Happiest Place On Earth

Guess what friends? In just one month from today J and I will have been married two whole wonderful, dreamy, sweet years. That flew by in a blink!

As we are looking for ways celebrate year two this upcoming month (this is supposed to in some way involve cotton... Just how exactly are you supposed to do that besides plastering your face on a t-shirt and shooting it at your loved one out of one of those t-shirt guns? OH YEA, I have thought this through...) I have spent an inordinate amount of time trolling the discount vacation websites of late. However, we have more and more been thinking that living the Orlando tourist vacation dream may be a smarter route.


For someone who is a big Disney fan (I used to say ginormous Disney fan and then I moved to Orlando and realized that I have got NOTHIN on the jones some of these people have for the mouse), it has been a really long time since the hubs and I went just for fun as grown-ups. Typically we have had little ones or friends along with us, which has been a blast in and of itself, but there are so many fun, romanticy Disney things we could do to celebrate at the parks if we decided to go for our anniversary. Yes, there would definitely be ears involved...


I looked up some creative Disney World anniversary ideas but most were either a little obvious or a little ridiculous. Guess what I did find though? A Disney site dedicated to all the ways you can spend money to make magical anniversary memories at the parks, INCLUDING a make your own t-shirt station at the Downtown Disney Marketplace!!! ;)

While I doubt we will be doing that, there were some other fun ideas on there like carriage rides, boat rides, horse rides, you get the picture. Of course we could spend $500 for dinner at the Victoria and Albert but I think we may take a pass on that idea, too. Anyhow, I am excited at the idea of reminiscing on the happiest day of my life at the happiest place on earth with the happiest husband of all!

Any other creative anniversary suggestions for us?

Happy Monday?

Yay. It's Monday... Sarcasm.

Did you have a great weekend? Did you watch the NBA All-Star Game? Did you watch the Oscars? Did you get rained out of the Daytona 500?

Yea, me either. It was a nice CALM cool weekend full of cooking, walking, snuggling, reading and coffee-ing with my sweets and our pooch. We are 67 years old. Pretty much this weekend was what I wish my life looked like on the regular but add the beach and some shopping and I'd be set. We did attempt to watch The Artist but we definitely both fell asleep in the theater. We were just a couple of regular party animals living it up on Friday night! All that tinkering piano music and reading of dialog really did us in. ;)


I used to live for the Oscars, not because I cared in the slightest who won what but because I LOVED to see what everyone was wearing. I'm sure my mom has old vhs recordings of the red carpet from circa 1995 - ??? in a box somewhere. Now, I have Go Fug Yourself and it is one of my most favoritest of all things. If you haven't read the GFY blog before... you're welcome.

Now it's off to the races. It's almost Spring Break around here (not that I get the week off, but it is a good measure of time). Anyone planning a spring or summer getaway? There were some amazing deals on Groupon Getaways and LivingSocial Escapes this weekend. Take me with you!

Have a happy week...

Just Sayin

West Palm Beach Mini Vacay

It doesn't feel like two weeks ago, but it was! I haven't finished sharing the pics of our West Palm Beach mini-vacay with you just yet. The best part for me (besides getting to celebrate my best friend's bday and hanging by the beach for a few days and not being at work and eating a lot of delicious food) was all of the QT with my honey. He's the best.




Sigh. It is GORGEOUS on Palm Beach Island. Not even weather can keep me from the beach. I had my swim suit in my purse and was ready to go in but SOMEONE wouldn't let me. ;)


Oh yea, maybe he wouldn't let me because it rained so hard that the streets flooded. Silly husband, what's a little rainwater?!


So instead we ate crepes. NOMS.


We also took a very wet and rainy stroll through the grounds of The most beautiful hotel I've ever seen, The Breakers. It was all classy and shit.


Why they call it The Breakers.


We walked along the beach anyhow and took a little break in the towel gazebo. I think the lifeguard thought we were a little nutty.


I could live at this pool. The Breakers was gorgeous.


Definitely didn't want to leave.


Whenever we go down to WPB we have to eat at Hilary's. It's like a biker bar for the breakfast crowd. They load your plate up with deliciousness and you leave for under $15. Love.




Finally, as I mentioned above, we got to celebrate Aimee's big 3-0 in high style. Aimee is one of my best friends because we can make each other laugh until it hurts and she is always a great listener, support and friend without judging or comparing. She is one in a million and I feel truly blessed to call her a friend.


For her big night we all went out to a place called WineDive for some vino and then headed to Don Ramons for South Florida Cuban food. Jealous?!


The crew at WineDive.


Isn't by bestie beautiful? AND SHE'S 30!


