Disney Cruisin'

Welcome to the Disney Dream.

our beautiful ship!

So this past Christmas Matthew's grandparents surprised us with a Disney Cruise for the whole family. They had us all open up the booklet about it and we all flipped out. It was a complete miracle that we worked it out that everyone could fit it into their schedule at the same time. So we booked July 1st through 5th. So after long awaiting our wedding and Hawaii we were pretty good at being patient. But I must say, it was completely worth the wait :)

On Thursday the Watford's came through Auburn and picked us up... next 5 hours to Jacksonville. We had a great night of hanging out with Meaghan and Brandon (thanks for being such good hosts!) The next morning we were up early and ready to head to Cape Canaveral where we would ship off around 4 o'clock! Luckily we got all checked in and got to board around 12:30 :)

Goofy greeted us!

Right away we went straight for the food, YUM :) We got settled in our rooms, explored the ship, had a lovely dinner at The Enchanted Garden, and enjoyed the AWESOME show The Golden Mickey's! It was a GREAT first day!

With the girls before dinner!

Saturday we enjoyed a little shopping in the Bahamas and then fun stuff on the boat! We first waited in line for the AquaDuck a water roller coaster (the first ever on a cruise ship!) It was way to short but super fun (we took video on the coaster, please excuse our silly screams and exclamations! haha) Enjoyed some fun Goofy putt-putt and had another great dinner... this time at the Royal Palace! The show for the night was Villains Tonight! The shows were always a favorite for the day!

docked in the Bahamas, ready to shop!

we got to meet Lilo right before riding the AquaDuck!

SO FUN !!

after dinner with the family!

So come to find out I loved most of my pictures from the first half of the trip. Anyways the next day was spent at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay! We had fun relaxing on the beach, floating in the ocean, and enjoying yummy food! A rain shower sent us back to the ship early and we enjoyed some chill time (and lots of chicken fingers!! I couldn't get enough! haha!) Went to dinner at Animator's Palette and celebrated Pirate Night with fireworks, a show, and a dance party!

The last day was 4th of July and we spent it at sea and we enjoyed lounging on the boat all day! It was great, great, great! The whole trip was wonderful and I am incredibly blessed to be able to spend such great quality time with my NEW family :) Thanks Nan and Daddy Butch!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies.

Two words: Simply. Delicious.

Well along with every other girl I know... I am now obsessed with Pinterest :) Besides loving almost every crafty house idea, I'm in love with how it connects me with a million recipes instantly. And even better than that, I get to judge them simply by how they look. YUM. So this afternoon I was casually browsing through Pinterest when I come across these delicious looking cookies. Three clicks more and I find out that I HAVE all the ingredients needed. Wow! That never happens!! Well if you know my husband, you know he loves some chocolate and peanut butter. Not only is it a "surprise" cookie... but it was a surprise dessert :)

Here's some photo's to take you through the process...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies (found on Pinterest, originally from Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen)

Birthdays.

In the Thaxton family birthdays are celebrated all out! But, I am now a Watford and have had to do some adjusting. :) One fun thing we have as a couple is having close birthdays. I probably enjoy it more than Matthew.

For my birthday I, of course, extended it for a "birthday weekend!" The Saturday before the big day we met my fam in Birmingham for a birthday dinner and super fun trip to the Vulcan!

Sunday night Matthew took me to Amsterdam Cafe for a yummy dinner. We had planned to go see Something Borrowed but the website had it wrong so we missed the last showing for the night... I was slightly disappointed! Instead we rented Life as We Know It, and it was goood!

So then on my actual birthday, the 30th (which happened to be Memorial Day so everyone was off of work and school!) Matthew brought me some chickfila for breakfast! Later we hung out with some sunday school friends at Blake and Katherine's. That night we went to Niffer's with some friends and then played some dancing on the Kinect!

