Disney World 2013 (Day 6)

8.20.13---Today was our free day from the parks.  We spent the morning in the volcano pool.  Steph and I went to the Garden View Tea Room at the Grand Floridian that afternoon.  We had a lovely spread of cheeses, sandwiches, tarts, treats, tea, and champagne.  It was all so good!  That is one of my favorite spots on grounds.  Unfortunately, I had a massive panic attack while enjoying the tea.  I think that the tea gave me serious jitters and set off my anxiety.  Sigh...  I hated that happened while we were having such a good time.  Next time I go, I will be sure to get something decaf.  I went back to the room and napped the anxiety off while everyone else went to Downtown Disney for the evening.  After I woke up, I took some meds and headed out to meet them.  I don't like letting my anxiety get the best of me so I forced myself out the door.  We met up in the World of Disney store and shopped around.  Afterwards, we headed back to the Poly for dinner at Captain Cook's.

Hayden wearing his surfboard necklace

I cannot believe Clayton caught this pic of Hayden punching E square in the face, lol.  It takes talent to be able to do that so perfectly when you can't see. : P

BTW, that pic looks more brutal that it really was.  E wasn't hurt, I promise.

Disney World 2013 (Day 5)

8.19.13---We slept in and had breakfast at Captain Cook's before heading over to EPCOT.  We had fastpass + ressies for Soarin', Test Track, and Mission Space.  I didn't ride MS due to having a condition called MAV (recently diagnosed and I will discuss it later- just know that it is migraine associated vertigo).  MS spins so I didn't think that would have been good for my head.  While they did that ride, I walked over to the Mexico pavilion for some chips and fresh guacamole.  I also had a tasty passion fruit margarita.  We all met back up and rode the 2 World Showcase rides.  Everyone had snacks in the Norway bakery before we continued walking (and drinking, in my case, lol) around the countries.  Steph and I bought some trinkets along the way and the boys tried to play the Perry the Platypus EPCOT game.  

We showed up at the Italy pavilion for our dinner ressies at Via Napoli.  Our meal was fantastic!!  I had read a lot of positive reviews on this place and decided to give it a go.  I am so glad that we did.  The arancini balls (rice balls stuffed with meat/cheese and served on ragu sauce), spaghetti with meatballs, and fire-roasted pizzas were to die for.  I loved it so much that I booked it again for lunch later in the week.  This is now my #2 restaurant in the World (Sanaa at AKL is my #1).  I highly recommend it.  Just note that it is a bit loud in there.     

My men

Breakfast of champions in that top left pic, lol.

Our friends, the Duckers, met up with us again to watch Illuminations.  We had a wonderful time just chilling together.  That drink in my hand is the Grey Goose slush that I mentioned in an earlier posting.  You can get these tasty drinks from the wine cart in France.  Yum!

Disney Trip 2013 (Day 4)---Part 1

8.18.13---We slept in this morning.  Everyone but me headed to the pool area as soon as they got up.  I went in search of some hot food for breakfast.  I ended up walking over to the Beach Club side of our resort because the Yacht Club side doesn't have a counter service place.  What a crock!  As much you pay to stay in a deluxe hotel in Disney, you should be able to get some quick eats in your own hotel.  Sheesh.  The Marketplace was an absolute nightmare.  It was crowded with rude people and screaming kids.  The line for breakfast was really slow.  I about lost my mind while waiting to pay for my food.  On my way out, I saw my family sitting by the pool and tried to go sit beside them.  That was dang near impossible.  I kept walking through doors out of the back of the resort and yet all of the walkways were blocked by fences and shrubs.  They are there to keep people that are just dining in the restaurants from entering our pool area (it is guarded from non-resort guests to prevent pool hopping).  I like that they prevent pool hoppers but geez, I shouldn't have such a hard time getting into my own resort's pool area.  I hopped a fence and still ended up having to walk a long way around to get into the pool area, I was ticked.  I sat down and Clayton could tell that I wasn't happy.  That's when he said the magic words that changed the fate of our entire vacation, "You can move us to another resort if you want."  Yessss!!  I had been thinking it but I would have never suggested it.  He had chosen this place and I didn't want to poo poo his decision.  I walked into the Yacht Club lobby and explained my dissatisfaction with staying there.  I was in tears and not happy.  It was a combination of factors that made this resort not for us.  

