We needed Spring Break like we've never needed it before, so we went big - Disney World!
We've never been there, so to say we were excited was a gross understatement. Planning our trip became my new hobby.......okay, my new obsession. I looked up everything I possibly could, read blogs, watched videos, looked at maps, and took notes on it all. I didn't plan out every second of each day - I'm actually very flexible with the execution of my plans - but I was prepared, and I think it paid off magnificently! I should be a tour guide. Just ask Marie and Antoine.
Oh, did I mention, Marie and Antoine flew out to Orlando with their kids to go to Disney World with us! Probably, mostly, because they think I'm a good tour guide. Obviously.
Oh, and I have to warn you, there are going to be a lot of pictures of food, because in all my planning, that was probably my biggest focus. I've always thought Disney food is hit or miss, so I didn't want to take any chances - I wanted good food! And I got some :)
Okay, I'm going to take this a park at a time. There are 4 parks at Disney World, and I liked them all, but I'll go my least favorite to my most favorite. Let's get started
In 4th place - Disney's Hollywood Studios
I love Antoine's pose in the picture below :)
Disney's Hollywood Studios is somewhat similar to Disney California Adventure, except it doesn't have Cars Land. There just isn't a whole lot to do here, although that's going to change in a HUGE way with the opening of Toy Story Land later this year, and the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge in 2019 - crazy! But for now, their biggest draw (for me anyway) is the Tower of Terror, which happens to be one of my favorite rides, and was replaced by the Guardians of the Galaxy ride in California (although it's the exact same structure and ride system, so.....). Anyway, our kids are not a fan of the Tower of Terror, and neither is Marie's family, with the exception of Jada, our brave 8 year old (or is she 9 already?) niece. So it was just me, Joe and Jada on the Tower of Terror, and it was even BETTER than the one in California!
On our way back, we ran into some storm troopers.
Everybody else went to see the Indiana Jones Stunt show, and they said it was good. Then we had our first treat - the classic Mickey ice cream bar. Surprisingly good.
Joseph went for the Mickey ice cream sandwich.
And a curious duck joined us....but we didn't share.
I think we went to Muppet Vision next, which is exactly the same as in California. Then we went to Toy Story Mania - again, the same, but always fun. Antoine crushed us all with his score.
Everyone went to Star Tours, except for me and Marie, and we went to the live Little Mermaid show, which was ridiculous, and got us very wet, and then we went to Walt Disney Presents, which was WONDERFUL, and was all about Walt Disney's life and what inspired him as he was growing up. They had some great displays, including some original drawings of different movies and characters. I need to print this one and hang it somewhere :)
Finally, we watched Fantasmic, which is okay, but I actually thought the one in California was better, as long as you can get good seats. That was pretty much it. We only stayed 1/2 a day at Hollywood Studios, and we felt like that's all we needed. We had 3 fast passes, but honestly, the only one that really made a difference was Tower of Terror, and that actually made a big difference in wait time. But even without the fast passes, we still could have done everything we wanted in 1/2 day. The only other thing they really have to offer is the Rock and Roll roller coaster, but almost nobody wanted to go on that, so we skipped it.
Favorites Rides:
Joe - Tower of Terror
Ruth -Tower of Terror
Cora - Star Tours
Joseph - Muppet Vision
Madelyn - Star Tours
Alex - Star Tours
In 3rd place - Magic Kingdom
We spent a day and a half at the Magic Kingdom - not enough time to do EVERYTHING, but enough time to do everything we wanted. Magic Kingdom is the park most similar to Disneyland, with a few notable differences. I wanted to make sure we hit all the things that they don't have at Disneyland, like The People Mover, Carousel of Progress, Mickey's Philharmagic, The Barnstormer, The Hall of Presidents, the Muppets Present in Liberty Square, and the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (which we all loved). I loved them all, even the cheesy ones. We had fast passes to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train one day, and another day we had the Peter Pan ride, Space Mountain, and meeting Mickey Mouse. Mostly we stuck together, but a couple of times we split up.
The Hall of Presidents was surprisingly good. Although Trump has been added, it is NOT about him, and I thought it was really well done.
The Haunted Mansion was fun (even though we got booted out of line when it broke down the first time we tried it), because it had some fun interactive things for the kids to do while waiting in line.
It might sound silly, but I loved the Winnie the Pooh ride :) The car thing you were in moved so that you were bouncing with Tigger, and floating in a boat during the Rainy Day - so much fun!
The train that just goes around the park is always good for a nap.
Meeting Mickey is always a MUST in my book, but we also got to meet Goofy and Donald this time too.
Splash Mountain was another one that is way better here - so much longer and more details. It was raining that day, off and on, so we had brought some plastic ponchos, but we sure were glad to have those on Splash Mountain, because Joe and I were in the front seat, and we would have been completely drenched without those! Bonus - if you look closely, Joe and I are wearing matching Mickey and Minnie shirts that say Dad and Mom....because we're that big of Disney nerds.
We loved the Tangled area with the lanterns....
...and the bathroom in that area had Rapunzels paintings - it's the little things ;)
Now for the food. I love the turkey legs at Disney. They are huge (we only got 2 for the 6 of us), flavorful, and fairly cheap. They are the perfect food to help you pass the time in a long line. Thanks to Antoine we got plenty of pictures of us eating turkey legs, hahaha.
Cora and I also decided that we NEEDED to try the macaroni and cheese hotdog from Casey's Corner. We got the footlong to share, and oh my word, it was huge. Was it the best hotdog I've ever had? No, partly because the bun itself was SO much, but it was still really good, and was more than enough to feed me and Cora.
