SNO: Howdy y'all!

My favorite event of the year, Spouses Night Out, has come and gone. I think this was the best one yet! I am so sad that this was the last one I will be participating in, but maybe I will start up something similar at our next base.

Our group for the evening. Everyone did such a great job with their outfits!

Aren't these cows so cute? The planning committee did a great job creating this photo spot.

I had fun putting together my outfit for this year's SNO. I love, love, love this top that I purchased from Modcloth!

I have never in my life wanted to own cowboy boots, but I had to get some for this theme. These came from DSW. I've worn them several times already and have gotten a lot of compliments on them.

One of my friends who had been stationed at Goodfellow said that Ryan Gosling had been there, so I thought I would make a Hey Girl to share with folks at SNO.

Each group had to give a presentation about our base. I shared a lot of fun facts about San Angelo and Goodfellow and even pulled out a little Southern accent while doing it. 

Our Goodfellow side of the table. The sign is modeled after the entry sign at Goodfellow AFB. The table also features pictures of the Wing Commander, Vice Wing Commander and Chief of Goodfellow. I also printed out patches from various squadrons at the base and scattered them on the tablecloth. 

This is the back of the Goodfellow table. It features the Sheep of San Angelo. I love how it turned out!

I am very proud of my Texas table. The centerpiece is an old window frame that I purchased at a local antique store. I accidentally broke the glass and thought it was ruined! But I thought of a plan to redeem it. I strung fishing line across and was able to hang the Texas state outline on it. I received a lot of compliments last night and it made me feel great!

The back of our Texas table. For the table as a whole, I made sure to include some Texas favorite--HEB grocery bag, Whataburger cup and bag, Shiner beer, and more.

This year's event featured a Grog bowl...either a yummy or yucky one. I was lucky enough not to break any of the rules, so I did not get called up to the Grog.

I did partake in a few jell-o shots at our tailgating before SNO.

I was bummed that we did not win any of the awards again, but I did walk away with the door prize that I wanted. It included a free hair cut and style and a great Thirty-One travel toiletry bag.

Spouses Night Out 2016: Home is Where the Air Force Sends You

My favorite base spouse event is here--Spouses Night Out! This has been MY event the past few years and this is my last one; we will be PCSing (moving to all you non-military folks) later this year. My first year the theme was TV shows and we had Mad Men. Last year the theme was board games and we chose The Game of Life.

For 2016, the event theme is Home is Where the Air Force Sends You. Each group was tasked with picking a base to use as the inspiration for their table decorations. As usual, our spouses voted on the bases they wanted on our "Dream Sheet" and Goodfellow AFB was at the top. I thought our chances were pretty high for getting our top choice because Goodfellow is not a very well-liked base. And lo and behold, we got our first choice!

Because Goodfellow AFB is in Texas, I knew I had to go with a Texas theme for at least one of our tables. I have never thought so long and hard about the Lone Star state. I got to work planning out our tables with some sketches.

At the end of SNO 2015, they announced the 2016 theme and a bunch of people immediately thought Texas would be a perfect option for us. Even though we didn't pick our theme until early 2016, I had spent pretty much the whole year with Texas in the back of my mind and I knew I wanted a big Texas state outline on my table. This table was inspired by the little graphic at the top--Things Texans Love. My sister is an adopted Texan (she moved there and doesn't plan on ever leaving). She shared that graphic once and I knew it would be the perfect inspiration for my table.

 

 

This table looks pretty boring from my sketch and I ended up having to re-do the layout anyway. The past two years we have had enough people for 3 tables, but this year we were down to two.

I love sheep. I have several sheep stuffed animals and figurines. San Angelo has fiberglass sheep around town that businesses sponsor and decorate. I knew I had to use sheep in my design. Because we were down to two tables, I could not dedicate a whole table to the sheep. I compromised and combined the Goodfellow and Sheep tables. 

I had a lot of fun designing the place cards for our tables. I made three different designs. Originally I was going to have one design per table, but then decided to just alternate.

These are based on the Whataburger table numbers. This idea was given to me by one of our spouses and I love how they turned out!

These place cards feature a vintage Goodfellow image and patches from some of the squadrons at Goodfellow.

And these show some of the Sheep of San Angelo. I love these the best, but I am biased towards sheep.

I also wanted something to hand out to people at the event...bribes are OK, right? I created a recipe card for kolaches--a Texas favorite. I found the recipe on Pinterest.

Stay tuned for pictures of the final design!

A visit to Stars Hollow

Another reason I wanted to visit SoCal is to step into the world of Stars Hollow. I saw a post on Pinterest once that said "Visit Stars Hollow" and linked to the WB Studio Tour. I knew I had to go!

The Starbucks barista at the WB lot spelled my name right!

The WB Studio Tour is pretty cool and very informative. Our guide, Jose, was excellent and pointed out all the cool things about the studio lot. You can tell he loves movies and TV. Before coming on this tour I felt like I watched a lot of TV. That was not the feeling afterward.

Well, because they are in the midst of filming the Gilmore Girls revival for Netflix we were not able to see as much of Stars Hollow as I hoped. I was pleased with the small parts I did see--Luke's diner and Lorelei's house and car.

Just a small piece of Luke's Diner

This was the Pie Hole from Pushing Daisies at one point

Everything was Batman vs Superman theme for the new release

The prop house

I've never really watched Friends, but this photo op was a must.

Oscars are quite heavy!

We also went to Medieval Times! We had the blue knight. He ended up dying, but he lasted awhile. It was a fun show and good food!

SoCal hockey

Like I mentioned in my previous post, part of the reason for our SoCal trip was to check out a couple hockey games. Being that my husband is a big hockey fan, we try to visit as many hockey arenas that we can. Luckily, there are two quite close to each other in SoCal--Anaheim and LA.

Our first game was Anaheim vs. Boston. We cheered for the home team and they won!

Our second game was LA vs Boston. Something rubbed us the wrong way about the Kings and LA, so we cheered for Boston. They lost, though. Bummer!

Because Charles is a New Jersey Devils fan, I have a NJ Devils jersey. I wore it both nights. The second night a guy complimented me on my jersey and was talking about how awesome Jersey girls are. I kind of felt like a fraud because I have never even been to New Jersey.

The happiest place on Earth

Immediately following our Hawaii vacation, we flew down to southern California for a few days. Our original intention was to go to a couple hockey games and try our luck at getting rich and famous by winning the Showcase Showdown on The Price is Right. We also used our time to visit Disneyland! This was on my California bucket list since we found out we were going to be stationed here.

My Dad's favorite superhero is Iron Man. I had to take a picture!

Our first ride was on the Alice in Wonderland caterpillar ride. While in line, we saw Alice and the Mad Hatter walk by. I was really tempted to jump out of line to get a picture with them. I didn't and we never saw them again.

We had one of these massive turkey legs as one of our snacks. It was quite tasty!

Lots of people going to California Adventure!

Disney does a great job of bringing the animated worlds to life in their parks. We love Monsters, Inc. and had to take advantage of Boo's door.

We liked the Bug's Life section. We both felt like we were in the movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

Charles was really excited to get a seat on the happy otter.

I did NOT like that Ferris wheel ride. We opted for the swinging baskets. That was a horrible idea. Being afraid of heights and swinging baskets = sick and scared to death me.