-For starters, the room was hard to get to thanks to the labyrinth of hallways and lack of stairwells.  It felt like we were trapped when we were in there.  
-The set of 4 small elevators in only one location (far from the room) was annoying.  We hated standing with the droves of people just to go up to our floor.  
-The pool wasn't that fascinating.  This resort supposedly has the BEST water park/pool on grounds but I disagree.  I enjoy Wilderness Lodge's pool more than this one.  Heck, the Polynesian's is small but better too.  The kids were not very impressed.
-There was no "magic".  Nothing about this hotel had the Disney magic, as far as I could tell.  It felt stale, boring, and just wasn't worth the money.  It is pretty inside, but without the magic, it is just any other hotel in my eyes.
-The view of a nasty rooftop was weird.  I know I didn't pay for a view, but wow.  It couldn't have been worse.  I wish I had taken a pic but I was too disappointed to.  There was trash on the roof and it just looked gross.  Paying more to stare at a parking lot view from the Polynesian is a better deal, if you ask me.
-The maids yelling down the hallways at 7am pissed me off.  I swear, that is rude!!  We know it was the maids because Clayton was sneaking out the door to get some food when he witnessed it.  That day was a sleep-in day so I was not happy.
-The night before was loud with hammering.  I was taking a relaxing bath to shake off a headache when I started hearing the beating and banging a few doors down.  It went on for a long time and it was close to 10pm.  Grrr...
-Transportation from YC stinks.  We opted for our car most of the time because taking a bus is just plain awful.  To get to the Magic Kingdom via the monorail, we would have to walk all the way to the front of EPCOT to catch it.  We hated parking at the TTC to get to the MK.  This is where we realized why we pay so much to stay in a monorail resort.  It is worth it!!  

I am sure that there are more bad things to say about the YC but I am going to quit talking about it and get to the good stuff.  We quickly packed up all of our belongings and made our way over to the Polynesian around 1:30pm.  The front gate guy greeted us with "Aloha!" and we knew we made the right choice right then.  There was a hula lesson going on when we walked into the Great Ceremonial House and the smell of tropical flowers smelled so delightful.  It was the magic we were looking for.  We went straight to our room and found it to be dirty.  It was never cleaned.  I called the front desk and they moved us next door.  It wasn't clean either.  Hmmm...  We were a little taken aback by that.  I called the front desk again and they ended up moving us to a different long house.  They also upgraded us to a Magic Kingdom view!  Yes!!!  Just so you know, that is a HUGE deal.  The weekend rack rate on that room is $610 per night and a regular room is $452 nightly.  That is a big difference and I would never pay that much just to look at the castle.  I made sure to watch Wishes multiple times from the balcony since this type of room will most likely never happen again for us, lol.  Oh, and to make matters even better, we were never charged the $497 up-charge fee for switching from YC to the Poly. :)

The newly refurbished rooms at the Poly are very pretty.  It looks small in the pics but I assure you that the room was quite large.  I wish I had taken a pic of the dresser/tv area on the opposing wall but oh well.  There's always next year. ;) 

The newly designed bathrooms are soooo much better than the way that they once were.  They expanded them somehow from one small sink area to a sprawling 2 sink area with a huge countertop.  The first photo is to the to the right of the door, the second is straight ahead, and the last is to the left.  The shower area looked much nicer in real life.  The tile was really pretty (much better than the hideous dark green from the past).  BTW, the huge box under the counter was from our espresso machine.  Clayton just had to bring it, lol.

Our amazing Magic Kingdom view!  The castle looks so far away in the photo but it is just the camera.  It was very easy to see and watch Wishes at night from our balcony.  Only 6 rooms in our longhouse had MK views and we were lucky enough to be upgraded to one.  Love it!  If you have never been to Disney World, that pretty white hotel to the left is the Grand Floridian.

Disney Trip 2013 (Day 4)---Part 2

Lunch was scheduled at Kona in the Poly so that worked out great.  We then headed to the Magic Kingdom to take advantage of our fastpass + reservations for all 3 of the mountains.  It was a great night until we got stuck back in the new Fantasyland in a horrific thunderstorm.  Yes, this happened to us again for the 3rd night in a row, lol.  We ended up running through the many inches of water on the streets until we got back to the monorail.  Everyone else in the park stayed under shelter.  I knew if we didn't make a break for it with our ponchos, we would have to walk behind the mass exodus as everyone would leave at the same time.  It was crazy but we got the heck out of there quickly.  Thank God we didn't have to go back to our car at the TTC to get back to the Yacht Club.  Getting on the monorail and heading straight for the Polynesian was worth its weight in gold.  We had a late dinner in Captain Cook's and went to bed.

