December 1st = Warm and fuzzy time!!!

Holy Moly it's December first!!! I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by... It seems like only yesterday the year 2011 got started. But time flies when you're having fun!

With the holidays approaching extremely fast I like to try and do something that gives me the warm and fuzzies as often as I can. The week after Thanksgiving is when I start sending out my Christmas cards. Before we were married I just bought Disney Christmas themed cards in bulk at a drug store, signed them, and sent them out. But the past two years, since we're married, I've been sending out cards with our pictures on them.

This is last years....

It was our first Christmas since the wedding so we thought it was appropriate to use the wedding pictures. I loved our cards that year. They looked very vintage and classy :)

This is this years... (P.s. I'm sorry for spoiling the surprise to anyone who knows they are getting a card from me but it hasn't arrived yet... I promise it's better in person )

I thought doing a fun, informal Christmas card this year would be a good change from last years. I love the font that the "happy Holidays" are written in and we used pictures from our last WDW and DCL trip. 

Sending out Christmas Cards always gives me that warm fuzzies :) I know it is easy to just send a FB or Twitter shout out but something about getting mail is so romantic to me. I know I love giving and getting Christmas cards in the mail. I've already started calling Adam every day after work and asking him if we got any in the mail yet. (He gets home from work before me) 

What do you do to get that warm and fuzzy feeling in the weeks that are leading up to the Holidays??

Food, Wine, and De-vine??? (Part 2)

After we arrived at the Wilderness Lodge we were so hot from Animal Kingdom that we decided to take a dip in the pool. We stopped in at the roaring fork and bought a pizza to snack on and a couple of beers. The main pool was pretty packed so we walked over to the villas pool. (don't worry we were villas guests, I wasn't stealing the villas pool) It was much quieter and other than one other family we were the only other people in the pool.

After the dip in the pool and a quick shower we were off to EPCOT for the food and wine festival. I must say... A dip in the pool followed by a mid-afternoon shower and costume change really helped reenergize us.  The first attraction we always do when we get to EPCOT is spaceship earth. It is so nostalgic and it always gets me in that EPCOT mood. :)

After Spaceship earth I got a Direct message on twitter from the always sweet Nicole. I met Nicole through the Disney Driven Life and her blog NjoyLife is one of my favorites. I met up with her at Test track and it was like seeing an old friend! She was totally sweet and walking around world showcase with her was so fun. It was a brief meeting but an awesome one.

After we said good bye to Nicole it was time to get our food and drink on! we headed back to the beginning of world showcase to Mexico. Now you'll have to forgive me... I didn't write down everything we ate and drank.. Even if I did I think that the amount of drink we consumed would've led to us forgetting to write it down anyway. Just know that we started in mexico, and ended with Greece. We went all the way around!

After world showcase kicked out butts it was time to hit up a couple future world rides. One thing i can't stand about going to WDW in the fall is the short park hours! I completely forgot that future world closes at 7pm. Luckily we made it to the last showing of Captain EO that night... we literally ran in as the women was closing the doors! No matter how old this is I still Love it! As a huge michael fan and someone who grew up in the 80s I thoroughly enjoy this attraction. 

After EO we moonwalked our way over to the Seas with Nemo. Normally we spend a long time in the aquarium area after exiting the clam mobiles. However Adam was not feeling all that well so I did a quick walk through and then we were out of there. We had one more must do and that was test track. The stand by queue was only a 20min wait so we jumped in line. Half way through the line i felt myself fading and Adam was looking alittle pale. Test track was awesome as usual, but once we got out of the building we were headed right to the buses. I was really sad that we didn't stay until Illuminations but knowing we were leaving for the cruise the next day I didn't want to risk either of us being off of our game. 

Good night EPCOT... until next time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey guys! I will be back to writing my trip report soon I promise! I hope you've all had a great thanksgiving weekend.

This weekend Adam and I had some nice quality time together. We had a few bumps in the road with some family members but all in all it was a very nice holiday! There was good food to be had, and some much needed laughs. We've learned that the good times and the good people are all that matter when it comes to the holidays.

