Wordless Wednesday: Wall-E

"I don't want to survive, I want to live" - Captain

This week, Deb prompted us to post a picture of nature.  Here's the Mickey sandpit at Disney's Magnolia Golf Course.

Hello Monday

Weekend Update

On Friday, Patrick's parents came in town to visit for Easter.  While we ate dinner, the Easter Bunny visited our back yard to hide some eggs and left something special for Littlecjc.  She hunted the eggs for a bit, and then she noticed her basket and took off running.

This year, the Easter bunny left her a Doc McStuffins ambulance and her basket had some snacks and a small Little Mermaid lego set.

On Saturday, we started our morning at the local VFW post for another Easter egg hunt.  Here, Littlecjc was given popcorn and a drink while everyone waited for the hunt to start.

This hunt was a lot smaller than the one we went to last weekend, but there were still several kids that showed up.  Littlecjc had fun and ended up with several eggs.

After the egg hunt, everyone went back inside where pictures could then be taken with the Easter bunny.  Littlecjc wasn't interested in getting her picture taken and since I already had a picture of her with the Easter bunny last weekend, I was fine with that.  So, after visiting with my grandpa for a bit we decided to head out.  Littlecjc was also given a treat bag when we left that had additional, and larger candies inside.

Our final community egg hunt this year, was at the Knights of St. John's.  I was impressed with the amount of kids here, but it was still a pretty calm hunt.  Littlecjc probably ended up with the most eggs at this hunt, but her most favorite part was that everyone got a hotdog lunch after the egg hunt.

When Easter Sunday finally got here, we went to church and then out to my mom's for a brunch with my grandparents.  I can't believe that I didn't take one picture on Easter Sunday.  I know I took one on Patrick's phone and I think my mom might have taken a few, but I personally don't have a single photo to share.  

Hello Monday

Here's your peak at this week.  If you pay attention, you will notice something exciting next weekend!  We have a Wall-E theme this week, since I figured we'd be eating fast food while traveling.

Hello Pippin

I'm so excited to go see Pippin this evening.  My brother and sister-in-law gave Patrick and me tickets for this show at Christmas.  So, they are watching Littlecjc this evening while Patrick and I get a little date night.  I love all theater, but especially musicals.  Broadway across America is one of the best ideas ever in my opinion.  I have been fortunate enough to get to Broadway for many shows over two different trips to New York, but I've seen just as many shows both in Chicago and here in our own town thanks to these traveling companies.

Hello New Do

On Tuesday, I have a hair appointment, to chop off a lot of my hair.  This is a big deal for me, because I'm that person that only cuts my hair maybe once a year.  I usually chop it all off every few years and then just occasionally trim it up until it gets way long again and then cut it all off again.  In fact, this will be the first time for Littlecjc to go with me, and if she will sit still, she may just get a little trim herself.

Hello Binge List

So last week, I mentioned that Patrick and I started watching a new Netflix original called The Killing.  Well, we are now almost finished with the third season, and I'm sad that there are only four seasons because I am so into this show.  I do need to correct myself though.  Apparently, this show did not originate on Netflix, but after it was cancelled from AMC, Neflix picked it up for a final fourth season of only 6 episodes.  I have also finally made it to the final shorter season of Gossip Girl.  I doubt I will finish both, if either this week, but I definitely don't think I'll be starting anything new.

Hello New Reads

Last week, I did finish Beautiful Ruins, which was enjoyable but nothing too memorable for me.  I decided to start Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell.  This is a book that I heard a lot about last year, but to be honest, I'm not too impressed yet.  I guess time will tell.

Hello Pavement

A while back, I mentioned my thoughts about running the Disney marathon.  Well, last week, I made it out twice in attempts to start jogging.  My first day out, I jogged for 20mins and I was thrilled to have made it through the whole time without needing to walk.  The second day was harder, but I mostly jogged through 25 mins.  I was so excited after my first day, and I was proud after the second.  I need to get out today for 30 mins and we'll see how it goes.  I have a few more weeks of this run/walk training where my time will gradually increase, before dropping back down to 20mins of actual running.  So, I feel like I'm on track.  We'll see how it goes.

The only other thing I can think of going on this week, is that I need to start packing for our trip and making sure that we have everything ready to go.  

Happy Monday Everyone!

Magic Kingdom bonus, October 2016

Originally we had planned this day to be a rest day, but late the night we decided to add another day.  It wasn't going to be much more for us to add another day in the park to our tickets, but while waiting in line at the concierge, we talked with a friend who is a castmember who offered to get us into the park.  Castmemebers have a set amount of days that they are able to get three people into the park as long as they enter the park with them.  Our friend agreed to meet us at the park entrance early enough to watch the welcome show since we missed it the first day due to our early breakfast reservation.  Keep in mind though, that by using these passes we were unable to get fastpasses until the park opened and we made it to a kiosk.  This applies to every fastpass after your initial three as well.  However, these gate passes are hoppers and once you've entered the park in the morning with the castmember, they do not need to be with you the rest of the day even if you do decide to go to a different park.  Since this was truly a bonus day, we tried to still make it more of a restful day and just go with flow more than the determined park goers we normally are.