Next up... Matthew's birthday!! We got a little pre-celebration while we were at the beach this past weekend. Mom and Dad let him loose in the Under Armour outlet and he came out with a new pair of shoes and shorts! He was a happy boy :) We went to The Crab Trap before heading out on Sunday so Matthew got a little birthday cake there!

Unfortunately we had to work/school on his big day. Of course I wanted to try and make it as special as I could! So me and my kiddos worked hard to make some orange and blue cupcakes and took them up to his work to surprise him!

When he FINALLY got home from work Matthew opened his present. :) I gave him an Apple wireless keyboard. He sure does love his gadgets! For dinner we went to Matthews favorite restaurant, Olive Garden, or lovingly referred to as the O.G. We weren't doing dessert there so this is what the waitress brought out! How clever is she :) Little did she know he loves those things!

After we headed to Mammaws for some dessert! I made Matthews favorite chocolate pie and Mammaw had made Blackberry cobbler. Little to say we didn't leave hungry. YUM.

So that is all of our fun birthday fun. We're now 1 year older and wiser ready to take on life as a 22 and 21 year old :)

Hawaiian Honeymoon.

What a wonderful trip!

Basically everything was perfect... From all the wonderful food and sites to the great rest we got after a busy wedding season!

After traveling straight up across the country, and an ocean we landed in Honolulu, Hawaii at 9:30pm their time... Sowe felt like it was 2:30am. We liked the time change though, it got us to bed early and up early. It was a nice change:)

Day 1
We went to a free breakfast through our traveling agent and got to sign up for some later tours/events. Lunch at BurgerKing... This is when we figured out that everything in Hawaii is so so so expensive! After some shopping and a little time on the beach we went out to Atlantis Steak and Seafood for our first dinner in Hawaii!

Day 2
Skipped breakfast and headed straight for Diamond Head! We really enjoyed the hike, view, and especially the shaved ice after! We feel like it may be better then SnoBiz! After that fun, HOT morning we had togofor beach/swim pool time! Finally got some underwater camera action :) Then that nightwasthe big Luau!! It was yummy food, a good show, and a great night!

Day 3
We woke up early and headed for TheBus (public transportation) and started our longggg journey to the Dole Plantation! So the journey to get there wasn't so bad but what followed was... To make a long story short we ended up taking the bus around the whole island enduring a full bus of high school kids, freezing air conditioning, and many many bus stops! When we finally got back we decided to dodinner somewhere close. We went to PF Changs (We're not the most adventurous eaters!)

Day 4
This was our eating day... Seems like everything we did had to do with food! Haha! First we went to a popular local breakfast place called Eggs N Things! It was super delicious! For lunch we decided to head to another local place we had seen on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives called Rainbow Drive-in! They had the local "plate lunches" and I got a mahimahi one... It was yummy! It was almost a mile and a half walk to get there. Yay, exercise! Some more beach time and then some Cheesecake Factory for dinner... We LOVE food.

Day 5
Leaving day! Early early went on a tour to Pearl Harbor/USS Arizona Memorial and around the city! When we got back we had to go straight and check out but then had a tonnnn of time before we had to leave for the airport! So then we ate lunch and wondered around for a long time! Finally we found a little Hawaiian/Japanese show that was good! Then it was off to the airport to head home. Our flight left at 10:30pm so we flew through the night and lost lots of time! When we finally got back to San Francisco we headed to Atlanta where we had a four hour layover :(ughhhh! Come to find out when we got back to Huntsville Nick Fairleywason our flight! Such an awesome end to a WONDERFUL honeymoon

05.07.11

The most wonderful day.

The day I got to marry the love of my life and best friend.

I'm.So.Blessed.

The whole weekend was, in my eyes, absolutely perfect.

Friday is a blur (who am I kidding, so was Saturday). We had the bridesmaid's lunch which was all that I hoped it would be!

Later that night we had the rehearsal and dinner. Everything went smooth at the church and then lots of (happy) tears at the dinner. Oh those Watfords.

