Disneyland -- the end (yes, finally.)

Okay, I'm packing way too many pictures into this one but I just didn't feel right making my trip recap take up four different posts.  On our last full day, we first hit Space Mountain again.  So worth any amount of time you have to wait in line - trust me.

We rode a bunch of rides and then went back and changed because we had lunch reservations at the ultra-exclusive Club 33. Michelle had the connection to get us in and it was a total bucket list experience for her.  DeAnne and I read up on the place so we could be properly impressed.  The restaurant has a private entrance in the New Orleans section.  After we were buzzed in, we waited a few minutes before our table was ready.  Michelle was SO excited.

We got to ride the antique French lift upstairs which was very awesome.

For lunch they have an appetizer buffet to start and we had all sorts of yummy things to eat.  We dressed up a little even though everything we read said lunches are more casual.  There were people there in shorts and tennis shoes but we felt like we wanted to dress for our surroundings and we were so glad we did.  The staff all commented on how nice we looked.

After the appetizers, they brought our entree which was a fabulous chateaubriand.  YUM.

After the perfect steak, we finished our meal with a dessert buffet.  I cannot even express to you how full we were by this point but we powered through.  The picture below shows my two favorites - the cheesecake pop at the top of my plate and the Mickey macaroon.  Disneyland's macaroons are the bomb.

Okay, I had to take a picture of the bathroom because hello - have you ever seen a toilet like this???

After lunch, we walked through the restaurant and took some pictures.  Elton John once played this piano.

The place is full of really beautiful artwork - I loved these sketches of Bert & Mary from Mary Poppins.  When we were looking at these, one of the waitresses told us that Dick Van Dyke had been in the restaurant the week before.  Can you even imagine what it would have been like to see Dick Van Dyke there?  I would have died.

This table was in Mary Poppins in the Banks' home.

Here we are after lunch, sickly full but SO happy for the beautiful experience we had.  The meal was SUPER expensive but I loved the opportunity to see this historical place and to help make one of Michelle's dreams come true.

After lunch, DeAnne stayed back at the room while Michelle and I went back to California Adventure.  We rode Tower of Terror again (my fave) as well as the Toy Story ride (loved it!)  We also got to be in the first row of Soarin' over California which I LOVED.  We didn't really smell the oranges though - not sure if they don't do that anymore or what.  When we were walking through the park, we saw Mickey arrive and we ran over so we could get a picture.  I was so happy and used one of the shots for my Christmas Card this year.

We left on Wednesday morning and got this picture in our hotel lobby - seriously beautiful.  I don't know how I will be able to ever stay anywhere else when I go back.

We had brunch at the Storyteller's Cafe and met a bunch of the characters as well as had the greatest french toast with buttermilk syrup EVER.  For whatever reason, I look exhausted in all of these shots.  Don't judge.

The raccoon from my least favorite Disney movie ever - Pochahontas.

And finally - forcing my eyes to be really open, thus having the dreaded crazy eyes.

I had the best time on our trip and I'm so grateful I finally went.  Disneyland really is the happiest place on earth.  I can't wait to go back!

Disneyland - the middle

One thing I loved a lot about Disneyland is you could always find someone who would take your group's picture if you'd return the favor.  Most of the time, people were pretty good too.  I love this shot of us on Main Street.  

So I spent lots of time looking longingly at the sparkly Minnie Mouse ears and after going back in forth in my mind about it and mostly talking myself out of it, DeAnne kindly bought each of us a set and I wore them proudly all day.  Seriously, they're cute right?  And mouse ears on a woman of my age (that would be 26, in case you've forgotten) isn't weird or lame, is it?  Yeah, I didn't think so either.

DeAnne was getting over bronchitis so every afternoon she went back to the room to rest so on Monday afternoon, Michelle and I hit all of the classic rides.  Here she is on It's a Small World.  

Here's me - I loved this ride.  Yes the music was obnoxious but it was just cute and fun.  Another thing I loved was The Tiki Tiki Room (no picture.)  Yes, cheesy, but I loved the birds and the dumb jokes.  Okay, and the pineapple whip was awesome too.

So I learned early on that Michelle was not the most skilled at taking the self-portrait.  Case in point here...I'm posting only because it's a great shot of me haha. I think we're on the Teacup ride (also fun.)

We took Mr. Toad's Wild Ride next which came highly recommended and did not disappoint.

My ears are a little crooked here but I had to post a shot outside the castle.

