Disney World Food

Since I've written about the Goofy Race weekend I thought I'd share some of the "must have" food items on anyone Disney race weekend. To start the day off with some vitamins I recommend a Pineapple Dole Whip or the Float. Delicious. Dole Whips are available at Magic Kingdom and the Polynesian resort. The float is only available at the Magic Kingdom. You don't want to eat anything that will upset your stomach so I usually bring Ramen noodles with me. In addition to the Ramen for dinner Friday night I enjoyed a very large cinnamon roll (hey, I needed those carbs). Carrot cake for Momma. After the half marathon I enjoyed a buffet breakfast at Chef Mickeys. Dinner was just Ramen noodles and some chocolate milk though. The best part of the weekend is when the Marathon is over. All of the runners have the same idea, splurge on ice cream and fried goodness. Before taking a shower I recommend a Mickey Bar. You will be walking so slow at this point that you can savor every bite on the long walk back to your room (I am almost always put at the furthest point from the main lobby). Later, indulge in a Ghiradeli sundae (one was for momma). To enjoy the sundae you need to take a trip to DownTown Disney. If that isn't enough to satisfy you order up some Beignets. Fried dough goodness covered in powdered sugar. That is not a complete list of goodness, but we only had so much time to eat and enjoy the Florida sunshine. This also requires having someone saying, "are you sure you don't want a..." Which translates to, "I'd really like to eat ___, but only if you want to share one."

Happy Birthday Luke!

Happy Birthday to Manfriend! We are having ham, smashed potatoes, candy gravy, carrots and corn for dinner. I've made him a white cake with raspberry filling and chocolate frosting. Love you handsome and hope you have a birthday that is just as wonderful as you! Enjoy the ipad2 Thanks for always making me laugh and taking care of me.

Dani and Greg Married

Luke and I traveled to LI for the weekend for my best friend Dani's wedding to the love of her life Greg. They started dating about 6 months after Luke and I and married 8 months after Luke and I. We were both part of the wedding party so we don't have a ton of pictures and left that up to the photographer. They couldn't have asked for a better day in February. I know Miss D wanted some snow, but we had blue skies and sunshine. The reception was amazing. Cocktail hour had a bread buffet, pasta bar, sushi bar, cheese/crackers, potato bar and passed h'our dourves (I know, the spelling on that). We were seated with a great group of people for dinner. The dining room was exquisite with lights that changed the color/mood of the room along the walls. I had pasta and Luke had steak for dinner. They also offered salmon and chicken. Food was delicious and over the top with details. Their cake was drizzled in chocolate syrup for serving. They also had an ice cream scooper. Dani did her father daughter dance to a Disney reference song and it reminded me of my father daughter dance to a Disney song. She's my BFF for a reason. The tables each had a bottle of beer that Greg home brewed and labeled for the occasion. We went back to the hotel and said goodbye to the newlyweds. We love you guys and are so happy for you.

Tinkerbell Half Marathon

Mom has a TON of photos still on her camera so I will just start with a few things that we did while in our just over 48 hour Disneyland adventure. We left after work on Friday arrived in California at what felt like 2am our time. The plan was to sleep in a bit and then head over to the expo to get my race info. Failure on the sleeping in part but more time for Disney! We bought the park passes and headed right down Main Street, USA. First on the list was a walk through of Sleeping Beauty's Castle, then the world famous Dumbo. We then went on the Casey Jr. Circus train before heading over to it's a small world. Although it was closed for refurbishment I still felt a strong need to go check out that part of the park. It worked out for the best since I found a Dumbo pillow pet. We met up with my mom's friend Timmy and took a cruise on the Storybook Canal Boats. Noticing a very short line for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride we decided to go on that before going to the expo. It was quite the wild ride. It broke while we were on it. All of the sudden the lights came on and an announcement to stay where you were, a cast member would be by shortly to assist. I was stuck looking at a not so nice police officer. When the cast member came we had to backtrack through the whole ride. We went on the attraction later and I had one more scene until the end so it was cool that I got to go all the way back and walk the track. We went to the expo where I proudly picked up my bib number 353. Mom has all the expo photos. After that little adventure we went to California Adventure which is under a huge renovation project that is changing the entrance to the park as well as adding Cars Land. Dinner was some pasta with sauce on the side. I love how the chef put the side of meatballs and sauce in a kids serving dish. We went on the LIttle Mermaid and Jumpin' Jellyfish plus Toy Story Mania. The plan was to watch the World of Color and then go back to Disneyland since it was open until 11:00. World of Color=amazing water spectacular. Return to Disneyland in hopes of short lines after the fireworks= lots of crowds (unusual). The biggest bummer, the fireworks that we missed Saturday night were cancelled on Sunday due to "circumstances..." More on the trip when I get photos from my mom.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just wanted to say Happy Valentine's Day to the two people who always told my sister and I that, "you don't need a special day to tell people you love them, you should tell them everyday." Well, you are loved!

