SEA WORLD!

Alex and I were given free tickets to sea world from one of our close friends. It was such a thoughtful gesture and we had an amazing time! The park is open from 9-6 and we were there from 9-6. There was so much that we saw and did that I could go on and on. Just a few things. If you ARE going, don't miss the dolphin show, shark encounter or the manta aquarium. We saw the show twice. Those people have the best life! They look like they are just SO happy to be swimming around with dolphins.. And of course, Shamu is a must see.

Nervous glance at approaching family

Cool as a cucumber even though the family was watching us

The bayside skyride was a simple ride up a 300 foot pole in a rotating room with lots of picture opportunities. The flamingos were beautiful and there were some babies too! Although this tough guy wouldn't let us take a picture without biting the camera. He don't play.

asleep ALL day

 We went to lunch at the Spice Mill and took a long break to rest our legs. They had landshark on tap (which tasted suspiciously like bud light) but never the less, this moment of rest and refeuling left us feeling blessed, happy and quite satisfied.

Dolphins from below the water

We spent the second half of our day watching shows. We sat in the soak zone and didn't get soaked. (Thank GOD) Though I think Alex was a little disappointed (:

"Blue Horizon" Dolphin show

 And let us not forget Shamu..

Love that baby Shamu on the right.<3 Wales and Dolphins are seriously awesome! We had a great time and ended our day by watching A Christmas Story and eating pizza all night.. 

Thank you God for these sweet memories made.

Giving Thanks

I have been really enjoying all the hustle and bustle of this season already! Thanksgiving was spent with family and lots of food. I felt really blessed this year to spend the day with my parents and sister and the evening and night with Alex's family. We went to Alex's Grampa's and had dinner with him, Uncle Mike, Kim, Ralph & Nick and it was good to see Alex's cousin Mike & his wife Dani this year. :)
I pigged out all day and we ended up with leftovers from both Mom's! It was a stuffing and turkey party over here all weekend.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!!

Sugar Free Chocolate Pie

My husband made this recipe earlier this year after having a bad reaction to sugar. We have searched far and wide for different sweets that don't have sugar in them and came up with this sugar free version of one of our favorite kinds of pie. Chocolate till the deatha me.

Ingredients

1 box of Voortman's sugar free chocolate chip cookies
1 stick of salted sweet cream butter
10 cups of sugar free chocolate Jello pudding cups
(they DO make sugar free pudding mix that you can make yourself but you have to add milk which has a lot of sugars-even skim) 
1 8oz. tub of sugar free cool whip
1 packet of splenda

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees - Grease pan

2.Crunch up box of cookies 
( set some chips aside for topping)
3.Melt butter and mix with cookie crumbs
4. Form crust in pan
5.Bake for 7 minutes
6.Immediately put in fridge and cool for 1 hour (reform every 15 minutes as it cools. It helps to use a timer)
7.Spoon pudding into crust

 8.sprinkle 1 packet splenda over pudding for added sweetness (optional)
9.spoon cool whip onto pie and crumble remaining chocolate chips on top
10.Chill in the fridge for 24+ hours before serving

ENJOY!

Retro a go-go

I bought this retro green light from a thrift store about a year ago. It was 5 dollars and slightly broken.. but beautiful! I love original pieces and this one was perfectly suited to our style and did I mention that it was FIVE dollars? 

It took a little electrical tlc to get it working but it hung in our dining room for about a year, lookin like this:

 

We recently moved things around and this room is now a den. The living room was left with a dark corner that I became obsessed with. I tried several different lamps and even shopped around for something new. I ended up finding another five dollar light fixture but it was for the den.

 

The green light originally came with a heavy gold chain/chord which I always loved so we kept it out in the tool shed this whole time. Alex put a switch on the chord and hung it up in the dark corner! 

And then, just for fun, we put a green bulb in. Christmas party!!

Mr.Harkinson at Home

I have one of those husbands that works a LOT. Usually I get a whispered morning greeting at 6am and when he comes dragging himself in 12 hours later, he’s pretty pooped for the night. OR he gets to stay here through the early morning but then is gone until midnight. (sometimes later!) He really loves his job and we are so thankful for it but he is a hard working mule with incomparable ethics. In fact, I have never met his equal when it comes to diligence, leadership or pride in performance.

But this past week, he got to stay home with me for 7 whole days and live it up! Adventures through saw grass, birthdays, playing with cars, date nights all week and all the puppy cuddles we could handle! Truly a wonderful week.

Some of my favorite shots:
 

It feels like just yesterday that we were sitting in Ybor having awkward conversation over greek food. I couldn’t eat a bite and you cleaned your plate.

he always wins

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”― Dr. Seuss