Okay, and to prove that I only post attractive pictures of me, I have to add this shot of our first time on Space Mountain.  I loved this ride so much - easily my favorite Disneyland ride.  I honestly thought I might die the first time we rode this one just because it was so dark and I had no idea if I was going to be decapitated or whatever.  But look at this picture of DeAnne - seriously...have you seen a more bored out of their mind expression while Michelle and I are obviously having the time of our lives???

So I don't know if you remember that on the day before, we rode the Grizzly River Run and got a little damp.  Well, at the end of the day, we decided to try out Splash Mountain and again Michelle promised we wouldn't get that wet.  Well...we got wet.

Seriously drenched!  It was horrible.  We left puddles wherever we went.  I will never again mock those people who bring rain ponchos on the water rides.

After this ride, we went to the bakery at Pooh's Corner and had two of my most favorite treats ever:  the white chocolate chip cookie and the peanut butter sandwich.  Those two items alone are worth a trip to Disneyland. 

Okay, the finale is coming soon -- stay tuned for our once in a lifetime trip to Club 33 plus me and a lot of people in animal costumes.

Proof for the non-believers

I have much to share but very little time to do so...so while you wait for my latest installment on my Disneyland trip and a report on the gifts I received from work people, watch this video from last weekend's SNL.  Yes, it's irreverent, etc. but watch until the last line from Jesus, will you please? :)

Baking Day 2011

Here's me and my friend Tricia in a sort of crummy timer photo but at least her eyes are open.

For the last several years (five? I'm not really sure exactly...) Tricia and I have gotten together in December and spent an entire day baking.  Yes we have matching aprons, thanks to Tricia.  But I cannot express to you how wonderful it is.  I look forward to it all year - seriously.  That's how great Baking Day is.

And look at our sustenance...yeah we didn't eat that many grapes.

I packed up half of my pantry to bring to Tricia's because she has two ovens and a beautiful kitchen.  And you think I'm kidding but look - that truly is half of my pantry.  At least.

This year was a little different because Tricia only has one child left at home, 14 year old Mary, who was at school all day.  So instead of all of these teenagers bugging us all day, we were all alone at her house and it was kind of weird.  I posted this on FB but in past years, Adrian and Anna would be there helping us or running to the store to get some forgotten ingredient, Robert would either be sampling, entertaining us or even better, running to get us some Subway.  Emy and Mary were always the best taste-testers so even though the big kids are gone, Mary came home and tried everything out.  I love it that Mary requests and expects me to make certain things and of course, I do just that.

Yes, we went through more than five pounds of butter.

There are a few standbys in our Baking Day repertoire but this year we tried to mix it up a little and make some new things.  I made: chinese noodle cookies, peanut butter cup cookies, peppermint meltaways, cookie dough fudge (which was a fail), mint magic bars and caramel chex mix.

Tricia made toffee, peppermint bark, sugar cookies, almond raspberry shortbread cookies, orange truffles (another fail), peppermint bark popcorn and crunchers,

I bought some super cute Martha Stewart treat boxes I found at Marshall's for a fabulous price and I put boxes full of love together for work people, visiting teaching sisters and my home teachers.

I love that I have homemade gifts for people at Christmas time but I love more the time spent with Tricia. We are completely comfortable sharing a kitchen, we talk about everything under the sun, we laugh hysterically and sometimes we don't say anything at all. Even with a couple of recipe misfires and even though I came home completely exhausted and half of my pantry is waiting to be put away, we still had a fantastic day and I can't wait until we get to do it all again.

Be a better blogger

So if you look at the archive on my sidebar, you'll see that 2011 has not been a good year for blogging. In fact, this entry is only my 30th for the entire year.  That's kind of sad, isn't it? I think it is.

I was thinking about it and I've come to the conclusion that I just never think to blog about the normal stuff I do every day.  For example, yesterday I brought Denae's mint brownies to work (and received no less than 3 marriage proposals: from one married man plus from two gay men.  The mint brownies are pretty powerful so consider yourself warned!)  Then after work I stopped at the King's, we ate some pizza and then I went to my last Young Women in Excellence night for the year.  I mean, it was certainly a fun day but I'm thinking the only person who wants to read a detailed account of my day is Kim and that's only because she's so far away in dang London.  But do you know who else is interested in my minutiae?

Me.