Bathroom Demolition

We have had enough of the blue bathroom. Well, I have, and it started leaking into our laundry room. So let the fun times begin! Here is a before picture:That is one ugly vanity and way too many shades of blue with none of them matching. Luke loved the color and wanted to keep the blue tiles if we could just re-grout or put in a new tub without any difficulty. Fortunately this was not possible. He did have fun playing destroy the tiles to get the tub out though.Next came the very tricky part. How to get the tub out of the house. We were lucky in that we have a great layout and PapaBear and Luke were able to maneuver it out in one piece instead of having to take a sledge hammer to it and smash it (a big mess and very noisy). The tub was cast iron and weighed over 100 pounds. Looking at this now I think I should have held the front door open for the boys and let them "sled" out the door Home Alone style. In classy style they dropped the tub in our side yard, followed by a celebratory fist-bump.Continuing the class act they added the blue toilet and sink plus hideous vanity to the collection before taking a break for lunch. They removed the rest of the wall tiles and floor tiles (set in about 2-3 inches of concrete).Our new tub sat in the dining room for a week or two. We picked out new tiles and paint colors. I'll post more about our bathroom remodel when I upload the photos.

Marathon

Great weather greeted us on Marathon Sunday Morning! There were a TON of characters and lots of voluntEARs along the course. Some of the same characters as the day before, but in different locations than usual, which was a nice change of pace for the Goofy people thinking we knew what was coming. Mary Poppins' chimney sweep was a little baffled when I requested he squat down a tad so that my favorite character Dumbo could be in the picture. Disney definitely made the race worth stopping for characters because many of them were multi-character stops. For a while along the stretch between Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom I kept hearing "Bad to the Bone." All I could think of was the BBQ joint on the way to the family cottage, although I've never been there. As the music gets louder it gets kind of foggy and a little scary...Who let all the villains get together anyway? There was even the lady from Pirates with Cruella and Scar to name a few. In previous years I've run into Zorro and some Aliens in the cornfield. This year was a cute little raccoon and his friends.I was "Jammin' in the Jungle" with these fellows and the other runners were watching me with odd looks, as well as cast members. Apparently dancing to the parade music while waiting to see the characters is not common. Oh well, it was a great opportunity for me to snack on my fruit snacks and salt packets.I gave Papa Bear a great big hug (aka Baloo) and then continued on my way. Then it happened. The worst thing imaginable in the race, see for yourself: "There's no hope if Tinkerbell is laying down," was heard from a random runner passing by.
People in line started to say, "I believe Tink..." and clapping ensued. Not really, but I can dream.Of course many more characters and things were seen along the way. It was a great race and I ran the WHOLE time. Well, except the water stops where I walk through and drink and waiting for characters. But, this was the first time I didn't hurt and need to start walk/jogging the last 6 miles. I still finished in under 4:30 and was walking without a limp and was back to running/elliptical by Wednesday to keep training for Disneyland at the end of January (3 weeks after the Marathon). Only 333 days 'til next years race weekend starts!