Cinco de weekend.

Yes, my Cinco de Mayo weekend was crazy and full of partying.

If you consider going to Disneyland with your family for the weekend partying, like I do.

I came home with a pretty bad "hangover," too.
(ahem, hangover meaning being really really ridiculously tired from walking around all stinkin day.) 

So that makes it legit, right?

This weekend, Kendall and I drove to Anaheim, California, to visit my family who drove down from Washington to go to Disneyland!

This was the first time Kendall was going to meet my family that lives there.

It was so much fun to spend the day in my favorite place with all my favorite people, especially my little brother who has autism. 

It was a hard day for him, but he made the best of it and really warmed up to Kendall.

So I consider it a successful weekend, full of happiness, Dr. Pepper, and churros.

How was your Cinco de Mayo?

Deets on Disney.

Well hi there bloggers and bloggettes!

It's been a while since I've been on here, but we're all back and happy from Disneyland. Seriously I love that place more than anything in the world. I wish we could have stayed forever.

I'd sleep in a trashcan if it said Disneyland on it. Seriously.

Anyways, these are just some of our adventures from that beautiful day!

Picture overload! You know how I do.

All I know is, I can't wait to come back to this magical land!

After I leave the horrible land of school books and homework.

How are your guys' first weeks of school going?

Hello, Penny.

Something beautiful happened this weekend.

That's right! After a long, hard, heartbreaking (RIP, Sven!) day at the dealership, I finally got my car. My beautiful, wonderful, fuel-efficient car!

The 2011 Chevy Cruze.

In lieu of her model, her name is Penelope Cruze, Penny for short.

I wish I could live in my car. Not really, because I like my bed and I'm pretty sure being homeless would be no bueno. But I want to drive her everywhere and show her off and buy her gifts...sorry, I got a little carried away there!

When I get inside, I feel like I'm in Disneyland.

{especially at night when she looks like Space Mountain}

I still feel like I'm in a dream.

What is your dream car?

No spring skips its turn

Long time, no blog!

That's ok though, because I was having way more fun in California with my best friends than blogging. 

But now that I'm out of Fantasyland (and Adventureland, and Toontown..) and back to Mesaland, I'm so excited to share my week with you guys!

Me, Jake, Justin, and my best friend Katie had an amazing adventure in California for Spring Break this week. Since me and Kater both lovelovelove blogging, we had to come up with a way for our readers to NOT hear the same story twice.

And this is what we came up with:

Spring Break: Top Favie Pictures

1. This is my best friend, Katie. This is us waiting for Justin to come out of his house so we can get our roadtrip on! We drove alllllll the way to Mission Beach listening to country and talking about girly girl things. Best. Roadtrip. Ever.

2. Justin sleeping in the back of the Jeep and missing all the fun.. What an idiot, right? If I could have left him on the side of the road, I would have. But then Katie wouldn't have anyone to sit next to on Space Mountain. So we kept him.

3. My awesome bib at Joe's Crab Shack. First of all, who decided it was a good idea for me to wait 20 years of my life NEVER going to Joe's? Someone rude, that's who. It was so delicious and the perfect meal after a fun day on Mission Beach. And yes, I'm trying to rock the top knot. :)

4. Also a Mission Beach picture. Jake and I just watching the water, being cute as usual. We thought it would be fun to take "candid" pictures as the sun was setting. NBD.

5. I love being at Oceanside Beach with my best friend. We have been coming to this beach together since 7th grade when we realized that our families were on the same beach at the same time (coincidence? I think not). And I did her loose wavy curls, because I'm a boss like that. We tanned all the day long and talked about tankinis. I totally bought one this weekend and I'm so excited to get it in the mail!

6. You know that commercial where that girl is reading her Kindle in the sun and there is that guy next to you trying to read his lametown iPad? Well the rumors are true! You can see the Kindle in the sun. And it is glorious. Basically, me and Katie spent all day reading and tanning on the beach. Because that's how we roll.

