Last Day in Paradise

On our last full day in Florida we decided to just have a chill day. We went to one last sports stadium, stopping to see where the Orlando Magic play basketball. (If you can't tell, my husband is really into sports!)As you can tell from the picture, the storm came rolling in.....the rainstorms in Florida are crazy. They hit hard and then are done. So we drove around some to kind of wait out the rain. It cleared up in a few hours and then was beautiful again. We decided to finish out the trip we would do some shopping. In all of our travels we kept driving past this huge outlet mall. Every time I would see it I would just watch it longingly. I think Miguel finally caught on. I had been saving up my birthday money so he decided to take me birthday shopping. I found the store of my dreams.......the have a Victoria's Secret Outlet!!!! Everything was at least 50% off the normal price! I was in absolute heaven. Usually I can drop $200-$300 without even trying but I walked out having only spent $88 and getting a ton of stuff!!! We then went back to our hotel to begin packing for our trip back home the next morning.

Miguel just hanging out on our balcony looking over into the airport.

Our flight left at 8:30 in the morning. It was incredibly nice staying at the airport since our flight was so early. We could sleep in later and still make our flight! We were ready to go home since the huge rainstorm the day before had brought with it cold weather....That morning the temperature was a chilly 22 degrees. (Good thing we didn't have to go outside to get to the airport!) Champ was sitting at home with Miguel's brother just waiting for us. He was more excited then I have ever seen him when we pulled in. This was the first time since we got him that his mom and dad have both left him. It was a fun trip! Get ready sister.....you are going back with us next time!

3rd Day

On Wednesday we decided that we needed to go to one of the world famous amusement parks that are in Orlando. We really weren't sure what park we wanted to go to, but decided to rule out DisneyWorld since it would be more fun to wait until we could go with neices and nephews. We decided that we were not in the mood for super scary rollercosters, so we picked Sea World. It was super beautiful weather. The amazing killer whales

The cute dolphines

The did have 1 rollercoster and it was way fun but scary.

We finished out the trip with matching suckers.

After Sea World we decided to go out shopping. The wonderful Downtown Disney shopping center was right where we had been staying so we decided to stop in. I sure do love Disney stuff and they had anything you could possibly want.....

I even got to hang out with my kind......a princess!

We were given a free hotel stay for 3 nights when we signed out mortgage so we pick a super fancy and expensive one.....right inside the Orlando Airport! It was a super nice room and a cool atmosphere.

Day Number 2

On our second day in Florida we decided to make a trip over to Tampa Bay to see some of there sports arenas. Our first stop was to the Tampa Bay Downs to see the horse races. We bet a little, but being new to the game we didn't win. It was nice and warm out though!

We then made our way over to see that stadium where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play football.

We then crossed over to bay to see where the Tampa Bay Devil Rays play baseball.

We did a lot of driving, but got to see a lot of beautiful places.

Florida or Bust!

On February 15th we left the great state of Utah for a trip to Florida! I was super excited to be going back. (For those who didn't know, I lived in Daytona Beach while going to flight attendant training back in 2004). When I asked my sweet husband what he wanted to do while we were there he replied, I want to see what you saw when you were there! Oh how sweet. We flew in late on Sunday to Orlando and just went right to the hotel to get some sleep.

The following morning we rolled out of bed about 9am got ready and headed off to see Daytona Beach, my home away from home.

The Pier almost 5 years ago........

And here it is 2009! (notice we are on the other side)

Welcome to Daytona Beach!

We visited the famous International Speedway 1 day after the fabulous Daytona 500 race.

We tried to go to the beach but it was WAY to0 windy to get in the water and it was only about 68 degrees that day.
We finished off our day in Daytona doing a little souvenir shopping.

After Daytona we drove south to see Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. By the time we got there it was way too dark to get any good pictures. :(

Champ

Some of you may not know how my sweet puppy got his name. Our favorite football team is the Denver Broncos. They have an awesome corner back whose name just happens to be Champ Bailey. (I think Champ is actually the nickname his dad gave him when he was super young.) So since Champ is my favorite player, and it just is an awesome name, it was perfect for our sweet boy. Of course Miguel and I both have Broncos jerseys that we wear during the season, but why leave Champ out!

And he looks super cute strutting around too!

He sure does love his mom!

February 5th

On February 5th I turned 24! Man I am getting old. I remember when birthdays were so exciting and I couldn't wait for the day.... but now all I can think is "do I really have to keep getting older?" My husband and I had the day before my birthday off, so we spent the afternoon at the mall picking out birthday clothes! Because of responsibilities at my job, I didn't get to take my birthday off like I would have liked to. I am the inventory manager for the store that I work at and had to get a shipment out. At about 9:30am my boss came in to my office and said..."It is your birthday!! I am taking you out to lunch." Wow! How nice of him! Now, since both of us are on a no fast food kick, we had to do sub sandwiches. (we decided not to rule out sandwiches since they aren't caked in grease and hey, Jared lost weight just eating Subway!) I also spent the day entertaining a corporate inventory analyst that does surprise visits to make sure we are following processes. I honestly thought my day was ruined when he showed up, but we passed with flying colors!! After work I met with my family to go out to dinner. The day was fabulous!

The Last 2 Months

So Christmas came and went. We actually had a very nice time, other then the horrible snow storm we had to drive through to get to our destination. New Years came and went. You will never guess how we rang in the new year......totally asleep! (wow it is hard to get old). Other then that my life has consisted of working. In retail, December is the busiest time of the year, so I began to feel like I did nothing but work. As a New Years resolution, a couple people at work decided to cut out fast food and soda. Mostly to try to not get fatter, but also to help save money. I decided to jump on the wagon so the last time I ate fast food or drank a soda was January 8th. I can really say I am seeing the savings! I also feel a lot better. We are shooting to go a whole year before we introduce fast food.....I should be able to hold out!