Weekly Wins: ALL CAPS {FINALLY}

[source]

STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS!

MY TEAM! THE HOCKEY TEAM I'VE CHEERED FOR SINCE I WAS 18 YEARS OLD. FINALLY!

THEY GOT IT DONE. THEY LIFTED THE CUP! THEY ARE THE VICTORS. I LOVE SPORTS!

A Flying by the Seat of Our Pants Weekend

Morning, kit kats. How you feeling this DST Monday? I'm dragging but slogging through the day. It is going to be so nice having more sunshine in the evening, I can't wait for the extra few hours of sun. This weekend was quite busy as Le Husband and I threw a quick weekend trip together to watch his college baseball team play. We had a great time together even though there were a few curve balls and I'm glad everything worked out as well as it did. 

This weekend I…

… reveled in the gorgeous weather with the sunroof open on my drive home from work. 

… scrambled home to meet le Husband as we drove out west to watch his college team play at Radford.

… was extremely lucky in missing traffic, PTL.

… decided to stop at Chick Fil-A for dinner and yes, I drank another milkshake. #oops

… flew by the seat of our pants when we realized all of the hotels in Radford were booked due to a tournament. Cheers to using Marriott points and finding a fabulous hotel 30 minutes away. #ilovekingbeds

… woke up super early to headed out on a four mile hike in the Appalachian mountains. 

… enjoyed the early morning birds and scenery on Dragon's Tooth. 

… was blown away by the beauty of Appalachia. #ilovehiking.

… swiped this picture of my honey at the peak of the mountain. #lovehimso

… stopped at the best barbecue place in Virginia and housed a whole chicken. #Lehusbandhelped

… got squirreled at the fun store next to the restaurant and bought my FABULOUS new felt hat!

… finally made it to the field to watch the flashes win 10-9. #funending #waytokeepitinteresting

… loved hanging out in the sun with my best guy.

… checked into another hotel closer to the team and changed to meet up with a former teammate of Le Husband.

… ate a fantastic dinner while listening to baseball boys talk about the past and baseball. #sonotsoccer

… passed out after a super long day full of fun. 

… slept in before getting up and heading to the field for an earlier than anticipated start due to weather. 

… talked with coaches, grabbed a snack and then watch the Flashes take it to the Highlanders. 

… walked away in the fifth inning due to the rain and my six pm soccer game.

… stopped at the bbq place for lunch then drove four hours in the rain to make it to my game on time. 

… played in my LAST INDOOR GAME with my team. It was the ending of a seven year era and was a bit bittersweet. Thankfully we won even though I didn't play my best game and it was fun celebrating with my teammates.  Le Husband and my parents came to watch me play and it was kind of surreal when it was all over. #hasitreallybeensevenyears

… went out to dinner with teammates, drank a HORRIBLE glass of wine and toasted a great indoor career.

… came home, unpacked, prepped my BODYPUMP list and finished my blog posts for today. 

I hope y'all have a great Monday, please send me some good vibes as I'm running on very little sleep due to our trip and DST. Five am is early enough, but when it feels like four am, WOOF! Make the most of the day you've been given, friends!  See you tomorrow with a fitness post.

Linking up with these beautiful ladies whoop 

Year in Review {Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr}

Morning, ladies! I hope you are doing well. Last year I participated in an "Year in Review" linkup and even though it's not happening this year, I still wanted to recap my year. It is so crazy 2016 is right around the corner and before we start the new I want to give one last look back at the old.

J A N U A R Y

Started the year running with a NYE celebration at home and the a flight to Columbus, OH for a family weeding. It was a great time and I loved my outfit. I also had a blate with two of my faves {hi smashly and rissy}!

 

The weekend after Columbus we were jetsetting again, but this time we were going south to Dallas to see my BOFF and to attend the first National Football Championship game. It was an incredibly fun weekend and the game was an amazing experience. It was so awesome cheering the Buckeyes on to victory and celebrating with some of my favorite people!