Steph, Clayton and E riding the resort monorail from the Poly to the Magic Kingdom.

Castle?  What castle?  LOL

Disney World 2013 (Day 3)

Big E at Animal Kingdom

8.17.13---Me and my guys walked through International Gateway at EPCOT to go grab breakfast at the French pavilion.  After some yummy pastries and quiche, we went back to the resort to meet up with Steph.  We all hopped in the car and headed over to Animal Kingdom.  I couldn't wait to ride Expedition Everest for the first time ever.  Every time that we have been to the world, I have been pregnant with a surrogate baby or we didn't go to Animal Kingdom (the years that we went on Disney cruises).  I was so excited.  Unfortunately, the ride went down before we could get on it.  Sigh...  I was so sad.  It didn't open back up before we had to leave for dinner.  

We were standing at the front of the park (waiting on the tram) when we could see a storm brewing.  We absolutely needed to get on the next tram or we were about to get soaked.  Well, that tram filled up and we had to wait for another.  It took forever!  As soon as we got on board, the lightning began to strike and the water started pouring down.  We got drenched even though we had our ponchos on.  It was unreal.  I couldn't lift my head to look around because it was raining so hard.  We ended up hiking through the water-logged parking lot to get to the car and praying not to get hit by the lightning.  We were 100% drenched and all we could do was laugh.  It was rather comical, lol.

We headed over to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Sanaa.  Let me tell you, this was my absolute favorite restaurant experience of the whole trip.  The food is African/Indian inspired.  It was soooo good!  We had the bread service and a mix of entrees.  The best thing I tasted was the butter chicken.  I will be back for it again, you can count on that.  I dream of that dish.  Yummm...  To make our dining experience more comfortable, the hostess gave us some towels and blankets.  It was so nice.  We didn't care how stupid we looked with blankets on in a restaurant.  At least we were warm. :)

Disney World 2013 (Day 2)

8.16.13---We got up early and moved over to the Yacht Club Resort in the Epcot area.  It took me forever to get us checked in because the Magic Bands still had us registered over at Coronado Springs.  Once we finally got the go-ahead, our things got taken up to our room.  I quickly checked the place out but then we ran out the door to Hollywood Studios.  HS is a 10-15 minute walk so we chose that option over taking the ferry.  I will not lie when I say that I began to get nervous about the lack of people.  It was crazy!  There was no one out in the Boardwalk area.  I started to wonder if we were going to end up like the Griswolds in Vacation and the park was going to be closed.  Once we started to get close to the bus drop-off area, we finally saw some people but there weren't very many.  After we got in, we headed left as everyone else headed right of the park.  Star Tours was empty so we jumped right on it and it was our first official ride of the vacation.  After that, we ran over to Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror to use our fastpass + reservations.  We met up with some friends from Asheville for both of those rides.  It's crazy but my good friend Tracy had set up her husband and son's fastpass plus reservations and they just happened to be at the same times as ours.  We had a blast but Emerson was a bit timid after riding such big rides.  He had never ridden a big coaster before.  I bet he will ride them again in the future.  He just didn't want to on this trip, lol.  I ended up giving away a paper set of fastpasses to TOT to another family.  

BTW, Yacht Club was one of 4 resorts using the new Magic Band system and it worked amazingly well.  We set up 3 fastpass + reservations daily and got right onto the rides without waits.  On top of that, we were able to pull regular paper fastpasses too.  Talk about double dipping!  We didn't have to wait for hardly anything during our vacation.  Oh, and the bands worked well for opening our rooms, charging merchandise/food to the room, and getting into the parks.  I love this new system!!

Sweating it out in Hollywood Studios

My dear friend, Tracy (And no, we didn't plan our vacations together.  It just happened that way!)

