The Magic of Disney

Have you ever tried to do Walt Disney World in a couple of days? We did. I wouldn't recommend it.  In retrospect we should've taken a week-long trip to fully enjoy the Disney experience. Instead, we chose the whirlwind approach. Imagine leaving the hotel at 8:30am and not returning until 9:30pm the same night with no nap and no rest (other than meal and bathroom breaks) with a 4-year old. It was exhausting! But, it was well worth it!

We were gone for 4 days, but truly only had two full days at Disney after all the travel time on the plane, taxis and shuttles. Here's a quick timeline of how it all went down.

We left MSP, had a layover at O'Hare and then arrived in Orlando. There was nothing exciting about all the flights. Keira did enjoy a hamburger from Burger King as we flew from MSP to O'Hare.

Notice the symmetry in which she ate her burger

After arriving and checking into our hotel (we stayed at the Wyndham Lake Buena Vista - nothing exciting - a normal hotel room. We never did see the pool area so I can't comment on that) we ventured out to Downtown Disney. That wasn't there when we last visited Disney 20 years ago! It was high-energy with lots of places to eat, explore and of course, shop. 

We were up bright and early the next day and arrived at the Magic Kingdom right when the gates opened. As we came in from the monorail Keira was over the moon in seeing Cinderella's castle in the distance. It was going to be a great trip! Our first day was spent meeting princesses, going on as many rides as we could and catching a couple of the parades and street shows. Keira's highlights were riding the spinning teacups, the Peter Pan ride and above all else, meeting Rapunzel. After meeting Rapunzel she was grinning ear to ear and telling us all about how Rapunzel said they were princess friends and that her favorite colors were pink and purple just like Keira!

We aren't sure about the boob grab, but meeting Rapunzel was Keira's favorite part of our first day.

Excited for the adventure to start. It was chilly in the a.m., but became warm and sunny later.

I think her smile speaks for itself as we spun in the teacups.

Crossing the barrel bridge on Tom Sawyer's Island

The end of our first day at the Magic Kingdom

After working through a snafu and getting over the disappointment of not eating lunch at Cinderella's castle, we started our second day bright and early with an 8am breakfast at Ashersus over at Epcot. This was no ordinary breakfast. Oh no! This was a breakfast hosted by the princesses. Keira donned her own Sleeping Beauty gown and we were off. It was pricey - about $115 after tax and tip for the three of us. But, I will say this. It saved us at least 2.5 hours of having to stand in line to meet the princesses, Keira got to be in a princess processional through the restaurant and we received souvenir 8x10 and 4x6's of Keira and Princess Belle that were included in the price. To me, that was worth it and the breakfast was pretty good - all you can eat bacon - need I say more? Keira got to meet Belle, Sleep Beauty, Cinderella, Ariel and Snow White. Cinderella even picked Keira to walk hand-in-hand with her during the princess processional! I was worried she'd be too scared to do that, but I was totally wrong. One question from Cinderella and she turned around and took off without looking back. Thank goodness Cinderella brought her back to us afterwards.

After breakfast we spent some time wandering through the various countries at Epcot and getting more autographs with princesses including Jasmine and Mulan. If we weren't short on time and if Keira wasn't with us I would've enjoyed exploring more of Epcot. But, this trip really was about Keira so after lunch we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest. Then we set off to make the most of the evening we had ahead of us at Magic Kingdom.

We got on more rides, met Tinkerbell, watched the electrical parade on Main Street and finally enjoyed the show and fireworks over Cinderella's castle to end our Walt Disney World experience. It was, all in all, an amazing trip and I know Keira loved it!!

A balancing act

My baby girl and me at Epcot

It was amazing how they transformed the castle

Getting ready to meet Tinker Bell

Our last photo of the trip. Thank you Walt Disney World!

A Busy Start to the New Year

An episode of COPS right in our own backyard! I was startled awake by a strange noise on the night of January 27th to find the police and an assortment of other first responders combing the neighborhood. It turns out a driver lost control of his/her car and ran into the deck of a house across the way and proceeded to flee the scene which resulted in the fanfare. Check out the KSTP and Rosemount news stories on this - SUV Crash . Excitement in a small town!

Other than that we've had a great time seeing friends and family when we have time. It's been busy with activities for Mark, Keira and me. One such activity included having Keira's buddies (aka her husband and her boyfriend) over to play. They were all so well behaved I was actually able to take a 20-minute snooze while they played in the other room. Mark was awake and present, but he never had to do anything. What great kids!

Great lunch and great conversation

Tyler ate like a champ

Keira did pretty well too - must be the influence of her friends

Will had fun with his Oreo

Showing off their chocolate teeth

Keira tried to stuff her mouth too

This Sunday is my birthday. Yes, I will be 29 - again. Mark took me to dinner at Kincaid's where I enjoyed a lovely halibut dinner followed by Lion King at the Orpheum. It's been a great start to the birthday weekend. Tonight is dinner with the family and I've got some other outings planned with friends throughout the month. It's going to be a busy, but fun-filled month.

2012 Resolutions

Ha! I don't make new year's resolutions because I know I will break them. For example, I was going to not gossip at work anymore. Well, that lasted until 9:30am yesterday morning. Everyone was back in the office and I got the latest on which divorced folks in the office who shall remain nameless were suspected of canoodling through the holidays. I like to be in the know and is it really gossiping if I'm just listening? (That's a rhetorical question. I don't want a lecture on why I shouldn't gossip.) I was also going to go "no popcorn" for the month of January because I totally gorged on the stuff throughout December - even made myself sick a couple of times. Anyway, I've made it the entire 4 days of January so far! However, I just found out that I qualify for an upcoming online research study about kettle corn. It requires me to sample kettle corn and provide feedback. For my time, I get popcorn samples and a $75 Amazon gift card. Yep, that's worth breaking that resolution. I think I've made my point.

One real resolution I'm going to try to keep is updating this blog. I don't know who's reading and I just might be talking to myself, but hey, it's fun and an easy way to keep a record of bits and pieces of my life, events, thoughts, etc. I'm shooting for at least once a month. Anything beyond that would be a bonus.

And, how rude of me...Happy New Year to anyone reading this!! I hope your 2012 is filled with happiness, good health and all that your heart desires!

One quick photo of Keira and Santa. It's such a fun event now that she doesn't scream at Santa. The curve ball she threw was telling Santa she wanted a jack-in-the-box for Christmas. Well, that was definitely not on my list of "Santa's gifts to Keira". Thank goodness for Amazon.com!