Goal Horn

Some people have strange goals in life. Some people keep their strange goals private, and some people go out and make them happen. I have made one of mine happen (with help from some awesome people named Graham).

...Many moons ago, a young lad purchased season tickets to the Nashville Predators hockey club with a few of his friends. His eye lit up, like every fans did, each time the burned biscuit crossed into the red basket, but he was struck particularly by the train horn that went off and liked to rupture ear drums arena wide. As Doc Emrick would say, WHAT MARVELOUS CHAOS! OH MY!...

In football, people just cheer when the home team scores. In basketball, there is perhaps a few yips of joy when a bucket is made, but in hockey, the entire arena immediately knows that one of the most exciting, heart pounding moments in the Wide World of Sports just happened.

So, all that to say, I love goal horns. I can identify almost every single NHL team by their goal horn, and I have a mental ranking of each one in my head. 

So, naturally, I wanted to actually hit a goal horn myself. I thought that maybe installing one in my car would be a solution since Tennessee drivers rank among some of the worst in the country and I could justify it doubly, but that is quite a task (it's still going to happen; I just need the air compressor!) So, instead, I met up with someone from church who works at the local hockey team, the Mississippi RiverKings and asked him if he could help me get to hit the horn for them sometime. AND LAST SUNDAY NIGHT, IT HAPPENED.

Was it all that I had hoped and dreamed for? You're darn straight, it was. Top Ten events in my life. Enjoy.

2016 Beach Bucket List

Hey there! Later this month, Nathan and I will be going to the beach for the first time in 2 years, so we decided to put together a Bucket List to build anticipation! Enjoy!

Check out our other bucket lists, also!

Our Second Anniversary Trip

This year, for our anniversary, we went to Hot Springs, Arkansas. We had not accrued a ton of vacation days at work, so we decided to take a mini-trip since we only had a few days available.

Hot Springs, Arkansas is known for none other than it's natural hot springs! Located in Ouachita Mountains, Hot Springs National Park is the oldest federal reserve in the United States! This was a great addition to our collection of stamps in the National Parks Passport Program.

The park is literally a mountain plus the adjoining roadside which houses many spas and bathhouses, called Bathhouse Row. You can go take a bath in the natural hot water, or get a massage, or other spa things. We did not participate in taking a bath, but I did feel the water in several fountains on the mountain side. The signs stated 143 degrees Fahrenheit! Wowzer.

Nicknamed "Spa City," we learned that Hot Springs was once a frequented vacation spot for many gangsters! We visited the Gangster Museum of America which told of the history and influence that gangsters had on Hot Springs. We ate at The historic Ohio Club and listened to live music. Who knows, had we visited 80 years earlier we could've dined with Al Capone, himself!

Lastly, we went to Magic Springs and Crystal Falls Water & Theme Park. No historic value, but lots of fun value. [Great sentence I just wrote right there....]

Check out our YouTube video of our trip by clicking here.

Or read our other blog posts about previous vacations:

Disney World

Fall Creek Falls, TN State Park

Ashville, NC

Chicago, IL

Smoky Mountains, TN

Charleston, SC

This Christmas!

As you know, we created a 2015 Christmas Bucket List. Well, there's only a few days left before Christmas, so I figured that I would post an update before this get super hectic. Here's a link to our Christmas Bucket List.

Kiss Under the Mistletoe. I'm so happy and blessed to have Nathan to spend my Christmases with. 

Look at the Lights at the Opryland Hotel. I have been to the Opryland Hotel before, and have even been there around Christmas (The first time I'd been there at all was with Nathan, if you can believe that), but I'd never walked around and looked at the outside lights. This year, we wanted to do this together.

Make Christmas Candy. Last year, I made Christmas cookies and candy for our Christmas Party, but this year, when we realized we were not going to be able to host a Christmas Party, I just decided to randomly make the goodies. 

Go See the Dancing Lights. Last year, we discovered the Dancing Lights of Christmas at Jellystone Park in Nashville. The ad recommends bringing your pets, so last year, we brought Koba, and he actually seemed to like it. This year, we were brave and brought both Koba and Yuki. Well, they really enjoyed the light show put to music by staring at the car floor the entire time....

Sleep Under the Tree.... Well, we never slept under the Christmas Tree. Honestly, we wouldn't have fit under this year's 2-footer, but I just wanted to show a picture of our tree ;)

Have a Christmas Movie Marathon. I collect Christmas movies and so every year, I try to watch as many as I can until I get annoyed with the cheesiness. This year, I didn't get far into my marathon. We did watch a few, and we also went to see "How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical." It was enjoyable.