8:00
We opted to stop in at Town Square Theater as soon as we entered the park, so Mickey Mouse became character #1.

After visiting with Mickey, we took our time up Main Street, again stopping in front of the castle to take another one of those iconic pictures.

Our next step was the fastpass kiosk in Fantasyland to get our three initial fastpasses.  We ended up with Winnie the Pooh, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, and Barnstormer.  Our friend had a long day of work still ahead of her, so she did not stay with us in the park so we also spent a few minutes catching up and making plans to meet up again later in the week before we left town.  Once she left, we headed to Peter Pan's Flight, attraction #1.  This is another example of the fun, interactive lines that Disney has to help pass the time.  Here's Littlecjc's shadow trying to catch some butterflies.

9:00

We left our pirate ship and went next door for another boat ride.  It's a Small World, attraction #2 is a classic and little ones love that there is so much going on all around them.

Since we bypassed the Carousel so many times the first day in the park, we gave in today and let Littlecjc ride her horse.  Carousel, attraction #3.

When we dismounted our horses, we headed to the Mad Tea Party, attraction #4, for a spin in a teacup.

We seem to have good timing with this ride, as we have been able to catch a few somewhat rare characters at it's exit.  This time, we met Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, characters #2 and 3.

After this fun interaction, it was time for our first fastpass.  We made our way to Winnie the Pooh, attraction #5.

10:00

We had spent 2 hours in Fantasyland and decided it was time to move on to Tomorrowland.  Astro Orbitor always has a line unless the park has just opened or is closing.  The line itself never seems that long, but it moves slowly.  Littlecjc really likes this ride, so we decided to wait it out.  We were even chosen to monitor the time.

If you've been to Disney before, you've probably seen these red cards either being held by someone in line or maybe even a casstmember has given you one before.  These help monitor the wait times.  Castmembers scan these at the start of the line and then hand them off to a guest entering the line.  When that guest gets to the attraction they hand them off to another castmember who scans the card again.  I don't know the specifics of how these work, but by the castmembers doing this so many times each hour, they are able to keep the wait times listed pretty accurate to the actual wait time.  So, Littlecjc held onto her red card while waiting in line for Astro Orbitor, attraction #6.

When we made it back to ground level, it was time for our second fastpass at Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, attraction #7.

By the time we finished defending the galaxy, it was almost 11:00 and we decided to stop at Cosmic Ray's for a quick service lunch.

Littlecjc really enjoyed watching Sunny Eclipse perform.

11:00

When we were done eating, we made our way back to the Storybook Circus at the back of Fantasyland.  We started at Dumbo, which has a great play area for kids to have fun while waiting in line while parents can rest inside the AC.  You are actually given a buzzer like you would get at a restaurant that holds your place in line. Littlecjc was playing in the toddler area when we ran into a friend.

Remember the friend that got us into the park today?  This is her husband.  It was fun being able to see him in action since he is a newer castmember.

Once our buzzer went off we got back in line and headed back outside to ride Dumbo, attraction #8.

12:00

Inside Storybook Circus, there is a big circus tent set up in the back called Pete's Silly Side Show where you can meet Goofy, Donald, Daisy, and Minnie.  We've met all these characters before in other locations, but this was the first time meeting them here which is so fun since they are themed for the area.  The boys are on one side while the girls are on the other.  The boys had a shorter line at the time, so we jumped in their line and met the Great Goofini, character #4 and the Astounding Donaldo Snake Charmer, character #5.

Before just stepping next door and visiting with the girls, we needed to head to the Barnstormer, attraction #9  and use our fastpasses.

After riding the plane as Littlecjc calls it, we went back to the big top to meet Daisy Fortuna, character #6 and Minnie Magnigique, the poodle trainer, character #7.

We decided to leave Storybook Circus by taking the train.  Poor littlecjc was so excited to ride the train, but she didn't even make it to the front of the park.  Regardless, the Walt Disney World Railroad was attraction #10.

Since she crashed, we decided to continue to ride until we got to Frontierland.