 

 

I wrote a post about no longer being AFRAID TO FAIL! I vowed to make 2015 my year of doing and to not care if I failed as long as I gave it my best. I set some big goals and did whatever I could to achieve them. 

We celebrated Le Husband's birthday with a family dinner and our first attempt at homemade pasta. #yum

I treated Mama B and the two sissys to tea at the Ritz and it was a fun, posh jolly good time!

 

Our family put together a fabulous surprise for Grandaddy T-bone and we had a wonderful time celebrating his 89th birthday down in Tennessee.  It was a long weekend of driving but so worth it seeing his happy face.

F E B R U A R Y

I traveled back to Ft. Worth to visit my beautiful BOFF and attend her baby shower.  It was such a fun weekend celebrating her and meeting more of her dearest friends. Lil Evie was spoiled and we spent a fun Valentine's day together, too!

We continued our jet setting and headed down to Ft Lauderdale to kick off the kickball season at SFKO. It was so nice being warm after a brutal winter and Le Husband and I had a great time playing kickball, eating good food and soaking up the sun on the beach. #iloveagoodsunset #gimmethebeachinthewinter

 

In an effort to step up my recipe game I started blogging new recipes. It was fun and something I've continued through the year. Having a nice camera for pretty pictures is a complete game changer.  

[Crockpot Chicken and Mushrooms]

[Homemade Tortillas]

Sportyspice turned the big 2-9 [what] and we had fun celebrating her day of birth. 

M A R C H

We traveled down to the Southern part of VA for the weekend to watch Le Husband's college baseball team play. It was freezing in but still a good time watching the boys. We also bought the team dinner which was a fun little affair. I love seeing Le Husband around his baseball team, it's something I missed since we didn't know each other and the little glimpses make me smile. Plus I got to sport my Kent State gear. #baseballwifefortheweekend

 

We flew to Cincinnati for another family wedding. It was a great time, but since we were still on Whole30 we missed out on the cupcakes and the booze, wah! Oh and we failed to get a picture together #theworst!

Our recipe game continued on strong as we tried out new Whole30 recipes. There are so many delicious recipes out there and many of them were quite easy to make. We found the ones we liked and ate them QUITE often.

[Salmon with avocado and mango salsa]

[Cracklin Chicken]

After starting the program in February, we finished our first attempt of Whole30 and man was it an incredible experience.  I learned a ton about food, my mental strength and my body and had some pretty fabulous results. I can't speak highly enough about this program and think everyone should give it a try at least once.

A P R I L

We celebrated Easter and it was a wonderful weekend with family and the out doors.

I shared my heart and wrote in the raw about the six year anniversary of my grandmother's death. It hurt to type by it was also cathartic. Y'all were so supportive and I was blown away by the kind comments. #thankyou

We did a day hike even though I was sick and we conquered it thankfully. Also, a bunch of my blog besties welcomed beautiful baby girls into the world and it was such a wonderful weekend of texts.

I celebrated my 32nd birthday with a delicious dinner and a fun bowling party. #wowimold

Another weekend another flight to another state. I flew back to Ft. Worth to meet beautiful Evelyn and hang with my new mommy BOFF. It was so much fun cuddle the new bambina and witness one of my best friends as a mother for the first time.

I shared my workout routine and quick abs video.

I also jumped on the 'Show me your states" blog bandwagon and have actually added two since then.

Wow, it sure was a busy first quarter, we really hit 2015 running. Next week I'll bring you the middle of the year.

Wanderlust Wednesday {Orlando Kickball and BLATE}

Morning, ladies! I hope you are well, I'm still playing catch up from the weekend and finally feeling back to normal. Today for Wanderlust Wednesday I'm sharing a recap about my fabulous weekend down in Orlando, Florida. This weekend was our kickball championship tournament for both coed and women's teams and I also made plans with some fabulous bloggers for a blate.