Undocumented Items...

• Go Black Friday Shopping
• Drink Hot Chocolate

Our Christmas Bucket List Failures....

• Watch a Christmas Parade
• Host a Christmas Party
• Sleep Under the Tree

More Mistletoe Photos

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Movie Marathan

It's that time of year again to bring out all of my Christmas movies! I collect Christmas movies and I try to watch as many as I can every single year. This year is no different! 

During college, I would invite people over every single night to watch various movies with me (check this video out!)  I'm so excited this year, that I even made a calendar for Nathan and I to follow along!

What are your favorite Christmas movies? Leave a comment below!

November 29 - Charlie Brown Thanksgiving AND Charlie Brown Christmas
November 30 - How the Grinch Stole Christmas
December 1
December 2
December 3 - A Christmas Story
December 4 - The Polar Express
December 5 - Home Alone
December 6 - Home Alone 2
December 7 - Jingle All the Way
December 8 - Christmas with the Kranks
December 9 - The Nightmare Before Christmas
December 10 - Holiday Inn
December 11 - The Santa Clause
December 12 - The Santa Clause 2
December 13 - Saturday Night Live Christmas
December 14 - Elf
December 15 - The Family Stone
December 16 - Love Actually
December 17 - This Christmas
December 18 - Christmas Vacation AND The Muppets Christmas Carol
December 19
December 20
December 21
December 22 - Miracle on 34th Street
December 23 - It's a Wonderful Life
December 24 - White Christmas
December 25
December 26

2015 Christmas Bucket List

WE LOVE CHRISTMAS! So here is our 2015 Christmas Bucket List

Favorite Things from Disney World

Oh gosh, where to start. Ok, let me make one thing clear, it is VERY hard to pinpoint things that you don't like about Disney World. Because, I mean, come on.... it's Disney World.... 

With that said, don't think that things included in this post are the only good things. Hopefully you  wouldn't think that anyway. These are our favorite things that we did in Disney World.

Rides

Haunted Mansion. Now, I've got to be honest with you: before our trip in October, I had never ridden the Haunted Mansion, even though I'd been to Disney World 3 times before. Nathan and his family love this ride, and were shocked that I'd never sat in a "doom buggy." Anyway, I rode it; I liked it; done and done. The Haunted Mansion is a great ride because of all of the special effects that are incorporated. When you think about this ride being developed in the 1970s, it makes it even more cool. I personally enjoyed the ride because of the constant play on words and witticisms.

Star Tours. Confession time. I've just recently seen all 6 of the Star Wars movies for the first time. This is of course in preparation for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens. Anyway, this is a simulator ride, so people who get carsick or motion sickness, probably wouldn't like this ride. We, however, thoroughly enjoyed it. We also found out that the ride has over 50 different variations and Disney will continue adding new variations as episode 7-9 are completed. We rode Star Tours 3 times, and every single experience was different!

Seven Dwarves Mine Train. This is the newest ride in the Disney Parks and is a Roller Coaster in Magic Kingdom. One cool thing about this ride is that it uses a new system where the individual cars rock back and forth independently. To some, this may seem scary, but trust me it's really not. Instead, you will experience one of the least jerky roller coaster rides ever! Another reason I enjoyed this ride was because instead of just giving you a picture at the end, the ride produces an actual VIDEO! Its so cool! The tower of terror does this too, and it makes me wonder if they are going to try and start integrating this into all of their rides. Its really neat! 

Click here to see more ride photos from Disney World.

Honorable Mentions: Tower of Terror, Rockin Roller Coaster, Space Mountain, DINOSAUR

Shows.

Philharmagic. This is a 3D show at Magic Kingdom. We enjoyed this show enough to go watch it twice. I don't have a picture of this...

Festival of the Lion King. This was probably my favorite show, and occurred at Animal Kingdom. Its based around the Lion King but it is interactive and has powerful harmonic songs. I really enjoyed it! Its great for kids and adults.

Carousel of Progress. "There's a grrrreat big beautiful tomorrow...." This is actually considered a ride because it moves while the show is happening, but it is really most like a show. This ride was originally developed by Walt Disney for the 1964 New York World's Fair. It goes through several eras and talks about the different changes in technology. For nerds like us, it was pretty interesting! I don't have a picture of this either...

Honorable Mentions: Electric Parade, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, Fireworks (obviously)

Food.