Love to see that smile!


Living close to my best friends has been by far the best part about living in Florida. So glad we were able to get some R&R in WPB and can't wait to do it again (but it's your turn to come up to Orlando AIMEE!).

Strawberry Shortcake Freezer Pops

Pinterest is crack. If you're not on Pinterest, hit me up and I can "invite" you, but prepare yourself. It will suck you in. Hours will go by and you will not know exactly how that happened.

Anyhow, I stumbled across this photo/recipe on Pinterest over the weekend and I had.to.make.these.now. We seriously dropped everything (aka laundry, hanging out with our dog and reading) to run to the market for the 3 ingredients needed to make these Strawberry Shortcake Freezer Pops. Well folks, it was worth it. If it is all snowy and wintery where you are, then perhaps wait until summer, but seeing as how it was in the high 70's and we had spent the day at the dog park, this was the perfect weekend snack.


PLUS, I got to use my baller new food processor that the world's most amazing brother gave me for Christmas. BONUS. So alls you do is blend up some nilla wafers in your processor. Dump some in the bottom of some dixie cups (the recipe says to mix this in with the yogurt but the idea of that texture kind of made me want to vomit).


Next you dump in some of your favorite yogurt. J went with strawberry (wise choice) and I tried out the soy vanilla. I was fearful this wouldn't freeze right, but it did my friends. And I was pleased. Next you let this layer freeze for abour 40 minutes.


While that's freezing you get to use your food processor again for the strawberries. Florida strawberries are truly impostor berries of the sweet nectar of heaven California variety so we had to add a little agave nectar. Whatever floats your boat, am I right?


Let that freeze, throw on some more yogurt and top with more crumbled nilla and you have got yourself a dreamsicle. These solidified after about 2 hours but even the half frozen ones were DELICIOUS and so easy. We couldn't for the life of us find popsicle sticks so we went with these weird BPA free potato-plastic spoons. They were alright to use, but if you have the sticks I would probably recommend using that instead.


Voila! This picture doesn't make them look all that appetizing but I am telling you they are so good. For me, the best part of these is that a) i can eat them and feel like i'm having ice cream and b) because they are huge and frozen they kind of take forever to eat so you are giving yourself an excuse to eat dessert (if not a healthy-ish variety) for like an hour.


Enjoy!

Glamping Dream Adventure

So, our second wedding anniversary is right around the corner (if you can believe that) so Jonathon and I have been looking into romantic adventure options on a budget and we came across something we were a little TOO pumped up about. Glamping. Ya heard of this?

It is exactly what it sounds like. Glamorous camping. And before you get all high and mighty about serious camping, recognize that a) we both love true outdoors naturey roughing it b) we ain't as young as we once were and c) wait until you see these pictures and all of your arguments will be deemed invalid.

The first set is from the Fireside Resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. And the answer you are looking for is, yes.


They also have cabins that sleep 4 - 6. Wouldn't this be a super fun place to reunite with all of your old married friends who now live a million miles away???


Next is The Resort at Paws Up in Greenough, Montana. Both of these places also have luxury cabins and more but they also offer glamping options.



Sign you up? I thought so.

Cruisin the Glades

Last weekend Jonathon and I went on a road trip adventure to South Florida including a fan boat ride in the Everglades! We drove down to Sawgrass, Florida and took a boat tour with Everglades Tours, who also boasted not one, not two but three mini-zoos on their property.


Visiting the Everglades was one of the "have to do this before leaving Florida" things on our list, and although we did technically visit the everglades on this trip, the boat tour was slightly underwhelming due to it's similarity to lake tours up in Orlandi. We went on an overcast day so there wasn't much wildlife to see but we also didn't go too far away from civilization. I would suggest going on a longer, swampyer tour if you're looking for true Florida. We may just have to go big one day before we leave and do a real swamp tour. (Side note: we aren't "planning" to leave but we are not from Florida so it's always in the back of our minds that this is a temporary home).


The handsomest:


The three "mini-zoo" areas were broken out into reptile, bardyard and jungle cat areas. This was one of the biggest (and smelliest) gators I have ever seen.


I was really impressed with the beautiful peacocks, as you can tell from the multiple photos taken from every angle. I just couldn't stop.




Of course no trip to the Glades would be complete without joyfully holding your own baby gator. This lil guy was supposedly around 3 years old and he just loved to cuddle. I just LOVED to give him back to the handler. Jonathon refused to hold him, he was really above the whole thing (direct quote: "Any interest I have in holding that thing is trumped by my interest in not using hand sanitizer afterward." He is the cutest). I, however, look super comfortable here, it was no biggie. :)