Vacation 2014, Part II

The contents of our week at home on vacation were quite different than a normal week here. Our fancy shmancy hotel vacation and our trip to Orlando transformed into a "STAYcation," over night. So not only was it a vacation for Ryan away from work it was absolutely grand having Ryan home all week helping me with the stay at home mom stuff (this also means sleeping in advantages).

We switched off mornings being able to stay snug in bed while the other did all the morning stuff with Lola. 

^ A perfect example of our Staycation. Sleep, Sleep, and lots of sleep!

This also worked wonders because Sims 4 just released the Tuesday of our vacation and I was getting antsy about staying up late some nights building mansions and becoming a master chef via Sim world. So it totally worked out and we got to pretend we were kids again, feeling like rebels staying up as late as possible AND sleeping in till' noon.

We also took a trip to SAM's to get some bulk shopping done. We went a little crazy, but our house needed re-stocking in stuff we use daily, so it was nice to get it all done in one shot and (bonus) it will last us for quite a while (green tea and cereal heaven). 

So the rest of the week we vegged and vegged some more, and prepared ourselves for the weekend ahead. We were taking our first overnight trip as a family! A while back we scooped up Frozen on Ice tickets because even at a very young age Lola adored the movie and Ryan and I had just visited our first Disney on ice event and loved it. So bringing Lola was a nessecity. We incorporated our vacation around that time and decided that getting a hotel the night before would be the best option for our busy baby schedule (and because we still think it's super cool to stay in a hotel, it also gave us an excuse to spend all of Saturday roaming Orlando.)

Which we did. We explored Seuss landing and went on the few measly rides that were 1 year old accessible, it was still a blast. We took Lola on the Hogwarts express and brought her to Diagon Alley because we just couldn't get enough, but Lola had enough. And after like 3 hours she was pooped, starving and ready to crash. Too be expected bring a 1 year old to an amusement park, how do you pro parents do it?!

Our hotel was smack dab in downtown Orlando which was pretty nifty since the Amway center was right down the street. Our hotel was super nice, and Lola had a blast (minus Ryan dropping us off to get dinner and Lola and I being hotel-less because I forgot the hotel number). Oh boy...that was a story and don't get me started on burger 21 burgers with a hefty scoop of guacamole....ew and our exhausted attempts of pulling out the futon from the couch... AND forgetting our frozen tickets all the way back at home and not realizing it till the night before....our evening wasn't the best, but it's pretty hilarious to think about now. 

The next morning we found a small place for breakfast, ate our bellies full, and arrived in the parking lot really early to let Lola nap before the show. I was so nervous that she was going to be a typical one year old...and she was. But luckily we purchased club seating which meant we had our own little zone and swivel comfy chairs. It made the whole process a gazillion times easier. We were able to stand up and bounce Lola when she got antsy and fussy, and the chairs kind of enclosed her in when she was actively watching the performance and enjoying it. So worth it, and she adored watching her favorite movie unfold with real life characters and real ice! (Well sort of real...). 

Vacation 2014 Part I

Our 8 day vacation came to an end last night and I'm a mixture of feelings about it. I was begging the time to stand still in the middle of last week, but I was also longing for our lives to get back on track again, but mostly begging the clock.

It's been about 2 years since we had a "real" vacation. I'm not counting last years vacation because Ryan and I were sleep deprived zombies and learning how to be parents. I barely recall anything from that week and relaxation was the last thing on our minds.

So that is why we made sure to fill this week with everything a vacation recipe calls for. 

Our week started last Sunday, after dropping little hunny off at my parents house. We have been anticipating the new expansion to Harry Potter World since the commericials started airing on TV. The last time we explored Universal Studios, Harry Potter World was in an itty bitty corner of the park, but it was still just like walking into pages themselves, so we started planning immediately and next thing you know we became annual pass holders to both parks. Now we can jump into the book whenever we feel like it. 

So we made the short 2ish hour drive and spent the whole day, just the two of us forgetting about all the responsibilities of our lives, sipping on butter beer, and exploring Diagon alley and the rest of the worlds in both parks. Since we wanted to go a little crazy since we were on vacation, we got a super fancy shmancy hotel (I hardly knew the real name of it so fancy shmancy hotel was a great substitute). This hotel put any hotel I've ever stayed into shame, it had a gigantic kitchen, the nicest balcony and view, a bed that slept probably the seven dwarves and a jacuzzi tub.....WITH JETS. 

Home was a distant memory at this point. Park Place who? what? where?
And then we quite literally sunk our heads into pillow heaven and slept like champions. In the morning we made our way to the cafe connected to our hotel, got Starbucks, and tip toed back to our room and enjoyed the sunrise and breakfast on our balcony.