7. Katie was kind enough to take pictures of Jake and I frolicking on the beach. This one was  my favorite, mostly because it was the only one that didn't look like Jake was trying to throw me in the freezing cold salt water with my cute shirt on.. Typical boyfriend status.

8. In Disneyland, they have these cute little pins that will help you proclaim exactly what you're celebrating that day or week or whatever. Me and Jake got these pins because it was our anniversary weekend! When Katie and I were buying something at the Tower of Terror shop, the man at the desk asked me about my pin. I told him that my boyfriend and I had been dating for 4 years. He thought it would be funny to give me a "Just engaged!" pin, and write "I'm waiting!" on it as a "hint" to Jake. Then he gave Katie one that said "I'm waiting for my best friend to be Just Married!"

It made us LOL.

9. I'll have to admit this out loud, once and for all. I'm obsessed with Mickey shaped foods. I'm fascinated with them. I still don't understand how they made the Mickey shaped pretzel so perfect. These icecreams were perfection and made our tummies so happy after a rough ride on California Screamin'.

10. I love the new theme at Disneyland (or isneylan, according to this picture). I never really liked the Celebrate! stuff, and this is more classy and magical to me. I also love the way I edited this picture so you can kind of see us. And how frumpy I looked because I forgot a sweater so had to wear an Indiana Jones sweater over a skirt. HOT.

11. Our Disneyland tradition, clam chowder soup bowl in New Orleans Square. I really can't describe the party my mouth experiences when I eat this delicious meal when my feet are aching and my heart has exploded from joy. If you don't eat this when you go to Disneyland, you're seriously missing out.

12. Another Disneyland tradition is going on Space mountain last, because you always want to end the day zooming through space at hyper speed in the front row, right? Right. I also like to sacrifice sitting next to Jake on this ride to sit next to Katie since it's our favorite ride.

13. Last but not least in California, we went to my favorite restaurant, Ruby's. Oh my delicious. It has yummy shakes and burgers, and a beautiful view of the ocean because it is perched right on the end of the Oceanside pier.

14. These are the mugs that Jake and I made at As You Wish for our anniversary. I can't wait until they're done! They both turned out really good, if I do say so myself. We had an amazing anniversary, Jake bought me flowers, we went to the Air Force Air Show in the morning, then went to As You Wish before we finished our night at the Salt Cellar (our "place") in Scottsdale. If you have not been, find yourself a rich man or woman and force them to take you on a fancy date there.

It is to die for.

My Spring Break was so amazing, I hope that all my friends had just as wonderful a time as I did!

Do your homework tonight, and have a good week back at school, my friends!

For Katie's version of our trip, go here. :)

*quote by Hal Borland.

It only takes a moment...

for spring break to be over and you have to go back to your horrible 8 classes and being scared of failing everything.. so I'm going to make the best of this break!
So far, my spring break has been so great!
 It started out Friday with having Friday Best Friend Time. Katie came over and listened to me and Jake bicker over a test that we had to take for one of our online classes, then Katie and I went on a wild goose chase to find the camera repair shop since my camera decided to jump off my table and break it's face. True story. We were going all fine and dandy when my navigation suddenly went crazy, and took me over 20 minutes out of the way! We got at the place at 5:03... and OF COURSE it closed at 5.
 I'm not supposed to have a camera, I guess!

After that craziness, we went to the mall to get my bridesmaid's dress for my good friend Krista's wedding, then did a little shopping at Forever before we had to meet Amber, Jessica, and Lauren at Hale Theater.
We met up with our friends to see Hello Dolly! which Amber's boyfriend is a lead in!

via

It was so cute! I wish that we still wore those cute southern bell dresses and had social norms, like in Gone with the Wind! It would be perfect.
{ btw, that isn't Amber's boyfriend ;) }

After the show, we were walking back to my car to drive to wherever we were going to eat, and Katie's eyes landed upon one of the most beautiful sites of all time. A princess carriage. We decided to be daredevils and take pictures on it before anyone came out and noticed!

