Labor Day in Missouri

We left Thursday night and spent the weekend in Andrew's hometown of Joplin, Missouri.  I tried to come up with a few catchy titles for today's post...Carb Fest 2013 came to mind, as well as The Weekend I Ate My Weight in Tortilla Chips or possibly That Time We Stayed in our PJs until 1:00 PM...but I settled on Labor Day in Missouri instead.

The kids had Meet the Teacher Night at School, so we didn't leave our house until 7:00 PM which got us to Missouri at 1:30 AM.  Yikes!  We were TIRED!

My sweet girl heading out for her long car trip.

Smith sang his guts out as he watched his Avenger movie.  Apparently, there is an Avenger theme song and this boy knows all the lyrics!

We woke up and headed to our favorite store/lunch spot Sandstone Gardens.  We had a yummy lunch and then bought a few things for the new house.

PawPaw and Smith were being silly smelling the fancy soaps.

This kid loves flowers!  She is my flower child!

After lunch, we headed to one of my favorite Joplin spots, this fun old-fashioned candy house!

Of course I bought toffee!  Did you read Bar #2 yesterday?  I am a toffee obsessed girl!

We had Mexican food for dinner and headed to see the Webb City Cardinals play their first football game of the season (Andrew's high school).

It was warm in the stands but we had fun!

This picture sums up the evening...lots of people, lots of pizza, and lots of Gatorade.

He had so much fun watching the game!

The next morning, we stayed in our pjs around the Shull farm until 1:00.  I read 3 magazines and pinned a ton of new fall things on Pinterest.  Then Kensington brought over my i-Pad with the Christmas music app blaring because she said she thought a little Christmas music would make my reading more enjoyable.  And you know what...she was right :).

We headed into town and looked around the mall.  Being the fun grandma that she is, Cheryll rented one of these shopping carts for Smith.

I love my girl!

Fun times at the Joplin Mall

And then I ended my night watching college football and eating a peanut butter brownie.  So wonderful!

We drove home yesterday and the kids didn't sleep one wink.  They were so great in the car just watching movies and talking.  But at 7:00 pm, Smith asked for a hot dog, and then I found him like this...sound asleep.  His fun weekend wore him out!

Sweet girl was tired too!

Thanks Steve and Cheryll!  We had a great Labor Day Weekend with you!

OK people...get excited!!!  I have two fun things to tell you this Monday!!

First...

starts TODAY!  I have your suggested menu for the week up and ready over on my foodie blog!  I'm trying to simplify your life a little bit.  Click here to check it out!

And second, my friend the Workout Mama is giving away one free online bootcamp spot!  I've signed up for this and you should too!  She'll help motivate you and give you a suggested workout plan (that doesn't require a gym or fancy equipment) to get you ready for the holiday season.

Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Have a great Labor Day!

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Barcelona & Riviera Cruise: Days 10, 11 & 12

I'm wrapping up our wonderful vacation today!  Just a few more pictures for you...and make sure you scroll down to the bottom for one last piece of info!

Day 10 started with our port in beautiful Mallorca, Spain!  I really didn't have any expectations for this port but it turned out to be one of my favorites.  We had the very best day here!  (Even with Andrew and his elephant leg!)

The architecture was beautiful, the city was really nice, the people were friendly...we had more than enough to do at this port.  And because I obviously don't pull my camera out enough when the kids aren't around, I google imaged a few pics for you to go with our selfies (note to self, even without kids, I need to take more pics!).

It was hot, he was hobbling a bit, but we had the very best time!

The streets are narrow and wind around with little steps (very reminiscent of Venice).  We stopped at this little restaurant for some yummy lunch.  We spent the entire day at this port and didn't get back on the ship until evening.  It was a really, really good port...one that I might come back to and stay for several days.

That night, we stayed up until 10:30 (which is the middle of the night in my book!) for the Dessert Extravaganza on the ship!  It was so much fun!

Towers of donut holes dripping in chocolate!

So much sugar, we can't contain ourselves!!

After we awoke from our sugar coma the next morning, we hopped off at our last port, Valencia. 

We walked the streets of Valencia all day and stumbled upon this little antique book shop.  We collect antique books (especially Andrew!), so he was in heaven.

We left with 3 really neat Spanish books.  

After boarding the ship that night to sail back to Barcelona, we had our last dinner on the boat.

And on Day 12 we left Barcelona and made the 24 hour trek back to Dallas.  We had the very best time!  The kiddos were so excited to see us when we landed at DFW!!  We had missed each other so much!  Thank you so much to all 4 grandparents for taking such great care of Kensington and Smith!  They can't stop talking about all the fun they had :).

If you missed the previous post about Days 8 and 9, click here.

Alright...due to high demand, I've asked Andrew to do an Ask Andrew post next Wednesday.  It cracks me up the number of questions I get for Andrew and about Andrew.  The last time I did, Ask Shay, the majority of the questions asked were about Andrew!  You leave him a question in the comment section below, and he'll look through them and get you answers.  

Ask away...his answers will be up next Wednesday, August 14.

(What are the odds that he'll get some questions about his v-neck shirts???)

And check out my yummy breakfast recipe today...

My moist and dense Ultimate Coconut Bread!

So simple and so delicious!

You have two more days to enter a chance to win a pair of Lovely Lace Leggings for the little girl in your life, click here for details.

Have a great day!

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Find me on Instagram  @mixandmatchmama

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Barcelona & Riviera Cruise: Days 8 & 9

When your day starts out docked in Sardinia and you're eating a chocolate torte and drinking a cappuccino, it really doesn't matter that this was one of the worst ports I've ever been too...

This much chocolate before 9:00 AM can make even the worst port look fantastic.

So, here's the thing about Sardinia.  I have ported dozens of times and traveled a lot...I was just not impressed with this destination.  We only had half a day here before we began our long voyage back to Spain, so Andrew and I hopped off the ship bright and early to make the most of our short port visit.  About 3 minutes into it, I told Andrew that we should have slept in.  

It was clean, it was full of friendly people, there was just nothing to do.  At all.  As we were researching our vacation prior to departing, we realized this port didn't offer a lot, so we weren't shocked...but we made the best of it.  There were a few streets to stroll, so that's me strolling.  They had one random toy store with big dinosaurs in the window, so of course, I had to buy Smith one.  

We enjoyed the scenery and the time together.

I walked past this one athletic store and look what I found in the window!  Even the people of Sardinia know that the Red Sox rule baseball.

We had a lovely day but when it was time to board the ship, we weren't too sad to leave.  We headed back and I did this...

...sat on our balcony and read.  And Andrew did this...

...sprained his ankle.

So, I'm sitting in our cabin reading a book, watching the world go by on our ship when all of a sudden, Andrew limps into our cabin and says he thinks he sprained his ankle.  I look down and see this elephant ankle and I'm like, "really, you think?".  Being the sensitive wife that I am, the first thing I say is "we have two great ports ahead of us, how are you going to walk?" because I'm so selfless.  And being the overly-tough ex-football playing guy that he is, he says, "It's fine.  It's no big deal.".  And this is why our marriage will last.  I was thinking about myself and he was lying about the pain...that's 10 years of marriage right there ;).

After I realized that it looked broken and he actually looked like he might have been in pain (even though he didn't admit it), we limped him down to the bottom deck of the ship where the medic was.  Let me just say, it was so impressive seeing how they operate down there that I kind of wanted to see an actual emergency take place just to watch those people spring into action.  A great episode of ER could have been filmed in that medic's station...it was fancy!  The nurse looked super excited to see us (perhaps their first patient of the trip???) but all we needed was some ice and an Ace Bandage, so she helped us with that and looked a little disappointed that they weren't going to get to amputate or something.  

And for the rest of the trip...and a week back home after...Andrew walked around with a sprained ankle that had him swollen and bruised from his toes to almost his knee.

 But being the tough guy that he is, he didn't let that stop him.  You never would have known that he had an injury...unless you looked down at his swollen elephant leg.

On our day at sea morning, the captain had said that we would be stopping for immigration in Tunise, Tunisia before proceeding back to Spain.  At 6:00 AM, I was asleep when all of a sudden, I heard this constant drum noise.  I got up and looked over my balcony to see this.  Men sitting on camels and men with drums welcoming us to Tunisia.  They drummed and celebrated for almost 2 hours.

See the drummers and camels?  It was so interesting and fun to watch!

After we departed Tunisia, I found myself in this position for the rest of the day.

We got cleaned up and headed out to dinner.  One of us wore heels and one of us limped...you decide.

Next up, our last two days in Spain.  If you missed the last post on Portofino, Italy, click here.  And for days 10, 11 and 12, click here.

And if you missed my post on Tuesday where I recapped all of my vacation essentials, you should really check it out!  Based on the emails and comments I've received, you guys loved this post.

For example, these Steve Madden boots here, got a lot of feedback from you guys!  I'm in love with them, and apparently, you are too!

 I love, love, love hearing feedback!  You guys are the very best!

Check out my Breakfast Sausage Cups this morning too...

They're perfect for weekends!

Happy Friday!!

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