We took our food from Casey's and we all found a fake grassy spot and sat down for a while to rest.
Right as we were about to leave, they announced that there would be 3 high school bands marching by down Main Street, and wouldn't you know it, one of them just happened to be Papillion-La Vista high school from Nebraska - OUR HIGH SCHOOL! So of course we had to stay and watch and cheer them on. There was one kid there from our ward, but we didn't spot him. We don't even know what instrument he plays, honestly ;)
We had to stop by Gaston's Tavern, and we shared some very large and delicious cinnamon rolls.
And, of course, you can't go to Disney without partaking of a Dole Whip. We tried both the Dole Whip and the Citrus Swirl to see which we liked best. The votes were split, but I sided with the classic Dole Whip. Love me some tartness ;)
These were perfect on the one kind of hot day that we had there. They were perfect while we waited for the kids to go on the Aladdin Magic Carpet ride, which they came back to when the fireworks were going off because there was NO line, and they literally rode it over and over again (I lost track of how many times), and got a good view of the fireworks from up above.
Favorites Rides:
Joe - Space Mountain
Ruth - Splash Mountain (honorable mention to Winnie the Pooh)
Cora - Splash Mountain
Joseph - Splash Mountain
Madelyn - Mine Train
Alex - Mine Train
Oh my gosh, is this totally boring for you? Sorry if it is, but I'm mostly just documenting this for us anyway ;) I feel like this is getting long though, so I'm going to put the other two parks in another post. Which will come in 2nd place and which will be 1st? Stay tuned....
I honestly don't know what's wrong with us. I really don't.
We got another dog. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to just spring it on you like that, but there you go. We (mostly Joe) have been thinking about this for a long time for a number of reasons. First of all, we got our first dog, Bo, for the kids, right? Well, she's not a big fan of the kids, other than Cora. She tolerates them....barely. Also, now that I am working, she is home alone for a few hours every day. And finally, she likes other dogs, but doesn't get a lot of interaction with them, so her social skills aren't the best. So, one day we went to the local animal rescue shelter, and we came home with a dog.
This is Kronk.
He is an almost 1 year old Boarder Collie mix (possibly Lab?), formerly known as Steven. He didn't have a chip when he was found, but I assume he was owned before, because he's already house broken, crate trained, and knew how to sit on command. It's sad to think that he lost his first family - sad for them if he was lost, and sad for him if they abandoned him - but it's working out good for us. Already he is fitting in with our family, although it IS a big adjustment....because he's big. 45ish pounds of puppy is a handful. He's full of energy, but he really is a sweetheart, and really affectionate, and smart. He loves the whole family - kids too!!! He loves to play fetch and tug-of-war. He loves being outside, even in the snow and cold, but thankfully never tries to jump the fence.
As far as Bo is concerned, she also seems to like this newest member of the household....maybe a little too much, if you know what I mean (wink, wink). I never knew that female dogs will also hump male dogs sometimes. You learn something new every day, huh? They are pretty funny together (and yes, they're playing, not fighting).
I don't know what else to say. This is our life now.
Okay, I know you've all been dying to see pictures of my house. We've been painting forever, and I wanted to get everything done before I took pictures, but that's just not going to happen. Especially since I hurt my rotator cuff. Yes, did you know that you could do that by painting too much? I didn't. It doesn't hurt all the time, but it does when I lift my right arm or reach for something....which I do a lot every day! I'm supposed to be doing excises, but I keep forgetting.
Anyway, enough about me. Let's talk about my house!
Can I just tell you how much I love my house? So. Much. It's the best thing about living here. It is our safe place, our refuge, our Balm of Gilead. My only complaint is that the kitchen is pretty tiny, and I don't have enough cupboard/storage space. But that's the only thing. Okay, now for pictures. Here's the outside.
And our back yard, which we're not getting any use out of right now because it's TOO COLD.
The Living Room and Dining Room - the before pictures.
This is how we started out. Every room in the house painted a flat off white/cream color, with wood trim. To me, it made everything look dull and dirty. Everything had to go. With the cathedral ceilings in our living room, it was especially challenging. But we didn't want to shell out thousands of dollars to hire someone else to do it, so we plunged in. We decided to go with gray walls and white trim. Perfect.
And here's the after shots. We just need to do a second coat on that wall on the right in the living room, going up the stairs, and I need to finish hanging pictures.
The Family Room - before.
Check out that gorgeous early-80's style stone fireplace. Even better, if you look closely you might be able to tell that several of those stones are sticking OUT to create shelves. What the?! That had to change. Also, I was ecstatic about the built in book shelves, but not the color. Staining was in order.
Cora was a big help in all of this process. She might even tell you that she did more than me and Joe, but I don't know how accurate that is.
And here's the after shot. We just need to put the mantel in above the fireplace - just a floating mantel stained the same color as the built-in. This is the room we spend most of our time in, and we love it.
The Kitchen.
The cupboards were painted by the previous owners. I don't hate them, but I definitely don't love them.....okay, actually I kind of hate them. I was going to paint them white, but I honestly don't know if I'll get around to that or not.
I have all my mugs from the German Christmas markets up along the top of the cupboards, and I love it. Those will be there all year round, not just for Christmas. Plus with all my magnets and pictures of family and friends on the fridge, this is a happy enough room that I can overlook the blue cupboards....and the fact that the microwave is white, instead of black like all the other appliances (shakes head defeatedly).
And that's my house. I'm not going to show the bedrooms or basement or garage, so get over it. For as long as we are here (which may not be that long because we are quickly discovering we are not mid-West kind of people), we will enjoy this lovely little home, and make it our own :)