After we got done climbing all over this beauty, Amber's boyfriend called:
Thomas: "Hey, where are you guys?"
Amber: "Outside by the carriage! We decided to go to Applebee's!"
Thomas: "Awesome! Don't touch the carriage!"
Amber: "Umm..."
Then our fairy god mother conjured up a horse and we drove the carriage to Applebee's. 
And by that I mean we took my jeep. It's so fun to just hang out with friends and eat! I didn't stop laughing the whole time we were there.

Yesterday, Jake and I hung out most of the day! He pretty much had to, because he was leaving for San Diego in the morning and I would miss him oh so much! We watched TV for a while, then we went to Oregano's with my dad! I sure do love Oregano's. Even if we have to wait 45 minutes to be seated! We had so much fun and ate too much food.

Today I worked with my little Olivia. She's so sweet and loves when I sing to her. She makes me so excited to be a music therapist.
 After work I came home and practiced some music and watched Sister Wives. I don't care what anyone says, I like that show! It made me want to watch Big Love (and I LOVE that Gigi from He's just not that into you is on that show) but it's not on Netflix. Sad day!
This is a really good start to spring break. I can't wait for Oceanside and Disneyland this week with my best friends!

I'm off to church. Happy Sunday!!
It only takes a moment, to be loved a whole life long.

*Quotes from Hello Dolly.

It is a thing that can hardly exist in the practical North.

Happy Fat Tuesday everyone!

Oh how I love the South, and how I wished I lived in New Orleans. My love for New Orleans grows the more and more I learn about it. It all started in Disneyland...

via Jeff Keller

When I was a weee child, Haunted Mansion (which is in New Orleans Square) was my absolute favorite ride. When we went back my senior year in high school, I fell in love with the architecture of this little part of Disney.

When Jake and I went to Disneyland together for Halloween in 2009, we had a few small miracles happen. Not only did we think it was the cutest thing ever that our room number at our hotel was 319 (our anniversary), we decided one night that we wanted to eat at Disneyland's one nice restaurant, The Blue Bayou. We trudged our tired feet over there around 4 o'clock to make reservations and...they were booked! We were so sad. Then a nice lady came up to us, apologized for eavesdropping, and told us that her date cancelled on her, and she believed that someone should be able to enjoy her reservations even if she couldn't.

Miracles happen!

This was our first taste of New Orleans food! And it was delish. I ended up adding gumbo permanently to my recipe box.

After that, Jake and I sat outside and watched the rest of Fantasmic. Following the show, real live jazz bands began playing around the Square. Oh my goodness, I was in love. New Orleans Jazz is everything that I love about life. It's vibrant and playful and silly and can be soothing. I wish I could play an instrument that could be in a Jazz band!

Not long after that, my second favorite Disney princess movie of all time came out.

via Disney

Jazz, Jazz, Jazz!

This movie just increased my desire to be a part of New Orleans culture. If only!

And today, my friends in New Orleans are celebrating Fat Tuesday with Mardi Gras! I wish I could be there. Not to get beads, but to see the tradition! Also, because while I'm there I'm getting married here:

It looks like the Disneyland castle. Except prettier. And a church. And beautiful! No big deal.

Anyways...

In honor of Mardi Gras, since I cannot really be there as much as I'd love to be, I'll settle for this.

via

Srsly, my favorite restaurant of all time. It's delicious, nutritious, and New Orleans style! I only said nutritious because it rhymed. Don't hate. Srsly again, if you haven't had this place yet, go tonight. Celebrate Mardi Gras (even if you're not Catholic!). Be adventurous. Eat the Mardi Gras Chicken. That's what I'll be eating.

Mmm!

For the soul of it is romantic, not the funny and the grotesque. Take away the romantic mysteries, the kings and knights and big-sounding titles, Mardi Gras would die, down there in the South.

*Quote from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain.