Scratch these of my Bucket List!

It seems as though I am so far behind in journaling everything that has happened lately!  I hardly got to share any pictures with anyone of our "Annimoon" as we liked to call it.  This was our one-year anniversary trip last year to Disney World, and it was amazing.

There are always things in your life that you say you should add to your "bucket list."  There is no telling how many times I have said this, or exactly how long my list actually is (I am sure it will fluctuate depending on my mood!)

What I do know is that for me, a bucket list can be a roadmap to where you want to go in life, what you want to accomplish.  Somethings can be as silly as learning to ride a unicycle (not on my list coincidentally), or something as big as having children or starting your own business.  No matter what you have on your bucket list, I think it's so important to have one.

My bucket list generally tends to have experiences and places that wouldn't just normally happen on a daily basis.  There are tons of places I want to see, and things that I want to do that just seem like really cool things to do.  And the awesome thing is, for me at least, when you finally accomplish that one thing, or go to that one place, how blessed do you feel that you even got there?!  I think about it like this: each "check" mark on my list, just means one more day I lived and got to experience God's little blessings in our lives.  Even small things, silly things, are blessings if we even get to accomplish them!

Ok, back to our Annimoon, which just so happened to allow me to cross two things off my bucket list!

Scratch-off #1 - AIRBOAT TOUR!

This was my "surprise" to Anthony on our trip.  I figured since we were in Florida we should take advantage of the swamps and ride on an airboat (the promise of getting to hold baby alligators helped seal the deal).  The ride was awesome, and for me could have lasted a lot longer.  It's amazing how fast they fly on just a few inches of water - amazing!

Our boat:

Water lillies snagged from our boat captain:

I bet he wished he could take those headphones home (you can't hear a thing with them on) :)

Of COURSE I kissed it!

I tried to get him to kiss it, but nope.

Scratch-off #2 - HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE!

It almost looked as though we weren't going to be able to do Anthony's surprise that week, because apparently hot air balloons are very temperamental.  You can only fly first thing in the morning, and can only go when the temperature and air pressure are exactly right.  We had 2 cancellations before we were finally able to go the last day before we left.  I can honestly say this was one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life!  The whole process of setting up the balloon and just flying through the air was amazing - and the feeling of being thousands of feet in the air but you can't hear a thing is surreal.

I will always remember this experience, and if I never even get to do it again, at least I can say I did it once!

Before going up, and before the sun came up!

Our group on the balloon (yes, they really cram you in there)

Our balloon, and then up, up, and away!

This was my favorite picture of the day: it was taken from our balloon and zoomed way in to a balloon below us that was just dusting over a pond...so cool.

"From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another." (John 1:16)