Our flight landed at midnight on Thursday so I missed getting to see the fabulous Kate. We waved in the sky to each other, but I was still bummed I wasn't able to meet her. Normally I'm a direct girl, however when tickets are $75 each way I'll suck up the two flights, especially when we don't have to get off the plane. #winning

Everyone was either incredibly hammered or asleep when we checked into our hotel so we decided to just hit the sack and try and bank some extra sleep. Man, sleeping for ten hours was AMAZING. We rolled out of bed, grabbed some coffee and our rental car and then drove around Orlando to run some pretournamnet errands. Once those were done we headed to International drive for our Hash House breakfast. YES, Orlando has HASH HOUSE and we were sooooo excited. I tried to keep it in check after doing Whole24, but I totally inhaled my biscuit and some of Le Husband's waffles.

We visited the outlets [!!!] where I bought some new active-ware. I snapped up some new Skyscapes, a gym bag [can't find online, similar here], USA shirt [outlet only] and Le Husband grabbed some new lifting shoes and a new bag as well. More damage could have been done, but I had to hightail it back to the hotel to shower and get ready to meet up with THE GIRLS!!!

I was so excited to meet up with Pamela, Emily and Keri [we missed you Kate]. I'm holding a 99% success rate with my blates [always one right?] and this one was pretty freaking fantastic. Earlier in the week we had made plans to meet at one place, but because of the EDC festival we changed things up on Friday and I was able to meet the ladies at one of their favorite places. Traffic was a bit of a mess for everyone and I was incredibly thankful all three girls took the time to brave everything to meet up with me. All of the girls were so genuiune and just as real and fabulous as they appear on their blogs. It was a wonderful HH of stories, laughter and of course, pictures.

Pretty ladies!

I was bummed I had to leave for dinner, but enjoyed the short blate and was super happy it all came together. After picking Le Husband up from the hotel we hightailed it to Kres [thanks for the recommendation, Pamela] for a delicious dinner. I devoured my duck and risotto [pictured with the Hash House food] and Le Husband's steak was perfection. We walked around for a bit after dinner then met up with the sissys at the hotel. It was get packed time and then lights out since our first game was at 8:30am and the part was about an hour from our hotel.

Saturday was game day #1 and it was scorching hot by 9:00am. Our team played extremely well all morning and I had some pretty awesome catches. Honestly I wasn't expecting much since our season was pretty up and down, but we had ALL the right players and everyone was doing their best to help the team win. We went into eliminations as the number one seed and continued to battle until the final four. Unfortunately we played one of our biggest rivals and they had the better game that day. Even though I hate to lose, if we had to that was the way I wanted to go out of the tournament. We played hard, the other team just landed kicks and so it is what it is. I was so proud of my team all day and incredibly thankful we decided to join Panik after OSC folded. It was a wonderful game day with my family and with my dear friends. After the loss, we stuck around to watch a bit of the finals and then headed to the hotel for pizza and football before lights out. We were all exhausted from the heat and playing ALL day since there were no girl subs. I barely made it through a quarter of the OSU game before it was lights out for this girl. Sunday morning brought another early morning.

Have some fun HERE!

During the breaks on Saturday I was able to get in my Planksgiving challenge planks. People thought I was a bit crazy but hey, you do what you gotta do to get your challenge planks in right?

Sunday mornng we were up super early for the women's tournament. Thankfully there was a bit of a breeze so it wasn't nearly as hot as Saturday. Our aunt and soon to be uncle [!!!] came to watch some of games and it was so great to see them. Our first two games went really well and I was on point offensively/defensively which gave me a huge boost. Unfortunately due to some errors we lost our third game and then our fourth game was really close until a really great kick from the other team. Thankfully we made it to eliminations, unlike last year and we played our hearts out in the elite eight game. We had our chances, but couldn't convert when the other team did so we lost and were out of the tournament. Again, I can't really pout too much after the loss because everyone did what they could and it just didn't work out the way we wanted. I am extremely proud of my play both days and if we truly walk away from kickball after this year I can look back and say I went out on a high note.