So here's my point...I'm going to try and blog about stuff I would normally never think to blog about.  Why?  Well, it's not for any of you, really. I mean, I love comments and I love feedback and I love the friends I've made through this blog (seriously, blogging has truly blessed my life.)  But it's because I went back and read some of my past entries this week and I love love LOVE that I have this little record of my life since 2008.  My blog isn't the greatest blog out there.  I haven't even updated my layout since I started, pretty much.  I'm not the best at putting pictures on here.  I know I blogged too much about television shows and I've also left a lot of the good stuff out because I'm a chicken but you know what?  I still like this blogging thing a whole lot.

So here's to more blogging in 2012!

Disneyland - the beginning

It's long past time that I should recap my trip to Disneyland, wouldn't you say?

So if you are a devoted reader of my blog, you will know that this was my first ever visit to the Magic Kingdom.  I'm not sure why I never went until now but it really was well worth the wait.  I went with two friends I've known for more than 20 years, Michelle and DeAnne.  They'd both been before so really, the trip was all for me. ;)

We stayed at the Grand Californian which was simply beautiful.  I loved being so close to the park. Here's the view from our hotel room the night we arrived.

Michelle surprised us right from the beginning by having these super cute, personalized pillowcases for us.

We got in kind of late so we decided to just walk over to Disneyland and check things out.  I loved all of the decorations for Halloween!

We got to Main Street in time for the fireworks - hurray for the photo bomb in our first group shot.  And please note the first timer pin, which actually did nothing for me...maybe it works better for kids?

Michelle will kill me for putting this picture up but I have to...so in her hand is this little bottle called "Fresh Drops."  She bought it at Safeway before she took a bunch of girls on some soccer trip.  This stuff is actually kind of magical - you drop a few drops into the toilet before you go...and guess what?  No smell.  Seriously.  It totally works.  I thought you'd all like to see this because it would make a great Christmas gift for that special someone in your life...seriously...

Okay, first day is done and now we're onto day two - the first full day of fun.  We went to California Adventure first and our first ride was The Little Mermaid.  Okay, so maybe not the best choice but there was also no line.  It was darling and fun - just not that exciting.  Oh and please note the new bag I bought for the trip - big enough for my wallet, camera and phone and super cute as well.

After our first ride, we took a quick photo together...love these girls!

We had reservations for brunch at Ariel's Grotto and look who we got to meet first off:

We sat outside, in perfect view of the closed-for-repairs California Screamin' (sadness) and waited for brunch to begin. I love my Michelley - isn't she pretty?

The food took forever to arrive so we posed with princesses while we waited.  I told Cinderella she had lipstick on her teeth just before we took our picture together.  I mean, wouldn't YOU have told her??? She's Cinderella, for goodness sake.

Belle showed me how to pose - I've got to work on how to position the hand, just so, I'm thinking. And no it's not one bit strange that a bunch of adults were taking pictures with the Princesses. Why ever would you think such a thing?

Michelley had to be with Snow White because, hello - they look alike!

Well, we waited and waited for brunch but they had something go wrong in the kitchen so we didn't get to eat.  So sad...so we left and got a corn dog (yum.)  DeAnne and I rode Mickey's Fun Wheel (swinging...I loved it when I thought we were going to sail on into the water!)

Next we went on Tower of Terror - twice.  Can I just say how much I adore that ride?  Here's the pic during my first ride - please note that I laughed my way through it, as you can clearly see.

The second time, we decided to pose and did a little jazz hands aka Just Jack!

We did a bunch of other rides too - Soaring over California, Monster's Inc, the Muppets, Turtle Talk and more.  At the end of the day, we went on the Grizzly River Run.  Michelle assured us we wouldn't get that wet.  She said "it'll just be a mist."  So we went...and as you can plainly see, we got pretty wet.  

So that's our first two days...stay tuned for more (before 2012, I promise!)

Did you know...?

That I'm the thirstiest ever on Sundays? I cannot drink enough water on days like today.

That going to a Messiah sing-along is sure to fill you with the Christmas spirit?

That despite the influx of Christmas spirit, I might not put up my tree this year?  I'm just not feeling it.

That sometimes your prayers are answered by a sweet little 4 year old girl who invites you to sit with her during church and then proceeds to hug and kiss and love you right out of your mini-funk?

That yesterday I filled 7.5 bags up with clothes that are too big?  

That it's physically impossible to ever really be done with laundry?

That whenever you feel like you have problems, people get up during church and talk about their pain and then you feel like a total dork because your life is so dang good the way it is?

That my mom is the absolute best because she is going to wrap all of my Christmas presents for me?

That my hair is the longest it's been since I was like 5 years old?

That I'm spending one whole day this week baking treats for people I love with one of my most favorite friends?

That I can't think of anything else to say?