Here and gone

All traces of the holidays have left the building (literally and figuratively). We took down the decorations Monday night and it was back to the grind yesterday. I really can’t complain though, since our time off was well spent with friends, family and a healthy dose of date nights!

Here are some highlights:

Had my first red cup of the season.


Saw Young Adult and loved it. Charlize Theron was perfect for the role.


Discovered a new Pinot Noir that I like.

Went on a beautiful birthday celebration/double date night with Kristen and Sean at Longwood Gardens and Dilworthtown Inn.

Kristen and I at Longwood Gardens. Here is a full recap of the night.

Got 1 mani and painted my nails 2 more times.

Zoya Shay w/Sally Hansen Gem Crush in Big Money as an accent nail
Venique in B-Ceen-B-Gorgeous w/Venique in Twinkling Glitter as an accent nail


Revlon Scene Stealer

Had a fun shopping day in Delaware with my mom and got Red Robin…yum!

Went to WWE Raw with Geof (since he's taken me to see Britney and Lady Gaga). I’d be lying if I said I wasn't a little interested in the storylines. We went to Denny’s afterwards and some of the wrestlers showed up.

Geof and I at the Wells Fargo Center, me with The Miz and Zack Ryder, Geof with Nikki Bella and me with Dolph Ziggler

Watched Elf for the first time ever.


Drove around and looked at pretty Christmas lights.

Saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Besides a few differences from the book, I thought the movie was done really well.


Finally saw Love and Other Drugs (first half – good, second half – depressing).


Went down to the city to have lunch at Reading Terminal Market and then went to Macy’s to see the light show. It’s also where the movie Mannequin was filmed!




Baked lots of Christmas goodies.

Spent Christmas Eve at home with my mom and Geof.


Spent Christmas Day at my cousin Bill & Lara’s house with the entire family. I had such a blast with all of my cousins.

Me with two out of the three triplets on Christmas

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are gearing up for the new year!

A lovely night at Longwood

On Saturday night, we celebrated my friend Kristen’s birthday at Longwood Gardens and finished the evening with dinner at the historic Dilworthtown Inn. The night was all about Kristen, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it brought back memories of the night Geof proposed almost 5 years ago.


Geof and I at Longwood Gardens


Beautiful Christmas Tree


Pretty display inside the conservatory

Longwood Gardens is truly a magical place during the holiday season and photos don’t come close to doing it justice. I remember driving through the area as a child and seeing all of the beautiful lights begging my dad to take me there. As an adult, I enjoy it even more and truly appreciate all the work that goes into making it so special.


Kristen and I

We walked around the outdoor gardens to take in the pretty lights and finally made it to the conservatory to see all of the exhibits. The hybrid tea roses were a real standout and I also really loved the Bonsai display. Most of the trees were over 100 years old or close to it. To end the evening, we caught the fountain show and then headed off to dinner at Dilworthtown.


We went and found the bench where Geof proposed


Tea roses


Fountain Show

Dilworthtown Inn is my favorite place to dine. The history, ambiance, service and food set it apart from any other place I’ve been. The restaurant dates back to the late 1700’s and it’s located off the beaten path. You really feel like you’re away from the rest of the world when you go there. The restaurant has a total of three floors and fifteen different rooms. Every visit is a different experience and I’ve never been in the same room twice. We enjoyed a fabulous meal and it was great to share a new memory with Kristen and Sean.


Dilworthtown Inn


Us at the Inn with Santa (we all thought Santa was playing air guitar)

Happy Birthday, Kristen! I hope you had as much fun as we did.

I'm THANKful for the special people in my life!

It’s Day 8 of the Plenty To Be Thankful For Blog Challenge & Swap



Today’s topic is the special people in my life

This is an easy topic and I’m sure anyone that knows me can guess my answers. To make it a little more fun, I’m going to give you 5 reasons why I’m so THANKful for each person I’m lucky enough to have in my life.

Geof
1. He lets me warm my cold feet on his legs every night.
2. Gives the best hugs and makes me feel loved.
3. Tells me I’m beautiful at least once a day with or without makeup.
4. Gets me like no one else and always has my back.
5. Makes the best tacos of anyone I know.



Mom
1. One of the best shopping partners out there.
2. Loves Lady Gaga, just like her daughter.
3. Strong, independent and smart.
4. Doesn’t care what others think (if only I could be more like that).
5. Giving. She will drop everything to help her family and friends.



Kristen
1. Can make me laugh on even the worst of days. I’m laughing in my head as I type this at some of the things she comes up with.
2. Doesn’t know how to have a bad time.
3. Will listen to me be ridiculous and tell me I’m being ridiculous.
4. Her dedication. When she says she’s going to do something, she does it.
5. Is as pretty as she is smart and as good a cook as she is crafty.



Colleen
1. Beautiful inside and out. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t like her.
2. One of the hardest working people I know and so intelligent.
3. The best listener on planet earth.
4. One of those friends you can go weeks without talking to and pick up right where you left off.
5. Has never judged me or made me feel like less of a person.