Sci-Fi Dine-In for lunch

We rode The Great Movie Ride and then used our fastpass + for Toy Story Mania before heading to lunch.  It was so quiet and enjoyable in there.  We go to this place every time that we are at Disney World.  It is a family favorite.  The car at the top left is outside the restaurant.  The car at the bottom right is our actual table inside.  Throughout the meal, they play old clips of movies and cartoons.  They are silly but fun to watch.  The food isn't fabulous but that isn't what keeps us going back.  The experience is why we love it so much.  It is relaxing and a nice reprieve from the crazy hot parks.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a break.  Everyone went swimming while I unpacked our stuff.  That is when I realized that our view was terrible.  I didn't pay for a good view, but still, it was really bad.  It was the top of a rock-covered roof that had trash mixed in it.  I was very disappointed.  At the Polynesian, a bad view would be the parking lot and it would still look a lot better than this did.  Ugh. This was just the beginning of my disappointment at the Yacht Club.  The trek to our room was ridiculous and there didn't seem to be any shortcuts.  There was only 4 small elevators in the bottom lobby and it got annoying being crowded amongst a bunch of other guests to get onto them.  I have a lot of other complaints but I will post them later.  On a Sidenote-We did end up transferring over to the Polynesian after the 2nd night and everyone was super happy about that decision.  All was right with the World after we moved. :)

That night was our first night in the Magic Kingdom.  I had planned for us see Wishes but that didn't happen.  We got caught up in a thunderstorm as we were exiting Pirates of the Caribbean.  Naturally, that was the only time that we didn't bring the ponchos with us.  Wishes went on as scheduled but we couldn't see much of it from under the eaves of POTC.  At that point, we were just trying to wait out the lightning and rain so that we could get the heck out of the Magic Kingdom.  On the way out, I stopped at Aloha Isle for a yummy pineapple Dole Whip.  Love those!  I must have one every time we are there.  It's nostalgic for me because I remember getting one with my Aunt Judy when I was 6.  

Making Our Way to the World (Day #1)

8.15.2013---We got up and were out the door by 4:05am.  I drove the entire way down and only stopped for gas.  The boys slept a good portion of the trip.  As you can tell, they were out cold.  I wish I could have done the same!  In all honesty, I was wayyy too excited to sleep so that is why I elected to drive.  We pulled into Coronado Springs Resort around 12:30pm.  We only booked one night there (room only) because it was a cheaper option than going straight to the Yacht & Beach Club and beginning our package.  I don't like to start our package until we have a full day to take advantage of it.  Anyway, we were really hoping to like the hotel so that we could stay there again in the future.  Staying in a moderate resort would save us a fortune over staying deluxe but we just can't see the point in it.  We are much happier saving our money up and staying in the nicer hotels because they offer so much more than the moderates and values.  Anyway, we did like CSR for the most part.  It had a great pool and we liked the theming.  We stayed in the Rancho section (there are 2 other sections with totally different decor).  It was right behind their cool Mayan pool.  The problem with the Ranchos is that they are too far from the main section that houses the food court, shops, and restaurant.  We had to get in the car and drive to the other side for dinner.  I found that extremely inconvenient.   

Hayden and Emerson trying out the bed

Aunt Steph & the boys at the fountain inside the main building

My crew sitting outside the Maya Grill

Love my sweet family!  It made things feel complete having Stephanie with us.  She is so much fun and this was her first time visiting WDW.  Unfortunately, her first table service dining experience wasn't the best.  We tried out the Maya Grill in the main building of CSR.  It was unbelievably HORRIBLE.  I cannot stress enough my disdain for this place.  The food was cold and tasted bad.  We all had different plates and yet it was all pretty gross.  I couldn't believe it.  How do you mess up Mexican food?!  It's really not that difficult to make good tacos, burritos, salsa, and enchiladas.  Somehow, this place managed to screw it all up.  If you ever find yourself at CSR, my advice is to go to the counter service place (Pepper Market) instead.  We didn't try it out but there is no way that it could be worse than the restaurant.  If PM sucks too, at least it won't cost as much as MG did.  Oh, and please note that MG is not owned by Disney.  It is independently owned so I won't blame the mouse for this bad experience.