Spent the night with the girls at the hotel and got plenty of rest. Well, maybe I was a little sleepless. Woke up got that hair did, makeup done, snuck some chickfila, and got ready for pictures.

Had my sneak peek with Matthew and got on with some pictures. Now off to the wedding. Well we definitely didn't get all the tears out on Friday so we thought we would share them with everyone in attendance. (Sorry about that!) Yep, we both cried the whole way through. Once I finally made it through my vows we were practically done and walking out of the church to Lady A's "Love's Lookin' Good on You" :) Everything (well except maybe the tears) went exactly how I had pictured in my head for the ceremony. Next, reception time. Made it through the first dance and father/daughter and off to the cake cutting. Followed by lots of talking, dancing, and so much fun :)

Then off we go to Hawaii :) (a post to come about that!)

Thanks to everyone who has supported us :) And a BIG thanks to those who came to the wedding! Love yall!

Wedding Week.

Today is Monday, I'm getting married THIS Saturday. I can't believe it's almost here!! But I'm beyond excited!!

It's been a wonderful wedding season which makes me look forward to an even more wonderful MARRIED season of my life! I was blessed with many sweet friends who honored me with parties and teas!

Thanks to Mrs. Hladky, Maci, Mrs. Bruton, Leslie, Mrs. Bradshaw, Mrs. Bagwell, and Heather for throwing me a Bridal Tea in Huntsville! It was wonderful :)

Thanks to many many sweet ladies that love Matthew for throwing me a Bridal Tea in Birmingham! It was so great to meet many of Matthew's family friends!

Thanks to Jeanna, Katherine, Elizabeth and Robyn for throwing us our "Couple's Shower" in Auburn!! It was so much fun!!

Thanks to Elizabeth McFarling for coordinating a fun relaxing night/day at the lake! It was so great to soak up some girl time and enjoy the wonderful weather!

Thanks to Elizabeth M and Paige for hosting my lingerie shower. It was exactly what I had hoped for... lots of fun and just a little awkward! :)

I told you I was super blessed :)

Well everything was going quite smoothly and I thought we may get through this wedding without any bumps. paaaaalease. I don't think that happens. So on Wednesday a bunch of crazy, vicious tornados decided to come through my beautiful state and mess some of it up. Tuscaloosa suffered through the worst of it with a F5 tornado destroying a lot of their city and suburbs... thankfully no damage to dorms holding lots of college students. Well, Ttown wasn't the only place that got hit. Harvest, Al did as well. And when they got hit the whole power plant got knocked out. So, ALL of Madison County was out of power. Instead of me heading to Madison on Friday it turned out mom, Wade, Amy, and Tatum headed towards Auburn on Thursday. After suffering through the anxiety of having our wedding with no power (definitely do-able, just not ideal!) looks like the power is starting to be restored. Wade and Amy have power, the church has power, the reception site has power. We are making progress :) Planning to head home tomorrow.

I never would have thought my wedding week would be like this... definitely memorable :)

Countdown.

I must say it's absolutely ridiculous how long it's been since I last blogged. Wow.

So, the countdown is on! It's only 28 days till I marry the man of my dreams, my best friend! Well for me... it's been pretty fun and quick! UNTIL this week. It's been miserable... can time move any slower?! I think it's mostly because Matthew comes back to AU next weekend. Ah, I've got to hold on till then at least.

So I made something for Matthew to speed time along:

(stole this wonderful idea from my sweet sister-in-law Katherine!)

I think it's working for him. Well it probably helps that he works all the time! Oh well!

Okay now to the fun update. So I had my bridal pictures last weekend, and I so wish I could give you a sneak peak. But you just never know when Matthew will snoop around :( But I loved how my hair and makeup turned out! What a relief! Looking forward to the couple's shower in Auburn this upcoming weekend and then later a night at the lake with the girls!

Can't wait till May 7th!