Crazy March Recap — letters from a Good friend

We have made it to Joel's new work contract location. We are back in Texas, in the little town of Sweetwater. The first few days of our arrival here were a little rough... We have been truly blessed the past few assignments to have found really nice housing that is great for us AND the pups. However, our luck ran out this particular time and on a rainy Sunday I walked into our new place to basically a disaster zone! The only thing I will say more about this house is this: Never in my life would I have thought that someone would feel okay about renting a space that they own to other people to actually live in, that was in this bad of condition. Like I said, it's been a REALLY rough week and a rough start here in our new location, but "Home is Where You Make it" is a motto we LIVE by here, and hopefully we can start feeling more at "home" soon (:

ANYWAYS! March was the craziest month we have had in a LONG time! When Joel's contract in Midland was up the first week of March, we headed to the Sunshine State! There we spent the night with Joel's sister and her lovely family who were gracious enough to watch our two crazy pups while Joel and I headed to Orlando!! *Along the way, we got to stop at the famous Buc-ee's which is a travel station of sorts. It honestly seemed more like a small Wal-Mart with a gas station, because the store has EVERYTHING. The store also has everything you could ever think of bearing the face of their beaver-mascot (from fancy throw blankets, travel mugs, pillow-pets, containers of snacks, t-shirts, and even various home decor items...) I LOVED IT, especially the super clean restrooms!! We also got to stop in LA and visit a really good friend of mine and meet her new baby!!!!! All the heart eyes for baby Liam and Mer <3

My family is a part of a travel club called Global Discovery Vacations which has condos all over the world! This trip Joel and I stayed at one of our club condos about 10 minutes from Disney, 15 minutes-ish from Universal. The condo was at the Wyndham Cypress Palms and was very nice! Our condo even had a washer and dryer which was AWESOME! There were several pools and even a game room. Parking was kind of slim pickings late in the evenings when we were returning from the parks, but other than that we really enjoyed our stay!

The first park we visited was Walt Disney World!! This was Joel's VERY FIRST TIME at Disney and I was so so so excited to get to experience his first visit with him! Our day at Disney was more about just sightseeing and the experience rather than trying to ride all of the rides. We did ride a few of the more classic rides that you HAVE to ride, but mostly we just walked around, browsed the shops, ate all of the amazing Disney food that we possibly could, and just took in everything. We had such a great day, and I was literally saying for days how amazing our Disney day was!! Keep an eye out for a post coming soon with some Disney World tips!

Our second day in Orlando was spent at the Universal Parks, specifically for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter sections!!!!! If you know me, you know that I am a giant Harry Potter nerd (as is Joel!) and I totally geeked out ALL DAY LONG at Universal! Joel kept taking pictures of my face and laughing at me because I was probably freaking out more than just about anyone else there (even kids haha!) Our day at Universal parks was probably my favorite day of our whole vacation! More about our day there later though (:

While in Orlando we even got to visit one of my all time favorite little boys, my little cousin! (he is 9 though so I usually just call him my nephew because he calls me "Aunt Alix" ha!) We took him to Kissimmee Go Kart and to eat (he requested pizza both nights that we had him, a boy after my own heart!) We were so glad that we got to see Braeden! We just love him so stinking much and are so grateful for his awesome mom that is always so generous with his time!

(P.S. HOW CUTE IS HE!?)

From Orlando we headed back to Joel's sister's where we got to spend a few days with them and even got some BEACH TIME!!! It was so fun spending time with family and seeing the littles play at the beach! We also got to attend church with them which was such a blessing! On our first beach day with them, Joel lost his wedding band while making wet sand piles with the kids!!! After a few minutes of searching (convinced that is was lost forever, because they had been playing in the sand where the water was coming up to) we found it in the sand pile! Needless to say it stayed in my purse for the remainder of our beach time... haha!!! We even got to eat my FAVORITE Hungry Howies pizza while visiting!!!!! Jake really loved having the kids to play with... Mushu loved it only some of the time (haaaa) Thank you again Ogden Family for watching our pups, and putting up with all four of us for a few days! (: We love you guys!

We then headed West back towards TX (thinking that Joel had to start work soon) We spent two nights in Louisiana and even got to check out New Orleans!! We of course checked out Bourbon Street at night (so.many.daiquiri.places) but the HIGHLIGHT of our day in New Orleans was our breakfast! We stopped by District Donuts Sliders Brew on our way out of town and were so glad that we did!!!! We each got a donut to share, and also shared a biscuit sandwich. If you are ever in New Orleans, you HAVE to stop by here at LEAST for a donut!!! And get a specialty donut!! This little cafe was even very reasonably priced!

After Louisianna, we were still waiting to hear when Joel was officially starting his new contract. So we cruised up to Little Rock Arkansas so we would still be near TX if we had to head that way, but we would also be in the right direction to head home to Ohio if the contract start date was delayed. We stayed at this super cute Tiny Home on Airbnb and had a nice night just relaxing and cuddling with the pups. The next morning we packed up and got into the car, STILL unsure of which direction we were headed! But before we pulled away we got the official word that we had a little over a week until we needed to be back to Texas. SO TO OHIO WE WENT!!

So then we spent a whirlwind of a week visiting friends and family! We had so many people to see and even got to surprise a few of our older relatives which was a lot of fun (: I finally got to meet my dear friend Jordan's little babe after waiting 5 LONG MONTHS! I also got to meet my newest dog-nephew! Our family is so gracious and flexible when we come to visit, they know how limited and hectic our time home is. Every time we leave from a home visit I am overwhelmed with how great it was to have gotten to see too many people we love!!

And after a quick week at home, we headed back to warmer weather, a little more sunshine, and Joel's newest contract job! WHAT A MONTH! I am mentally and physically exhausted just telling you all about it!! (insert crying/laughing emoji here (; ) I am really looking forward to sharing more about our Disney and Harry Potter trips with you, and I even have a few GUEST POSTS I'm working on for OTHER BLOGS! (GASP!) So lots of fun stuff coming up!!

Thank you so much for being patient this past crazy month, and as always, thank you for taking the time to visit my blog (: Have a wonderful day!