Stitch Fix #11 Review, My Backpack, and Pretty Macaroons

I got fix #11 last week and had a tough time determining what to keep.  I did not like the striped shirt at all so that was an easy one.  The pants (Kut From the Kloth) were perfect and I need more jeans so they were a definite keeper.  The pretty dress in the middle was a tough call.  I loved the color and pattern.  Clayton thought it was hot too.  The problem was that it had a hi-lo hem.  I know the chevron pattern is a trend that will go out of style but the hi-lo hem is a trend that I see disappearing before the pattern does.  I don't really like it either so I luckily don't own any dress/tops with it.  It pained me greatly but I ended up sending it back though I still question if I could have cut the back and hemmed it myself to a normal straight hem.  Sigh...  The open cardigan was something that I needed but it didn't lay correctly.  The collar is meant to be ruffly and pretty but it almost never looked right.  I am OCD so I knew that would drive me crazy.  But I need a cardigan like it!!  Maybe I will get a navy one soon that will make me happier.  The black/white striped dress was adorable and soft.  I need more black/white pieces as staples in my wardrobe but this dress didn't do me many favors.  It made me look really wide.  The horizontal stripes paired with the excess bunching of thick fabric around the high waist didn't do me any favors.  I thought that I would keep it until I saw a pic of me in it without a cardigan.  I looked weirdly wide.  Lord knows that is the last thing that I want, lol. 

This is my good ole backpack that I bought in the summer of 1996, just before starting my freshman year at NC State University that August.  I have had this bag for a long time and it pained me to see it falling apart.  Our last trip to Disney World did it in.  I saw it ripping apart while Clayton was wearing it and knew I would be throwing it away when we got back home.  It took a lot of courage for me to toss it this past week but at least I now have it memorialized here on the blog.  

Yum, pretty macaroons from Amelie's in Charlotte.

So, I have a love thing for these delicious treats.  Clayton bought me 2 of each flavor plus several pastries, tarts, and petit fours for my recent birthday.  The problem is that he accidentally ruined the whole $50 bounty before giving them to me, lol.  The night before my birthday, he walked into the bathroom (I was showering) and had a sullen look on his face.  I asked what was wrong and he sadly told me that he had all these yummy treats for me that got ruined.  He had went down to Amelie's during his lunch and purchased everything.  He put it all in a cooler and kept them at his desk until he came home that evening.  When he got home, he worried that the treats wouldn't stay cold enough (he was hiding them from me), so he made ice packs with plastic baggies.  You can guess what happened.  The baggies leaked and the box soaked up all the water.  All of the goodies (with the exception of 2 tarts and 1 pastry) were ruined.  It broke his heart and in turn, broke mine.  I knew he meant well and it still impressed me that he went to such lengths to make me happy.  I love that man so much!!  Anyhoo, I recently went to Cabo Fish Taco in the NoDa district with my awesome friend Jessica.  We decided to go to Amelie's afterward and I am so glad we did.  I brought home all the goodies Clayton originally bought and he happily helped me devour them.  If you are ever near the NoDa area, I highly recommend checking it out.  BTW, they have the best chai tea latte EVER.  

Drinks Around the "World"

Lapu Lapu at the Polynesian

Ok, so it is taking me forever to write up my trip report for our recent Disney World trip.  We got back on a Saturday night and then my kids started school early that Monday.  We were dog tired that first week and it has been really hard to get back into a groove.  Things are finally settling and I can now sit down to write this thing out.  Bear with me though, I cannot figure out the best way to present it.  In the past, I simply went in chronological order and wrote out everything day-by-day.  I may do that again but no sure yet.  In the meantime, I am going to post a few random blog posts concerning out trip.  This post pertains to something new to me, adult beverages around the "World".  

In the past, I was pregnant with surrogate babies on each of our trips or we only visited the Magic Kingdom before our cruises (which was alcohol-free back then).  This time around, I was free and clear to partake on an epic drinking adventure.  I discovered that there are a bunch of yummy adult libations to enjoy.  I recommend the following:

Magical Star Cocktail - Light up your celebration with X-Fusion Organic Mango and Passion Fruit Liqueur, Parrot Bay Coconut Rum, Pineapple Juice, and a souvenir Multicolored Glow Cube $9.75

[served at Sci-Fi Dine-In in Hollywood Studios]

[also served at Sanaa in the Animal Kingdom Lodge resort]

This drink is so pretty and fruity.  I think it was my favorite.

Frozen Passion Fruit Margarita $9.50

[served in Epcot at La Cantina de San Angel]

Passion Fruit is one of my favorite flavors though I do not like margaritas.  I still loved this drink though.

Rainbow Colada - Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, strawberries & bananas, pina colada mix and pineapple juice. $8.99 or $12.99 to keep the glass

[served at Rainforest Cafe in Animal Kingdom or Downtown Disney]

Ridiculously good and fruity.  And yes, I kept the glass.

