hogwarts, a (recent) history

since HP7.1 comes out this week, i thought i'd share photos from our visit to the wizarding world of harry potter.  i haven't been so excited to be in a theme park since...january?  : P

i could easily become obsessed with this place.  luckily, we bought season passes since this small area of islands of adventure is super fun.  and we have to go back to visit our pal hedwig:

ok, and to drink more butterbeer & pumpkin juice:

we're gonna party like it's your birthday

oct. 25 was my adorable hubby's birthday...

for a month, he's as old as i am...oh, how he LOVES that moment when i turn into the old woman again.  i enjoy celebrating him finally "coming of age" every year, and those 30 days when he can't tease me for being older!!

 we celebrated at via napoli, the new pizza place in the italy pavillion at epcot.  the pizza there is outstanding, and don't even get me started on the dessert.  the photo below shows the character of their wood-burning ovens.

and what better way to celebrate a birthday than with fireworks???

block party bash

i totally love the street parties that disney is creating now, like pixar block party bash at disney's hollywood studios.  the stars & cars boring parade is gone, and is replaced by a party in the streets with all of your favorite pixar characters!

yes, i'm still bloggin' it up

my sister vanessa reminded me that i haven't blogged in a long time, and i have fun stuff to blog about!  let's be honest...i live in the happiest place on earth...i *always* have fun stuff to blog about.  lucky me!!

we just got back on sunday from our first cruise. why yes, it WAS a disney cruise..and can i just say that cruising is freakin' awesome.  i'm in love.  i may be a bit biased because i went with my adorable hubby & my BFF, but we really had a ball.  it was so relaxing, even though we did a million things.  great restaurants, great shows, great islands.  the water is so so so blue & beautiful in the bahamas...

already wishing to be back on castaway cay.  who's up for a cruise in january??

exciting times

you know what's awesome?  being excited about your own life.  waking up every morning & being thankful that you're where you are, doing what you are doing.

obviously my life isn't perfect.  nobody's life is perfect.  i make mistakes daily.  i catch myself thinking a lot of "what if's," but i don't dwell on them because they are only passing thoughts, like "what if we stayed in chicago with our well-paying jobs?  would we have purchased a house by now (like we see our other married friends doing) or started a family (see last note)?"  who knows.  who knows whether or not we'd be ready for those things, but i DO know that we didn't wake up smiling 6 days out of 7.  i know that we spend a lot more time out with friends, new & old, than we do sitting around watching TV.  we're rarely too exhausted and stressed to make an effort to go have fun.  we have more time to spend together.  we spend less time complaining about the weather, and how expensive everything is.  we spend less time complaining in general.  
 
i feel so lucky and blessed to be where i am at this moment.

labor day weekend

labor day kinda snuck up on me this year.  typically we go on a little vacation, but we didn't realize it was here until wednesday...so i guess we did a staycation!

friday night we went to buffalo wild wings with some pals to play trivia games.  our whole gang did really well, and i think more trivia nights are certainly on the horizon.

on saturday, andy & i both did a little work and i got a lot of housekeeping done (and a little scrapbooking).    later that night, we met up with leah and ajay at artist point for an incredible meal.

i had an absolutely incredible salmon dinner, fresh caught from alaska.

sunday we slept in a bit then went to animal kingdom.  we went to ride kali river rapids, as we had not ridden it all year...and while we expected to get wet, we ended up getting DRENCHED.  soaked.  annihilated by a deluge of water.  we tried to dry out, and did a few more things in the park, but ended up heading back to the apartment to change into vegging clothes.  

between yesterday & today, i was able to finish the scrapbook that i've been working on most recently.  it's from my disney internship in 2005 (yeah, 5 years ago, i know) and is finally finished!  

Trail's End

A great, hidden breakfast buffet @ Wilderness Lodge...and less expensive, too!