aquarium for another post. It was an AMAZING weekend! Even with the 6 hour drive there and back + horrible traffic, I loved our weekend.

Disneymoon

It's been a minute, but I realized I never posted anything about our honeymoon at Disney World! I was going through the pictures the other day, and I thought it would be fun to share them. It was hard getting good pictures of the two of us, since I don't want to hand my camera to some random stranger. Have you ever seen European Vacation? Yeah, I'm fairly certain that would happen to me...

I did buy some of the pro photos that I got taken with the Photo Pass though! Totally worth the money just to have a few cute ones of the two of us (especially with the characters).

(photo pass shot) 

Since we left at the crack of dawn, we got there in plenty of time to actually go to the park on the first day. We didn't get park hopper passes though, so we had to choose one park. Of course we chose Magic Kingdom! I feel like a giddy little girl every time I got to Disney (this was my first time at World, but I've been to Land many times). We walked around a bit, then we had to leave for dinner. 

We ate at a little restaurant in the New Orleans Riverside resort. It was connected to our resort by a little river, so we walked there along the river. It was so pretty! And the food was pretty good too. Honestly I wasn't head over heels over most of the meals, but they were definitely all good. I don't know why I was expecting really amazing food....probably the price. 

We went back to Magic Kingdom after dinner, and I convinced Rhett to stand around and wait for the fireworks with me (new husbands are nice that way). I HATE crowds, but I deal with it for this kind of thing. I just love the Disney fireworks! It's the best show...ever. 

Day 2 was Epcot. I've heard great things about Epcot, and I have to say, it didn't disappoint! We were lucky enough to be there during the Food and Wine Festival, so we got to sample some delicious food from the Argentina and Australia carts. One was a beef skewer and the other was a lamb chop. I kind of wish we'd tried some more things, but it gives us another reason to go back!

Upon a recommendation we ate the fish and chips in the London area for lunch. They were delicious! Every meal we had there was like 3 times as much food as I normally eat, so I was stuffed the entire time. Thank goodness there was a lot of walking or I would have been feeling super sluggish.
We ate in Italy for dinner at a place called Via Napoli. It was just meh...the eggplant parm was good, but not for how much it costs. The gelato wasn't near as good as the stuff I can get around here, but I loved the pistachio flavor!

DONALD! I love Donald, even though he doesn't wear pants. 

If my hair looks crazy, it's because I forgot to bring a brush. Long hair without a brush is kind of a bad combination. Animal Kingdom was pretty fun! We didn't have quite as much to do there as some of the other places, but I enjoyed the safari ride we went on.

The Animal Kingdom parade was my favorite! I loved all the floats, and we even got semi-close. 

I loved Hollywood Studios! It had two big rides, MUPPET VISION!!!!!, and my favorite restaurant that we went to. It's so small that we ran out of stuff to do, but it was still really fun.

BEST EVER. I love the Muppets. 

Free falling is the worst. I can't stand it, but I still rode Tower of Terror for Rhett. He loves it. I think I was just holding my breath the entire time.

We ate at the Sci-Fi Theatre for dinner, and it was awesome! You sit in a booth facing a big movie screen playing old Sci-Fi commercials and shorts. It was set up like a 50s drive-in. SO FUN. Definitely a cool one for kids, if you happen to be there with little ones. 

Our last day was super fun. We rode Splash Mountain, got to see Woody and I even ran into a friend of mine, Cristy. We only know each other through Twitter, so it was so cool to see her out and about. She and her partner live down there, so they go eat at the parks often. I am so jealous! I wish I could just go to Disney World whenever. 

We had a seriously great time. I really hope that we get to go there together again, maybe with another couple or something. I feel like it would be fun to go with a group of friends. 

Anyway, that's that! I hope it wasn't too boring :) I am sitting here writing this as our new puppy is taking a nap. YEP! We got a puppy! He's adorable, and his name is Chipper (after Chipper Jones). I will share some photos soon. He moves around so much that it's hard to get good ones, but I will try. 

Wedding Talk: Just Us

This is just mostly a photo post. I wanted to share some pictures of us because we're ADORABLE! Yeah, I said it...we are. You can't argue with me, because it's so true. After our first look we just took a few photos across from the farm. It was fun! I was wearing flats though so I kept tripping over my dress. When your dress is cut for you to be wearing heels, you should keep your heels on. Just FYI! I'm just glad I discovered this before walking down the aisle...because that would have been embarrassing.

You can tell when I look off to the side, my eyes are so wonky! Cover up my right eye and it looks like I'm looking off to the side...it's so weird. It has a mind of it's own.

Sorry for so many photos! I just love them, so I want to share them. If you're wondering where you can get my dress, I'm sad to tell you YOU CAN'T! Sorry that sounds mean...but really, it's true. My photographer's mom made it for me. I showed her a dress I liked, and she just whipped it right up! She's seriously amazing. She came up with the detail on the bodice since I couldn't make my mind up, and I just adore it.

I hope you all have a great weekend! I'm going to get my wisdom teeth out tomorrow, so I'll be laying in bed whining like a little baby all weekend...if I survive. I know it's irrational, but I'm just scared something terrible is going to happen to me. I'll be one of those people in those tv shows where they show freak accidents that happen during routine surgeries. AH...I'm worrying myself sick just thinking about it. I'll let you all know if I survive. If this is the last post on my blog and it's 2014, you'll know what happened.