Prosecco - Semi-sweet Sparkling Wine $9.00

[served at the Italy Gelato Stand at Epcot]

Bubbly and sweet.  Loved this!

Canto Loopy - with Vodka and Cantaloupe Juice $7.50

[served at The Joy of Tea stand in China at Epcot]

Very refreshing and tasted exactly like fresh cantaloupe.

Lapu Lapu $14.95

[served at the Tambu Lounge in the Polynesian Resort]

This is the pineapple drink that I have in the photo at the top of this post. I have no clue what else was in it other than rum.  It was wayyyy too strong for me so I didn't love it but it is a must-do if you are staying at the Poly.

Not pictured:

Grey Goose Orange Slush $9.34

[served at Les Vins des Chefs de France cart in Epcot]

This slushy drink is so good!

First Day of School-8/26/13

The boys started a new magnet school this year.  Hayden is in 5th grade and Emerson is in 3rd grade.  They were both accepted into the STEM program last April and we couldn't be more excited.  Their schooling will focus on problem-based learning using science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).  This approach will be used in all of their subjects everyday.  I think that they will enjoy this method of learning moreso than the traditional "sit on your butt at a desk and quietly do paperwork" method.  Visual and hands-on learning seems to really click for my kids so I know they will be happier at this school.  I can't wait to hear how their first day went!

Back to Real World. Sigh....

We just got back last night from 10 magical days in Walt Disney World.  On our last day (actually our last 10 minutes, lol), I got on the room phone and booked another Disney vacation for next year.  There was a bounceback offer for free dining in August and September 2014 if you booked before checking out of your hotel room.  If I get another PIN code for 35%-40% off, I will change my ressie to use that code instead since it would save us more than the free dining will.

Soooo, I don't really have the time or energy to sit down and give a trip report today but I will very soon.  I promise.  We had a wonderful time!  Aunt Stephanie (Clayton's sister) vacationed with us.  It was her first time there and I have no clue if she is hooked or not.  I will give her a few days to rest up before asking.  In case you are wondering how we felt about the Yacht Club, we didn't like it.  I will give an explanation when I post my trip report.  Just know that we moved over to the Polynesian after just 2 days at the Yacht Club.  The Poly is where it is at, in our opinion.  This was our 3rd stay there and we got upgraded to a Magic Kingdom view.  It was amazing to be able to see Wishes every night from our balcony.  Guess where we booked for the next trip?  Yep, the Polynesian.  We all agree that it is the best resort on property.

A New Hobby---Background Acting

After my 3rd and final surrogate pregnancy, I found myself bored and had no sense of purpose.  Yes, I know I am a mom to my boys but I need something that is "all mine" in my life.  I stumbled across a casting director's page on Facebook back when I was pregnant and got interested in doing extra work.  Unfortunately, they never had a call for a pregnant gal so I had to sit out until after the birth.  In April, I decided to put my name in the hat and got chosen to participate in the season 2 opening episode for a cable tv show.  I was 4 weeks post-partum and lactating.  I had no idea that I would never be able to get to my pump during the day.  The engorgement was ridiculous after 7 long hours of filming in the hot sun (while in a wool suit, mind you).  I knew after that experience that I wouldn't be able to do it again until after I finished pumping milk.  In June, I decided to start trying again.  I have now been in 5 episodes (well, one of those just had my 4-Runner in it, lol).  It has been a blast working on the set.  I have made a bunch of friends.  It seems that background actors are very interesting people.  In addition to the show that I started with, I got a chance to work on a HUGE show recently (I think it had 11 Emmy nominations this year).  I ended up having to bow out though due to a migraine attack that included vertigo and nasty nausea.  Blah.  I hope to get the opportunity to work on the big show again soon.  The show that I have been working on is wrapping up in 2 weeks and I won't be able to work on it again before it finishes.  I am bummed to miss out on the season finale but the third season will roll back around next spring for filming.  I can't wait! 