The family that plays together, eats together!

After the tournament we ate dinner at Hash House again and once again our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. I tried their pot pie and it was insanely huge and delicious! We all enjoyed a celebratory drink regarding the 2015 season but were too full to share a dessert. I was super bummed no one wanted dessert so Le Husband went on a mission to get me something and brought me a tasty cookie sundae. We ended the evening packing up and relaxing before our early call time for our flight.

Despite an unfortunate incident at our rental car place ( DO NOT RENT FROM DOLLAR IN DOWTOWN) we arrived at the airport with plenty of time and breezed through security. I decided to use one last drink ticket in the flight home and felt very relaxed while watching my Disney movies.

We were all exhausted when we arrived home and tried to get everything situated doe Tuesday. It was an incredibly fun and busy weekend and one I will remember for a long time to come. Cheers to a fabulous blate and to a fanfreakingtastic kickball career!

Before I sign off I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to all who serve in the armed forces. As a former military brat I am filled with pride when I see someone in uniform. You better believe I'll be hugging a VETERAN today! #landofthefreebecauseofthebrave

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linking up for Wanderlust Wednesday and  *here* and *here*

We VIVAED that Las Vegas

Happy Friday, beautiful ladies. We made it to the weekend, can I get a WOOHOO!? I'm stoked to get some relaxing on after our Las Vegas weekend. It will be nice to get things done and catch up on some sleep. #needmoresleep. Before I get started on my post today, I wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for all of your sweet words yesterday. Y'all are the best and the most supportive group of women and I'm so thankful to know each and everyone one of you. 

Okay, moving on to our a recap of our trip. When we arrived at IAD we had plenty of time to walk around, find our gate and grab some snacks before we began boarding. I chose to do some airport cardio and came across this HUGE plane. Y'all, that monster is a double decker Airbus 8380 and it looked WAY bigger in real life. I am honestly confused as to how that thing can get in the air -- well duh, science -- something that large should stay on the ground right?

If you remember my post last Friday, you'll remember this lil gem. We only used four [got a free drink from the flight attendant] and I have to admit, Southwest makes a pretty wicked Margarita. #cheerstofreedrinks

I learned from a flight attendant friend that if you bring a flight attendant working your flight a small gift [chips, candy, cookies] they will look after you like you wouldn't believe. I tested the theory and it works friends, it really works.Our lady was extra attentive and thankfully the flight was super smooth. I wasn't able to grab much shut eye, so I watched my beloved Disney movies and finished American Heiress.

We landed a little behind schedule and then it was time for the airplane outfit to party outfit. Thanks for all the love on Friday, the top is from Nordstrom and I snapped it up during their sale. I also bought a black one and I'm sooooo glad I have two to wear. They are soooo comfy and I rocked the outfit to work and on the plane and it kept me warm, comfy and in my opinion fashionable. #thinkthenecklacemakestheoutfit #loverockingkicks #cheerstofunfinds

 

A quick change, cup of coffee and an uber later and we were finally at the Meet&Greet bar. With our luggage. Yup, we went straight to meet our friends because we knew heading to our hotel first was a death sentence for the party animal. Luckliy our friends were awesome and helped us watch our luggage at the bar #thelittlethings. It was only nine pm in Vegas, but that meant it was one am back home. We rallied for a few hours and then it was night night time. 

Since most of my pictures are on my iPhone and not the best quality, I wanted to break up the rest of my trip into my favorites about Vegas. This was our SIXTH [!] trip and I feel like we have a pretty good lock on the amazingess of Sin City. Here are my favorites from our 2015  trip [ other years here 2011 2012,  2014 ].

The FOOD: Do NOT go to Vegas while on a diet or watching what you eat. There are waaaay to many amazing restaurants to limit yourself [unless you HAVE to, clearly] and it's nice to indulge in food and imbibing in my opinion. Like past trips, Le Husband and I visited our favorites -- Le Village buffet, Wicked Spoon buffet, Hash House A Go-Go -- and tried some new places -- Flour & Barley, The Barrymore, Nook -- and as usual, we were never disappointed. If you're planning a trip, you need to hit up ALL of my recommendations because they are AMAZING. I was particularly partial to The Barrymore, the ambiance was old school Vegas, the service was impeccable and the food was beyond divine. 