It was the life.
We spent the next few hours back at the 2 parks until our feet were bubbling with blisters and we couldn't take the heat anymore.
We arrived home probably limping toward the door, but it was all totally worth it, if only we could bring home our own personal butter beer keg, I think our lives would have been completely complete.

A Car Journey

When Ryan and I first started dating we both were car-less. It was funny because we would literally walk to most of the destinations we desired and were perfectly okay with it. I still would walk everywhere around the world as long as Ryan was my walking companion, but a car was like a far far away fantasy 4 1/2 years ago. Every once in a while we would snag a ride in his brother's car to go to who knows where and we were all lame about it and thought we were so damn cool.

Fast forward about a year later. Ryan's dad found us a beat up old Ram van and we paid like 500 bucks for it. Big spenders. It was THE best thing since sliced bread. We went mostly everywhere in that van. He would come pick me up from my Mom's house and we would cruise around and take our mini adventures around town and the sidewalks didn't miss us much at all. So just picture a big black and aqau van, that has only a driver's seat and a passenger seat. The whole inside was empty except for a bunch of weird stains on the carpet, carpet on the sides and pretty much everywhere and little aqua velvet curtains on the windows. The curtains were my favorite. We named the van Jeb after our big fat black cat. We brought Jeb home in that car, he was the babiest kitten then and we let him roam in the back the whole ride home. We spent a lot of time in the back of the van just getting away from the world for a little bit. Then poor 200,000 mile Jeb the van broke down.

Back to square one. We didn't have a vehicle for about another year-ish. Until we decided to make a rash decision and go to one of those hick used car lots that nobody really knows about. Bobby J's. This is where we got The 1999 Chevy Cavalier. This car was a literal hell on wheels. Not in a good way whatsoever. It has spent countless days in the shop fixing all it's insides. The engine blew and we were without a car AGAIN because it took a while to get it fixed. It's been a good year and a half since that happened and it's still running....sort of, if that's what you wanna call it. We never knew how much gas we had because our gas gauge was possessed along with the speedometer that would sometimes go wacky crazy while you're driving down the road. This car had it all.  Anyway aside from all that we were all happy slappy and then our air conditioning broke completely which wasn't so bad in the fall and winter, but the summer....don't even get me going especially with having a baby. It was just becoming unrealistic. Sigh. Around this time last year our car also got badly BADLY infested with german roaches. YAY. So not yay. We still managed to go on all our adventures and we made so many amazing memories in there don't get me wrong, it's just it was time...

Friday night. It was a casual Friday. My mom had actually taken Lola for the day so I could get some much needed deep cleaning done in the house. Ryan came home and immediately jumped on my laptop. After about 2 hours of his face being planted on the screen. He closed the laptop and we drove to the Toyota dealership down the street. We drove up in our Cavalier, surrounded by nice shiny, bugless cars. We met our sales guy, he pointed straight ahead to what was going to be our future car. I think we were both in straight up awe over this thing. So sleek and black and gigantic on the inside. It was time. We have needed this for a long time coming, especially with Lola coming along on all our adventures. We knew we needed something reliable and strong enough to endure the future unlike our past cars. So without further ado say hello to our 2011 Toyota Camry....

Year 22

Here's a huge shoutout to birthdays that fall on Monday. This year I got a birthday weekend, I'm talkin' Saturday-Monday people! All because my birthday fell on a plain jane Monday.
So here's 22 (in honor of yours truly) reasons why I'm giving two thumbs up to my birthday this year:

1. Ryan decided to blow my mind and bring me to see Disney on Ice this year.
2. This means, I got to be a four year old again and sing every song at the top of my lungs.
3. Buzz Lightyear and Woody on ice....enough said.
4. Meeting friends at Applebee's at the only appropriate time...after 10pm.
5. The lovely creation of BOGO drinks and half price appetizers.
6. Ryan decides to be a hero and steam clean all the carpet in our apartment.
7. I get front rows seats to the madness.
8. After our carpet is a wonderland, he rolls out the giant rug I've been swooning over at Home Depot.
9. We lay on it together and make rug angels if those are really a thing.
10. My family takes us out to Kobe for the second weekend in a row.
11. I smother all my food in yummy yummy sauce because why not?
12. Birthday cake for breakfast on your actual birthday should probably be a tradition everyone follows.
13. My best friend, my Lola, and I take a trip to the Florida Aquarium.
14. It's like the place was rented out for us because who actually goes to the aquarium on a Monday? WE DO.
15. Lola was completely in love with just about everything and was excersizing this new pointing mechanism that she has learned recently.
16. I took too many pictures for my own good. Scroll down.
17. Ryan surprises me yet AGAIN with the kitchen aid pasta attachment that I could only dreamily stare online at until now. I was in total shock and I think I hugged him about a hundred times.
18. A trip to a giant walmart garden center.
19. Came home with a Roma tomato plant and a Bell Pepper plant WITH baby tomatoes and bell peppers! There's something about baby produce that makes me impulsive.
20. My lovely parents took the little hunny for the night and Ryan made reservations for The Melting Pot.
21. The melting pot was the best experience I've ever had as far as restaurants go. Dipping things in
22. cheese and chocolate can always always be a thing for me. They also sent me home with chocolate covered strawberries for my birthday because the manager loved us so much. What gets better than that?