Be Our Guest Restaurant. This wasn't necessarily a favorite as far as food goes, but definitely the best we visited in regards to the atmosphere! Basically, you have a meal in the Beast's Castle from Beauty and the Beast. We made dinner reservations one afternoon and we sat in the "West Wing." (note: you HAVE to make reservations for this restaurant). I don't want to give everything away, but trust me, you want to try and eat here on your Disney World vacation! French cuisine, awesome environment, and the Beast even showed up at the end of our meal! This is definitely a must-do while you are at Magic Kingdom. Be Our Guest Restaurant wins the award for Best Atmosphere.

Try the grey stuff. It's delicious pretty good.

Wolfgang Puck Grand Cafe. We ate at this restaurant at Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney) on the day that we arrived. I literally can't describe how good the food was here.... Nathan got a steak and fries and I got chicken and garlic mashed potatoes. Oh my gosh, SO DELICIOUS!!!! Wolfgang Puck wins the award for Best Meal.

Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie. Obviously, bakery was in Epcot. Specifically, it was located in France in the World Showcase. We didn't stop here until the last hour of the last night, but boy do I wish we had explored it sooner. I got a beignet and it was the best tasting snack of the whole trip. To be fair, probably everything that this bakery served was probably melt-in-your-mouth (which is why I wish we'd eaten there every snack...) Les halles Boulangerie-Patisserie wins the award for Best Snack.

Honorable Mentions: 

Tony's Town Square Restaurant for great pasta and Lady and the Tramp theme; Pizza Planet for fun atmosphere; Karamell-Kuche for caramel snacks

Check out more posts about our Disney World trip!

Disney World Mania Series

Things to Do in Disney World (video)

Our Ride Pictures

6 Things to Take Advantage of at Disney World

Favorite Things from Disney World

BPP: Fall Bucket List Update #3

This is our final update on our complication of the 2015 Bucket List....

Travel to Memphis - My sister, Lauren, first moved to Memphis in Fall of 2012, and every year we plan a weekend to visit her and Blake. So this made the 4th annual Memphis Fall trip. As usual, we had a really good time visiting with them and seeing different things in Memphis.

Lauren has always been really awesome at showing us new things and taking us to restaurants where we've never eaten. This trip, we went to Rendezvous, and I'm surprised we had never gone there before! The atmosphere was great and the food was, of course, delicious. 

One afternoon, we chose to forego exploring and, instead, play Monopoly. It was really fun and competitive, even thought Monopoly is sort of lame sometimes (no offense, Nathan).

Make Homemade Pumpkin Pie - I successfully made it, and Nathan successfully ate it! Enough said. See the recipe here.

So... we, didn't get around to quite a few things on our Fall Bucket List. Some of the things we lost track of time (I think because we went to Disney World in mid-October) and didn't get to. These include going to a corn maze and camping in the backyard. 

Other items we literally just dropped the ball on. These are: drive around looking at leaves and drinking apple cider. 

And then the last one on the list was snuggle by the fireplace. We did this, but its sort of hard to capture a picture of this.

We had a great time with this Bucket List! Stay tuned for our Christmas Bucket List :)

BPP: Fall Bucket List Update #2

This is another update on our completion of the 2015 Fall Bucket List! We are really enjoying this!

Go on a Hayride - This year we went on a hayride at my parent's church Fall Festival. It was a pretty fun time: corny scary stories that will inevitably make kids cry even though they are not that scary PLUS the weather was almost perfect for a hayride! We enjoyed the hayride, as well as the hayride in general!

Carve a Pumpkin - This particular Bucket List item had a deadline. We had to do it before Halloween. Well, I guess we didn't HAVE to, but I wanted to, so we did. This was the first time Nathan had ever carved a pumpkin, and the first time I had ever used the pumpkin carving tools. We carved away while "watching" the Nightmare Before Christmas (there wasn't much watching because of our carving intensity). The pumpkins turned out mighty fine! [mine is the cat; Nathan's is the skeleton]

Watch Football Games - SO, the plan was to visit our Alma Mater and watch Murray State play a football game. We planned the weekend, arrived in Murray, then right before the game started, we decided not to go because it was raining and cold. Most likely, we'll not be going to a live football game this season, HOWEVER, we have been watching football on TV more this year because of the fantasy football interest that our house has. Since we didn't have a picture from us going to a football game, this Patriots Pride selfie will have to do.

Make Caramel Apples - I have to say, this was way harder than I had anticipated. I'm not saying its a hard recipe, I'm saying you have to be READY to swirl those apples in the caramel! The result was delicious as expected :)

Click here to see the previous post with our first 5 Fall Bucket List completions. Stay tuned for the final installment of our Bucket List completions!