Adam and I went to go see "The Muppets". It was awesome! We laughed and laughed and some happy tears were shed by me. So many people wrote positive reviews about the movie and I agree with most of them, so instead of writing a review that would be redundant of others I will tell you what I learned from The Muppets. The plot is about how the muppets need to reunite in order to save their studios from an evil oil tycoon. They all went their separate ways and there is a significant strain between Kermit and Piggy. There is a scene where Kermit is talking to Piggy and their relationship... He says "Maybe getting everyone to love you isn't what matters. Maybe just getting one person to love you is enough" (or something along those lines) This spoke volumes to me. This is why I totally loved the muppets as a kid and now as an adult. They just did what they loved regardless of what other people thought. Let's face it Fozzi's jokes aren't always the best but we love them anyway! Who cares if not everyone gets their humor or their talent... the fans they have LOVE it! On a personal level this quote (which I hope I got right) got me thinking about my own hang ups with people. Instead of focusing on the people that you don't click with or that you don't have the best relationship with, I need to focus on the people that I know care about me and love me without me having to ask for it. There were many life lessons in "The Muppets" that I think kids and adults could learn from.  I really hope that this movie spawns more Muppet productions in the world. Who knows.. maybe if it makes enough money this weekend we'll see a revival of "The Muppet Show"..... hey I can dream right?

I'm going to start writing up my next trip report blog post and hopefully have it up by Wednesday. This week is going to be busy for me at work but I'm hoping i'll have enough time to get it posted :) In the meantime tell me... how was your thanksgiving??

Day 3 - Food, Wine, and De-vine??? (part 1)

Day 3 (September 29th) started with what else?... FOOD! Adam and I are BIG fans of BOMA Flavors Africa restaurant at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. We've had dinner there twice so far and love it! When planning this trip Adam found out that BOMA did a breakfast and he really wanted to try it. Our reservation that morning was for 8:30am. We were up and ready to go early and caught the first bus over to Animal Kingdom, and then to the lodge.

Since we arrived slightly early we thought it would be sweet to get some pictures on the bridge over the lobby. This is where Adam and I first saw each other the day of our wedding. It was very surreal to be back there a year later.

(October 2nd 2010)

(September 29th 2011)

yea we don't look completely exhausted! After pictures we checked in at BOMA and were seated pretty quickly. We had a very nice waiter who was from Casablanca... seriously! Don't ask me what his name was but I remember where he was from because how cool!? Breakfast was absolutely delicious. They had this scrambled egg dish that had goat cheese and chives in it... i went up for seconds of that! We tried a bit of everything and we loved most of it! Not going to lie there were a few things that were alittle too authentic but for the most part we stuffed ourselves silly. If you're a fan of BOMA's dinner menu I highly recommend you try their breakfast. Oh and did I mention that the famed Zebra Domes also make an appearance for breakfast?? Zebra Domes = <3

After breakfast and some walking around the Animal Kingdom Lodge lobby for some nostalgia it was back to the buses to head to Animal Kingdom park. I know everyone says this but seriously could that park be any hotter?! its like the second you walk through the turnstiles the temperature goes up 20 degrees! Any way... our standing tradition at Animal Kingdom is to go right to the Kilimanjaro Safari and get a fast pass, then head over to Expedition Everest. Like always this worked out great! We grabbed our safari fast pass and went right over to everest. The stand by line for everest was only 20mins but I never mind it. There is so much to see and read about in that queue that half the time I wish I was there longer!

Expedition Everest kicked butt as usual... although I wish they would fix the yeti!!! After Everest it was time to use our safari fast pass. I love how it is a totally different experience every time you ride it. On  this safari we got some really good pictures of rhinos and the elephants... especially the little baby elephant! :)

See the little baby!! So cute!!

After the safari we started walking through the Maharaja (sp?) Jungle trek. I love walking through here too. All the up close and personal animal areas and the cast members on hand to answer any questions you have about the animals is great! We were in there for about an hour! 

It was so hot and we were still so tired from lack of sleep that we though it would be best to head to the exit and back to Wilderness lodge for a quick dip in the pool, and shower to perk ourselves up before EPCOT. On the way out we saw a group of people gathered looking at a tree...???.... NOPE it was De-vine!!! I was so excited! I grabbed my camera and start snapping away. I've heard about De-vine many times but every time we go to Animal Kingdom I never get to see her. This was such an awesome moment! She was simply breathtaking. Adam and I watched her for quite a while before she moved on through the trees.

Side view... see her profile?

Best picture ever!

Our journey back to the Wilderness lodge was uneventful and luckily there was a wilderness lodge bus pulling in as we got to the bus depot. The air conditioning felt soooo gooooood!

This turned into another long post! ha! I think i'm going to keep posting my days in two parts so that its not too over whelming for both me to type and you to read! ;) Hope you enjoyed Day 3 part 1!

xoxo