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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Vacation Recap 4: Souveniers

One of my favorite things about going to Disney is all of the fun shopping! I have a lot of things from over the years so I only get things that really catch my eye. This trip I seemed to be drawn to things for the home. I found some really cute things for Summer. 

I found this really cute salad bowl and serving utensils for all the fun salads I make during the summer. I also got a couple of matching plates for the nights we want to eat out on the deck. There was also a matching lantern I had to get for our deck as well. I just love all of the fun, bright colors for summer!

Another fun thing I got for summer were these popsicle molds. I figured with all the fresh fruit we get from the farmer's market in the summer we could come up with some fun concoctions!

Of course we picked up a few Christmas ornaments; its a must every time. I could probably have a tree just with Disney ornaments we have so many. We always get at least one personalized as well. They are a great memento from our trips.


Michael doesn't really do a whole lot of souvenir shopping, but he did get some cool new shot glasses to add to his collection.

My favorite souvenir from the trip though, has to be my new bag Michael surprised me with. It was also my big anniversary present. We had been in a shop at Downtown Disney and I spotted it but didn't want to spend the money so I walked away. Leave it to Michael to find it online, order it and have it shipped home before we got home. It's a Disney Dooney & Burke bag with Minnie bows all over it. I love it! I think it's so fun and totally me. He also got me a matching wristlet for a wallet. I have the best husband ever! 


Monday, May 30, 2011

Memorial Day Weekend Recap

We had a really nice relaxing holiday weekend. On Friday I had to get up bright and early to head to the hospital for a test. It was pretty horrible, but at least its over and I won't have to do it ever again.


After my test, we got some breakfast and then I headed home to work the rest of the day. I worked until about 3 and then did a few things around the house. After Michael got home from work we just ordered in some dinner. We decided to go see a movie since we wanted to get out of the house. We saw The Hangover 2.


It was pretty hilarious. It followed almost the exact same plot as the first one, but in Thailand. It was still really funny though. It was really good to laugh after the day I had too. After the movie we headed home and just relaxed before crashing.

On Saturday we were up and out early. We went and had breakfast and then headed to the Wheaton French Market. It opened while we were on vacation so this was the first time we had the opportunity to go. We loaded up on lots of fresh fruits and veggies. I'm so happy the market is open again.


After the market we headed home to unload and then headed out again to meet my parents and Arla and Teddy to do some flower shopping. It's become an annual thing the past few years since we live close to a really nice nursery that Michael's Mom use to work at. We all met up and did our shopping. Michael and I already had our garden items, but we needed to pick up our flowers for our pots out front.



After flower shopping we headed back to our house for a little while to hang out before lunch. For lunch we headed to one of our favorite places, Wildfire. It was delicious as always. Michael and I both had the bison mini burger trio. It was really yummy.


After lunch we all headed home and Michael and I just relaxed most of the afternoon. For dinner we met up with Rich, Tif, Baby Jacob and Ken at Famous Dave's.

On Sunday we got up early and made some breakfast, did our grocery shopping and we headed to the movies again. This time we did a double feature of Pirates of the Caribbean and Bridesmaids. I packed up some sandwiches for lunch at the movies since we were going to be there until about 3:30. It was a perfect day for the movies too because it poured like crazy while we were there and it was done by the time the movies were over.




As for the movies, they were both winners. I was pretty disappointed in the last Pirates, but they really redeemed themselves this time around. It was Jack Sparrow at his best. We liked it a lot. And the power went out for about 5 minutes during the show so we all got free passes for a movie so we even got a bonus for seeing it! After Pirates we headed to Bridesmaids. I had heard nothing but great things about it and how funny it was and they were right. We laughed so hard the entire movie! Melissa McCarthy totally steals the show, she is hilarious!

After the movies, we headed home.We relaxed for a few hours and then headed to Rich and Tif's to hang out. We ate some dinner and had fun playing with Jacob. I just can't get over how much of a big boy he is. He is so close to full on walking. We got to see him take a few steps before he would plop down. He gets cuter by the day!



Today was a wonderful day with just the two of us. We got up, made some breakfast and did a few things around the house. We didn't have any big plans for the day besides just relaxing and enjoying the warm weather, finally! We did plant our flowers in front of the house. We planted yellow snapdragons with purple and white impatiens.We also put a hanging flower basket with new guinea impatiens on our deck. I can't wait to see what they will look a month from now after some warmer weather.





Somehow today turned into a cook-a-thon for us. We cooked 3 new recipes for lunch, dinner, and dessert. We always have so much fun cooking together and today was no different. For lunch we fired up the grill and tried out a new Pioneer Women recipe for BBQ Bacon Sliders. They were delicious! I will post the full recipe this week. 


After lunch we went for a walk to burn some calories. The weather was amazing! It was warm but with the breeze, it was perfect. We finally got some summer weather around here.

For dinner we had an American classic, corn dogs. I've never made them from scratch before. We had one at Disney and when I saw a recipe for homemade ones come across my Google reader this week, I knew we had to make them. They were so good. It's obviously not something we will eat all the time, but it was a yummy splurge. I will post the full recipe and instructions on our blog soon.


For dessert we made an ice cream treat that I found on my Google Reader this week as well. It was called a Smores Ice Cream Terrine. It's a layered dessert with graham crackers, fudge, vanilla ice cream and marshmallows. It was super yummy! We had 3 new successful recipes today!


The rest of the night we are just going to relax and soak in what's left of the weekend. At least we only have a 4 day work week ahead. I love holidays on a Monday! I hope all of you had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. Have a great week everyone!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Vacation Recap 3: Animals Everywhere

One of my favorite things from this trip to Disney was staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge. It's a beautiful place with animals everywhere. We've stayed here before but we've never had a room like we had. We had a beautiful 2 bedroom room and we were on the savannah with all of the animals. Our favorite animal is the giraffe and we were lucky enough to have giraffes outside our room every day. They even slept outside our room one night. It was amazing.







In addition to our resort, there is the Animal Kingdom Park. One of our favorite things at the park is the Kilimanjaro Safari. It's a ride through all of their grounds with a ton of animals. Every ride is different every time we go. This time when we went it took almost 45 minutes because there were animals in the road so we had to stop a lot. It made for a lot of good pictures though because we were stopped and not speeding by everything.

An Okapi, the giraffe's cousin

White rhino

A happy hippo

Our favorite, a twiga!

Some lazy antelope

Some lazy wildebeests

An African elephant mama and her baby

A pair of beautiful cheetahs

The king of the jungle is very sleepy

While his lady guards the home front

Black rhino

I can't remember what these guys were called, but they were the animals who kept holding up traffic by hanging out in the road.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Our week in pictures: 5/22 - 5/28

Sunday, May 22: Beer can chicken for Sunday dinner, yum!

Monday, May 23: Our garden has grown so much since we planted it before vacation.

 Tuesday, May 24: Mmmm...a Flirty cupcake treat!

Wednesday, May 25: I woke up to anniversary flowers and cards from my Husby!

Thursday, May 26: Porkchop doing what he does best

Friday, May 27: Nothing like starting your day at the hospital for a test. So glad its over!

 Saturday, May 28: The Wheaton French Market is back! Look at all of the fresh fruit and veggie eye candy!