Mom's Weekend at Kappa Delta

 I was so so so happy to visit my best girl for Kappa Delta Mom's weekend at Mizzou!

Natalie had a couple of classes on Friday when I arrived (very early since I had a 5:40 am flight out of Boston!)  But I was able to meet up with her for a quick lunch between two of her classes.

I went back to the hotel and was finally able to check in before I headed over to the Kappa Delta house where they had a big sign for Mother Figure weekend.

Don't worry, I spotted a little bit of my own sorority in the Kappa Delta house! 🩵🩶

They had a nice little weekend planned for us!

On Friday evening, we went out to dinner with Natalie's "fam" and their moms. Here we have Kate, Claire, Natalie, Emily and Anna - her Kappa Delta fam! Claire is the grand big- she had two littles - Kate and Emily.  Kate's little is Anna, and Emily's little is Natalie! I think I finally got it right!

We were NOT going to let a little tornado warning deter us from having a fun evening!

Well that's suspiciously close! But just to our south.

Yeah, there's definitely some rotation on the radar just northeast of Jeff City! But it moved northeast from there and we were not impacted, thankfully!  We DID get to hear the new tornado sirens though! I think it might have been the greatest day of Natalie's life!

But we called it an early night because I had gotten up at 1:30am. Yawn!

The next morning we had a really nice breakfast at the Kappa Delta house. Natalie is so lucky to have a chef that cooks for them named Stan - although he is retiring! Breakfast was delicious and we took a tour of the house. Out on their back deck, a little dove had made a nest in one of the plants - so cute!

After breakfast, Natalie and I went to Target. Of course, we had to stop at the BTS Arirang stand.

After Target, we ran down to Tiger Spirit for a couple of Mizzou souvenirs - and this was after we had already clearly bought all the KD merch!

Back at the KD house, I finally got to see Natalie's room!

It's so cute! She has the nicest roommates here. Her time in the house was really so special. She's made her very best friends there, and I'm so, so happy.

Me and my girl, on our way out to Serenity Valley Winery!

Thank goodness I had a fleece because our super hot Friday turned into a really chilly Saturday. Thankfully there wasn't any rain though! Also, I don't know the last time I was on an actual yellow school bus, lol.

Kate and her mom sat across from me and Anna's mom (Katie) - and Katie and I shared this nice bottle of red!

The vineyard itself was really pretty, and they sold snacks and food as well as wine and beer.

But boiiiiii, it was COLD! I had no feeling in my hand!

The girls got a different bottle of wine - none of us could finish either bottle!

It was a lovely evening at the vineyard!

Ok that's it. I know where I want to move to.

After a lovely evening at the vineyard, we joined some other girls and their mom's at NashVegas. Oh boy!!

Don't worry, this tradition is becoming generational!

We had the best time at NashVegas. The music was fun - occasionally they would play some old school country and that was awesome! I don't know much new stuff, but the girls were having a great time.

Morgan, Kate, Kaydence and Natalie at Nash Vegas.

And of course, the mom's also had to snap a pic!

You can see Natalie, Kaydence and Morgan in the front row. We really had a blast but I DO NOT MISS THESE DAYS AT ALL. 

Kaydence doesn't look like her mom at all, no? I think this was right after the staff told us we could NOT, in fact, stand on the chairs. OOPS.

All I have to say about the day after a night at Nash Vegas is a) thank goodness for Uber, and b) thank goodness for Waffle House!

After breakfast at Waffle House on Sunday (there was a line!), we went to get pedicures.  Naturally, we got purple toes for the upcoming BTS concerts we are going to in Tampa!

And then... sniff sniff... it was time to say goodbye to my girl and the fabulous weekend that Kappa Delta put on for the mother figures.  If I wasn't going to see her again in 5 days, I would absolutely have been gutted. We had the best weekend!

Well, if I have to go home, at least I have a full empty row next to me! Hooray!

Until next time, Mizzou! Take care of my girl!

Days at Sea on the Celebrity Constellation

 We spent our last two full days at sea and it was gloriously relaxing!

Both days, we slept in. We ordered breakfast in the room and ate it on the balcony. We finally made it to the pool by eh... maybe 11. We were pretty convinced that the ship wasn't full because we were still able to get seats both days - not at the pool, but at least on the upper deck above the pool.

These two birds followed us for the longest time. How do they fly for so long? It seems exhausting!

On days at sea, there are a lot of events going on. They had an "officers vs. passengers" pool volleyball tournament going on.

They also have a lot of live music, like this reggae band on the pool deck!

I mean, I literally took very few photos all day because we just relaxed and lounged around. For dinner, we went to Le Petit Chef, which is a restaurant that has a little video story about a tiny little chef projected onto your table! I enjoyed the magical menu - it was awesome!

The magical cooking book at Le Petit Chef!

First, your book opens and they discuss the magical soup (which you will receive later from the waiter - it was a delicious creamy potato leek soup!)  But it turns out there might be some fairy dust and goblin tears in it...

These little fairies worked very hard on my meal!

No kidding, I actually thought Le Petit Chef kind of looked like a miniature version of Grant.

The citrus poached cod loin was also fantastic!

The main course was Beef Wellington and it was VERY good!

I think maybe the best part of the meal was dessert. On paper, this wasn't something that really appealed to us. It was a "pumpkin green tea ganache with orange-Yuzu sauce."  But it was fantastic! Mom and I both agreed it was better than the other dessert!

After dinner at Le Petit Chef, we headed to... you guessed it... the Martini Bar! We didn't stay long!

On our last full day at sea, I went up to the pool deck to get my last bit of vitamin D.

I also enjoyed some desserts with my lunch. I didn't have dessert every day but sometimes you need to treat yo'self!

After lunch, it was balcony relaxation time, and probably nap time.

I couldn't get enough of the blue water below. Why is the ocean so pretty?

Finally, it was time to go to our last dinner on the ship!  The elevators on the Constellation face out, so you always had a good view when you went up or down.

One more meal at Blu! We ate here 6 out of 7 of the nights - with the only other night being dinner at Le Petit Chef.

And one more awesome glass of cabernet (with my Coke Zero, of course!)  Why didn't I ask what brand of cabernet this was?

The hue was blu(e) with our last-night meals. I had a delicious steak!

And of course, we had to have one last drink (or two) at the Martini Bar before our cruise ended. I scratched our initials in the ice 💖

Someone who was there before us had made this circle, so my mom decided that it was an ice skating rink and pretended her fingers were ice skating on the bar! I'm sure Natalie would approve!

Then it was time for the show, and the cruise director Kelly Rose came down and actually did the pouring UP on the bar!

And of course, we had another SUPER fun (maybe too much fun!) evening with our besties, Ellie and Carlos!

We were having SO much fun that Boom Boom joined us on the other side of the bar!

Three generations (lol) of cruisers having so much fun at the Martini Bar. Man, this was a great cruise! We met so many great people, had so much fun on the ship, and I even got to two new Mexican cities that I had never been to before, PLUS one new country!

But all good things must end (but WHY?) 

We got off the ship fairly early on Sunday and there was no line to get off the ship, which was a nice surprise. The Constellation was on it's way overseas after this, heading to Rome. Now it was back to reality!

Until next time, Celebrity Constellation!