Amy & Chad
1. My favorite couple and as awesome as they come.
2. Made my past few vacations some of the best ever.
3. Their mutual love for good music.
4. They’re adventurous. They will just pick up and GO!
5. The four of us get along like peas and carrots.



YOU!
1. Keep me sane some days.
2. Give me a place to ramble and leave me sweet comments that make me smile.
3. I truly love reading about your happiness and joys in life.
4. You inspire me to do more.
5. Where else would I have learned to cook new things, try a new craft and HAVE to have a new nail polish because someone blogged it?!

There you have it! I believe friendships come in quality and not quantity. I have a few special people in my life that I don’t know what I’d do without. For that, I’m very thankful.

Source: jellybeanjunkyard.wordpress.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

VH1 Best Cruise Ever 2 – Day 2

We slept in until 11 and headed out of our cabin for a fun day at sea! We started the day off with some lunch and then went down to the Serenity Deck to relax and look at the beautiful ocean for awhile. We also took a walk down the Promenade Deck and ran into Pat Monahan from Train. He was very nice and it was great to chat with him for a bit. From there, we went up to Lido Deck and met up with Tracy and Steph for some sun and fun. The four of tackled the awesome water slide a few times.


Starting the day off with a margarita!


Time to tackle the slides!


Us with Pat Monahan from Train

Deck of Jack was playing on the Promenade Deck at the Violin Bar, so we made sure to get there early for that. Jim Shearer from the Vh1 Top 20 Countdown is the lead singer of the band and they are absolutely hysterical. There are no words to describe how hard they had us all laughing. They sing about everything from Turtle Wax to Apollo Creed. We were there with our “Wolfpack”(me, Geof, Chad, Amy, Steph & Tracy) and had a blast.


Jim Shearer with his band Deck of Jack

From there, we went to plan our land excursion and then had dinner with Steph and Tracy in the Mardi Gras dining room. After dinner, we went to our cabin to get ready for the evening.

We met everyone up in the Paris Lounge for SafetySuit and Lifehouse. Both shows did not disappoint and we all had a blast. From the concerts we went up to the Candlelight Lounge for Karaoke. People sang some really random songs. It was fun to see though.


Geof & Chad ready to rock


The ladies


Jason from Lifehouse


Us at Karaoke

To cap the night off, we all went for a midnight snack at the buffet and ran into John from SafetySuit. He chatted with us for awhile and then J from SafetySuit came along and we said a quick hello to him too. We all hung out for awhile longer enjoying some late night laughs and shenanigans. By the end of the night, I officially lost most of my voice.


This pic says it all!

VH1 Best Cruise Ever 2 – Day 1

Hello my lovely blog friends! I’m back from vacation, unpacked and ready to relive the memories through some recaps. I’m hoping this doesn’t bore you to tears, but I always like to relive my vacations through my blog. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone back to read old posts and remember the fun times.

On Thursday, we flew to Tampa and were very worried we wouldn’t get out of here due to some nasty weather headed straight for Philadelphia. Once we were in the air, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. We landed safely in Tampa and shared a cab to the port with two fellow cruisers from Boston that we saw several times on the ship. Great guys!

The second we walked on the Inspiration, we were met with smiles from good friends Amy and Chad that we met on the cruise last year. We’ve keep in touch with them ever since and I was super excited to see them.


Us with Chad and Amy

We all went and had some lunch at the buffet and then headed down to our cabins to get settled in. Lifehouse rocked us out to sea on the Lido Deck and we went to check it out with Amy and Chad. After that, we listened to Crowfield for a little bit play in the Atrium.


I missed those towel animals


Lifehouse rocking us out to sea

We went to the Carnivale Dining Room for dinner and loved our server and host. I asked them if they love these types of cruises, since they don’t have to dance around the dining room and they said I just read their minds because they hate that. It made me laugh…a lot. After going on the Vh1 cruises, I could never go back to a regular one.

After dinner, we went back to our cabin to get ready for the night. We met up with Amy, Chad, Tracy and Steph in the Candlelight Lounge for the SafetySuit show. This was one of the best shows on the cruise and we had a blast. We got to hear 4 new songs off of SafetySuit’s upcoming album and the mood in the audience was awesome. We saw Tate, Dave and Chico from SafetySuit after the show and talked to them for a bit.


Amy and I


Tracy, me & Steph


One of our many self-portraits


Doug from SafetySuit

From SafetySuit, we headed up to the Lido Deck to catch the rest of The Script show and ran into our buddy Jim Shearer from the VH1 Top 20 Countdown. He is awesome, but more on that later. We also got to meet Danny from The Script and he was very nice.


Us with Jim Shearer


The Script


Us with Danny from The Script

To cap off the night, we got some late night pizza with Chad and Amy and then headed back to the Candlelight Lounge to see the Yacht Rock Revue. They were awesome and played hits from the 70’s and 80’s. They’re actually pretty talented and never stayed out of their retro characters the entire cruise. We took a late night stroll of the Promenade, hit the club/disco for a bit and called it a night.


Us with the Yacht Rock Revue