Pictures from Silver Dollar City

Silver Dollar City at Christmas has to be one of the best places on Earth. The lights are absolutely beautiful. The tree at the front of the park has lights that dance to Christmas songs every 15 min., there's a parade, good shows, and wonderful hot chocolate.

Our 1 Year Anniversary!

Travis and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary on December 12. It's so hard to believe that it's already been a year. It's been the fastest, best year of my life. To celebrate, we went to Branson, MO. Neither of us had been in years, and I have always wanted to see it at Christmas time. If you haven't seen Silver Dollar City at Christmas, I highly recommend it. The lights are absolutely incredible. We drove up Friday morning and stayed until Tuesday. It was a wonderful trip. We ate lots of really good food, did A LOT of shopping (luckily we hadn't really done much Christmas shopping for each other before the trip, or we would have been in trouble) and of course went to Silver Dollar City. We stayed at a hotel that has several different themed rooms. We chose the Aspen room which had a mural on the wall of a skier and snow covered mountains (still waiting for my snow this year). Our room had a jacuzzi in it, which was amazing. We really couldn't have asked for a better trip. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our first year of marriage!

Reds Fest

Travis was invited to attend Reds Fest in Cincinnati. It's a weekend where fans can mingle with past, present and future Reds players. Over 17,000 Reds fans came to the event that was held Dec. 4 and 5. The guys have photo sessions, autograph sessions, they read to kids, have a wiffle ball home run derby, and Saturday night there was a poker tournament with 500 participants. All of the proceeds from the event benefit the Reds Community Fund. This year they raised over $50,000! It was really an honor for him to be invited and it was such a fun weekend. The best part was getting to catch up with part of our extended baseball family.

Enjoy some photos from our trip. I was horrible about taking pictures while we were there and only got one picture of Travis and I from the entire weekend.

Walking around Cincinnati after we got into town (that's why I look so tired; travel days are always tiring). We didn't get to go ice skating because we think the Reds would frown upon that

:(

Travis accepting his Reds Minor League Pitcher of the Year award

Reds players-past and present

So much talent and history on stage, I got goose bumps, and that doesn't happen easily

A HUGE Reds jersey, I should have stood by it so you could see exactly how big it is, but it's covering the whole wall

Bike the 48

Today I met two guys that are trying to do something amazing, and some would even say insane, to help make this country a better place. They are dedicating one year of their lives to bike across the country (one is biking, the other is following behind him in a support vehicle). Below you will find their mission and their website so you can follow their year long journey, see when they'll be in your city, see what all good they've done along the way, and even help support their journey. They're only on day 7 of their journey, so your thoughts, prayers and well wishes will do them a lot of good.

"We are going on a mission to spread Christ's love throughout the country, and inspire others to do the same. JJ Kelley will be riding his bicycle through the 48 contiguous states followed by Rod Casey in a support vehicle. He will also be filming the events of the trip, and we will both be volunteering our time in every city to serve God wherever we can. We are doing this to show people that God is at work in our country and there is hope for our future. It's going to be a long arduous journey that will push JJ's body to the limits and test the bonds between friends and family. Although this trip is a dream of ours, the purpose of it is to serve others and bring glory to God. Our country is currently struggling with many problems and we want to find people and organizations that are making a difference and help out in any way that we can."
http://www.bikethe48.com/

P90X

I have become a P90Xer. I had watched the infomercials and the workout program peaked my interest. So one day two weeks ago I got on Ebay and ordered it. I got the complete (13 dvd system, nutrition guides, and calendar) for $75! P90X is a ninety day workout plan that has you doing a different workout every day, core, cardio, yoga, kenpo (boxing), legs, arms, everything. I started last Monday and let me tell you, there are muscles hurting I didn't even know existed. Muscles in my neck were hurting! I'm not so sure how I feel about that. I don't need a big, muscular, manly neck, but hopefully that won't happen. So far I really like it. I mean, I hate doing it and it takes some internal motivation to put the dvds in, but once I get started and afterward I'm very glad I did it. With P90X you get to do all sorts of different workouts. Kickboxing, yoga, everything. It keeps things interesting and fun. It's going to be a long ninety days, but I hope at the end of it all I'm a stronger, healthier person (and I would like to do one real pull up).

It comes with a nutrition guide with a very specific diet that I can't follow. I just don't eat that kind of stuff so instead I'm just trying to eat better. I say this as tonight I had McDonalds for dinner :), but that's the first fast food I've had in TWO WEEKS! That's really good for me.

I only have 78 days left!

New Additions to the Family

Maddy and Bella

A couple of weeks ago Travis and his dad went to do some work at the deer woods and on their way home they found to little puppies that had been abandoned on the side of the road. They of course picked them up and brought them home. They were covered in fleas and ticks and needed food. We gave them baths and got them some real puppy food. They had apparently been eating corn that had been put out for the deer. They are the cutest little things, both girls, seem to be a mix of lab. It seems that Travis's parents have decided to keep them both!!! I had been wanting another puppy, and just couldn't seem to convince Travis. So I'll take these two for now, and help his parents with them.

Trip to Orlando

My aunt had to go to Orlando for a work conference and I decided to go along to take advantage of the wonderful hotel her work was paying for, to keep her company, and to take advantage of the sunny, warm weather (Little Rock has turned into Seattle #2). We stayed a wonderful hotel, the Royal Pacific, one of Universal's resorts, so we were right by the two Universal parks and Citywalk (restaurants and shopping). We took the first full day in town to go to both of Universal's parks, which neither of us had ever been to, I spent some time at the pool while she was at the conference, we at a lot of really good food (including room service at midnight which my aunt could not believe she was doing), and we even made time to make it to the Magic Kingdom (you can't go to Orlando and not visit a Disney park). We had a lot of fun getting away and just hanging out.