Stitch Fix #10 Review

Okay, I know that the blue pants don't match most of the tops. It is better than seeing the tops paired up with the pajamas that I was wearing before the box showed up on the front porch though. I always do photos in the downstairs guest room due to the good lighting. My bedroom is upstairs and I was too lazy to go get matching bottoms. :P

This box was just good but not great. I am starting to get really picky.  I bought the awesome black & white sweater shown at the top. The pants looked great with it but I just couldn't justify buying them. Nothing else in my closet would work with that color blue. The green top was out because I have bought a bunch of tab-sleeve tops lately. I really don't need another one. The shirt with the hearts on it had the cutest collar flaps but the beige color was horrid. I don't see how it would look good against anyone's skin color. It was also a little too dressy for my casual wardrobe. The blue striped shirt was sheer. It needed an undershirt and I just don't want to deal with layering it. It puckered ever so slightly at my chest and I don't really like sleeveless button-downs. It was easy to say no to keeping it.

Happy 35th Birthday to Me

I cannot believe that I am 35.  Geez!  That seems so old.  My mom took us out to lunch at Asian Cafe and then took my kiddos back with her.  Since we were alone, Clayton and I decided to head out to Dandelion Market in uptown Charlotte (it is NOT kid friendly).  We went there for our anniversary last year and fell in love with it.  They don't serve big plates.  The menu features many tapas (small plates) and you are supposed to order several to split with the people with you.  It is great because you get a little bit of everything and don't overeat.  To start, we ordered one of the specials.  It was an avocado/fresh crab/diced peppers thing (shown below).  It was ridiculously good!!  Clayton and I can't quit talking about it.  We want to go back just for this.

For our second round, we ordered the shrimp & grits and the macaroni & cheese.  The macaroni was good but the shrimp was amazing.  Actually, the grits is what we both adored.  They were topped with goat cheese and it worked so well with all the other flavors.  It looks like the plate only had 2 shrimp but it actually had 4 large ones.

For round 3, we ordered a sausage stuffed pepper.  It was good but not our favorite.  We were full by then so we didn't finish it.

Round 4 was dessert.  I ordered a trio of creme brulees.  Creme brulee is one of my favorite desserts and this didn't disappoint.  The flavors were chocolate, green tea, and vanilla.

Oh, I forgot to mention our drinks.  Clayton had a beer sampler and I had 2 martinis.  The first martini was a blueberry lemon drop and the second one was pear.  They were both good but the pear one was my fave.

Great Wolf Lodge, Painting, and Disney Magic Bands

Hayden, Jasmine, and Emerson being silly

Our besties, the Barnes', came to stay with us last weekend.  We miss them so much!  I wish that we lived near them in Raleigh.  Anyway, the guys took the kids to Great Wolf Lodge on Saturday.  My sweet cousin works there and gave us free passes.  They had a blast in the waterpark while Natascha and I went to IKEA.  We had a fun time shopping but the boys were happy to have missed out, lol. 

 

At IKEA, I just couldn't resist buying the boys an easel and watercolor paints.  They have both been wanting to paint for a while now.  After the first 30 seconds of setting it up, I realized that I should have bought 2 easels because they fought over it immediately.  Ugh.  Lesson learned.

Check out our new Magic Bands from Disney!  We are so lucky.  There were 4 resort hotels chosen to participate in a test using these new devices and Yacht Club was one of them.  The testing phase is 8/2-8/25.  Normally, these bands are gray but you can customize them beforehand if you do so within a certain timeframe.  I love the cute box presentation!

So what is do these bands do?  Well, they are essentially the same thing as the Key to the World cards that you get when you check into a Disney resort.  They will open our room door, get us into the parks, be used to charge things to my credit card, and they are preloaded with 3 fastpass + times per day (4 fastpasses on the days that we go to the Magic Kingdom).  I picked out our fastpass + times recently and now we know what time we can do things like Space Mountain before we even leave home.  Considering that the parks are going to be at a high rate of occupancy during our trip, this will be invaluable in saving us time.  At first I thought it would be a pain in the butt scheduling everything so much but it worked right into my plans rather easily.  On most days, I have us riding the 3 biggest attractions in each park as soon as my schedule says we will be there.  All the fastpasses I have are back-to-back timewise.  In Hollywood Studios, that means that we will ride the biggest 3 rides (Tower of Terror, Rockin' Rollercoaster, and Toy Story Mania) in the morning and be done with those by lunchtime at the Sci-Fi Dine-In.  In Magic Kingdom, we will ride all the mountains (Space, Splash, and Big Thunder) and Dumbo first thing.  Why Dumbo?  Well, you have to do it once each trip.  You just have to.  Any Disney veteran knows that it has an incredibly slow line though and I hate waiting forever in that line.  Space Mountain is worth waiting for but Dumbo?  No way.