Playing Dress Up: Vegas fashion, what do you say about Vegas fashion? Anything goes is the best way to describe it in my opinion. In the past I was all about the short skirts and halter tops, because DUH, it's Vegas. Now I'll take a fashion risk here or there, but I just enjoy dressing up in outfits I rarely wear at home. I really enjoyed the hippie look I threw together after our flight for the after party. Best way to deal with fine hair that has fallen flat. The middle dress is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES and I chose to pair it with my new TOMS booties for easier walking and a  fall touch. The dress on the right has been in my closet for two years with the tags still on it and I FINALLY busted it out for our dinner at the Barrymore. I may have a new wedding favorite. #needtolearnhowtotakefashionpictures

Gambling with Le Husband: I am the worst gambler on the planet. I play and if I start to lose, I stop. If I win, I put money in my pocket and never touch it to the table again. Yeah, Vegas loooooves me [where is the sarcastic font when you need it]. Le Husband is a good gambler and I've grown to enjoy watching him play roulette. We have our favorite numbers we always bet on [ 3, 9, 21, 17] and then place chips with no particular rhyme or reason. Roulette is a game of chance, but we still have fun. This year was AMAZING because we hit 21 collectively six times throughout the weekend. We also hit 29 with another guy who had about 200 on the table, it was AWESOME when I yelled 29!!! Leaving Vegas a winner is a fabulous feeling and Le Husband had a few black chips to cash in every time. #ballerroulettecaller

Vivaing in Sin City: Vegas has so much to do, there really is no time to sleep. But, neither Le Husband and I can function with too little sleep so we just cram everything we can into our days. One of our favorite past times is walking up and down the strip during the day and the night. We always find fun shops while walking the day before our tournament [hello macaron store], make a stop at the Bellagio fountains and hang out with other kickballers at fun events. The Strip is so pretty, I love all the lights and our stay in the LINQ was fabulous. We found an incredible deal on Hotwire and the location couldn't have been better for all of the weekend events. This year we made a stop by the pool party at Rehab and despite the drunken crazies we enjoyed ourselves while getting our tan on with friends. Our way of doing Vegas isn't quite like most people's, but we always have an wonderful trip. #oldiesbutgoodies #sleepisgreat

The Tournament: Honestly, this wasn't a favorite tournament for us. In the six tournaments we've participated in we've won two which was amazing and lost a few early which totally sucked. Our team retired last year and the team we joined this year wasn't able to make the tournament. Per WAKA rules, we were only able to join the returning champs which was fine by us, haha. They were the team that beat us last year and we are friends with them through other kickball play. I was super excited because they have a really talented roster and are a bunch of fun people. We played alright during the morning but things just weren't gelling as I expected, so I hoped once eliminations came around we'd find our groove. Well, all I can say is we didn't and we were knocked out much earlier than we should have been. It sucked, it hurt and it was beyond frustrating. People think I'm crazy when they learn we travel [on our own dime] to play in tournaments, but when you win $500 at tournaments the looks aren't as strange. Not winning money stinks and losing is the WORST! We were able to get out of a funk for a bit, but it REALLY tainted our Saturday night. Obviously there are worse things in life and at the end of the day I'm grateful I get to compete with my best friend, he looks good in that uniform ;)!

There you have it, our whirlwind weekend in Las Vegas. I wish the tournament outcome were different, but such is life. Attending next year might not be in the cards and while I'm sad our kickball Vegas adventures could be over, I'm excited for our new endeavors. If you have any questions about Vegas please leave them in the comments or email me. I'm more than happy to help you plan your vacation!

 **linking up  Here  here , here, here, here and, here this week**