This year I can say I have a clear head and this year so far has been nothing shy of amazing and this birthday is just the beginning to many more to come. I think I've finally started accepting adulthood...in my own way of course. Things are changing and I actually like it.

Renaissance Festival

This past weekend the usual crew and I set out for the Renaissance festival! Every year people dress up in medieval wear and take themselves back to a different time and place. A place where kings and queens ruled, things were only made by hand, and people spoke in a different way. The times now are so hustle bustle and less in the moment. People lived in the moment back then. Things came unexpectedly because there was no such thing as phones and internet to prepare them for just about anything. Although the festival is...well just a festival it still acts as a time machine for me.
I like to bring myself back into that time every once in a while to be free for a few hours and live simply.



If only I owned an actual time machine...

Disney in a Day

Three parks in one day. We conquered three whole disney parks in one teeny tiny day. Not to mention running on four hours of sleep and the Grateful Deads that I drank the night before were still rumbling around in my tummy. All of that didn't matter because Stephanie (J) and I (yes, I have two best friends named Stephanie) were headed to the most magical place on earth for her 22nd birthday. That's right Disney World.

A few twists and turns later we started our day off at Animal kingdom to brighten our morning with the sounds of elephants and monkeys. We got to gaze upon the gigantic Tree of Life and I made a few wishes secretly that I could plant a tree so magnificent in our future backyard. Next, we learned that it really is "Tough to be a Bug," in one of those 3D experiences where you get squirted with bug insides and smell the wrath of a stink bug farts. After that, we headed to Expedition Everest and got chased by a yeti via roller coaster and it was off to DinoLand to be rescued by the extinct of course. We made it just in time to see the Finding Nemo Musical and I was automatically in so much love. I mean can there just be a law that all Disney movies must be replicated into musicals? I think yes, so many yeses! So we rode a few dinosaurs and our tummies started growling so it was time to travel to Epcot. 

Epcot delighted us with probably some of the most beautiful flower beds and structures I've ever seen before. Visually I think Epcot is one of the prettiest parks and they did such a fantastic job of replicating all the countries to a tee. I was impressed. We frolicked through the multiple disney characters covered in moss and flowers on our way to Mexico to chow down. The food was decent considering we went to one of the cheaper restaurants, I got empanadas which I've never had before, and they were pretty lovely, and it was super tempting to get an authentic margarita, but my belly and my wallet stated otherwise. We said adios to Mexico and I was on a hunt down mission to meet Alice. We spotted her in the United Kingdom surrounded by a tea garden with actually tea leaves growing in tea cups. I was in wonderland heaven. Wonderland heaven? I mean that's like the best of both worlds. So I got my picture and we were off to get launched into space. At this point we were getting worn down beyond belief. I made the horrible mistake of not wearing socks with my vans that day and my feet were transforming into one big blister. We were steadily limping to our car and decided that it was time for a break. After Epcot we refueled at Hess because water at disney horrified my pocket and we kind of just vegged in the car with our shoes off while Magic Kingdom awaited us.

We stumbled into Magic Kingdom blisters on our feet and all ready to conquer our homeland. Waited in the longest lines, but was well worth it because flying with peter pan and getting "It's a small world," stuck in your head is a staple when it comes to Magic Kingdom. After lines and lines and our grumbly bellies frowning at the price tags on food we stuck it out just for Space Mountain and then it hit us. The overwhelming feeling of leaving Disney World and being an adult. The horrible realization that our legs could no long endure the wrath of disney world much longer. We glanced at each other and then took a last glimpse of Cinderella's castle and made a run for it...or should I say a limp for it. Yes, we were pretty much penguins at this point. (by the way it takes like an hour just to get back to your ever loving car so the last hour was a blur for the both of us, but nonetheless HILARIOUS). Especially when we saw our car in the distance after getting off the tram we literally started galloping to the car with joy.
I so wasn't ready to say goodbye to Disney, but I know we will be seeing each other again very very soon because there's a little girl that I KNOW is dying to meet Ariel and her gang.

Until next time Disney :)