1:00-3:00
After disembarking in Frontierland, we casually strolled through the park making our way to the front of the park and guest relations.  We knew that Magic Kingdom was closing at 7 due to a Mickey's not So Scary Halloween party.  We also knew that Epcot had evening extra magic hours, so we were debating hopping over there.  However, we wanted to verify whether or not we would be able to take advantage of the extra hours since yes we were staying in a Disney hotel, but we had used a castmember pass to get in the park on this specific day.  Guest relations was pretty busy at this time since I think many park goers were getting information and possibly tickets for the party that evening and I'm not sure the cm completely understood my question, but he did say that as long as we had hotel reservations synced to our magic bands we should be fine regardless of how we entered the park.  (In all honesty, we didn't end up testing this answer.)  With this info we decided that we would go ahead and hop over to Epcot after the Festival of Fantasy parade.  We did still have some time before the parade began, but Littlcjc was still sleeping so we casually strolled through the Emporium taking some time to check out all the new inventory and in particular deciding if we would be interested in any of the Halloween items.  We left the Emporium about 2:00 and crossed the street for some Starbucks (also a good place to buy juice in the park for Little ones.)  With drinks in hand, we picked a curb spot along Main Street and took a seat.  Although those with tickets to the party that evening couldn't enter until 4:00 without a park ticket, there were still many people walking up Main Street in costume, so we enjoyed watching the people, castmembers selling balloons, and made some phone calls back home.  At about 2:50 the Main Street Philharmonic Band came marching down the street.

3:00
Littlecjc started to wake with the help of the band which worked out well as she was able to drink her juice while we waited for the Festival of Fantasy parade to begin.  After waiting so long to watch this parade, we were super excited to see it and I'm counting it as attraction #11, Festival of Fantasy Parade.

 4:00
As stated earlier, we decided to leave with the masses after the parade and we headed towards Epcot.  We rode the monorail for an easy and fun transfer.

5:00

We arrived at Epcot with one goal in mind, to ride Frozen Ever After.  We had been watching the app, and knew that the ride had been down for a while, but we figured worse case scenario we would just get dinner somewhere and head back to the hotel.  We made our way to Norway and discovered a line behind a rope stating that the ride was currently down.  We explored the new pavilion and discussed our options.  By 5:30 we had decided to sit in the line for a while and see what happened.  

6:00

During the 6:00 hour we continued to sit in this line.  There were only 2 groups ahead of us and an extremely nice family behind us.  We took turns exploring with Charlie and had some great snacks from Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe.

Littlecjc remained well behaved and had a lot of fun playing with the girl in line behind us, so we stayed in line.  

7:00

During this hour, the two groups in front of us gave up and we became the first group in line.  As long as Littlecjc continued to behave, we knew there was no way we could leave now that we were at the front unless they told us it wasn't going to open again that evening.  Eventually, probably about 7:45 we found out that it was going to open again, even though it wasn't entirely fixed, but first for those that had fastpasses at any time that the ride was down or for the current hour.  We were a little bummed but hadn't totally given up and some people behind us started asking more questions.  A few minutes later, they opened the gate saying we would be stopped further up but that we could enter.  We rushed through, while taking in the decor the best we could while not getting ran over and continued to walk right on to the ride.  No one ever stopped us and we rode in the very first row, completing our day with attraction #12, Frozen Ever After.

8:00
When we got off the ride, we noticed that they had closed off the standby line like we were originally told, and only those with fastpasses were able to enter.  My guess is they closed the line once off once everyone entered that had been waiting while it was down.  Either that or someone messed up and wasn't suppose to let us enter, but either way it worked out in our advantage.  We debated staying for Illuminations and the extra magic hours, but the ride lines were all long and knowing that we would be returning the next day we opted to just beat the crowd out of the park to return to our hotel.  We maybe didn't get as much in today as we only got in 12 attractions (including 1 parade) and 7 character meet and greets, but it was extremely successful as we rode the new Frozen ride and had a blast at Magic Kingdom.  We originally planned on this being a rest day, so we said from the beginning that we didn't want to rush around wearing ourselves out like normal.  We were very happy with our decisions this day and didn't feel like we had missed out by not staying at Epcot until close.

Wordless Wednesday: Monsters, Inc

"I wouldn't have nothing if I didn't have you"  - Monsters, Inc

This blurry picture is the only picture I got from the Monsters, Inc ride at Disneyland.  My one day adventure there was such a rush, I hardly have any pictures at all, so even though this one is awful, I'm still thankful for it.  I really need to go back to Disneyland and take some more time there.  

I do however, have many pictures from the Pixar Place at Hollywood Studios.  One of my favorite places for photos here is the lines.  Everyone is familiar with the lines for Toy Story Mania, but the line to meet Buzz and Woody is just as fun.

I have so many great memories and photos thanks to the incorporation of Pixar into the parks.  Join the fun, and share your Pixar photos.

Show and Tell: Prom

Oh my!  This week, Andrea prompted us to think back to our prom nights.  Wow! It's hard to believe that my first prom was 14 years ago.  My prom nights were fun, (I went to three proms during high school) but it's not like they were the most memorable moments of my high school years either.  I wasn't the type of girl to spend a lot of money on my dresses.  In fact, out of the three proms I only bought one dress, and even that one was purchased off a sale rack.  Don't get me wrong.  I did love high school.  I had great friends, and I was very active in both school and community activities.  My high school wasn't one of those large city, full campus types, but it definitely wasn't small either.  We had about 1300-1400 students enrolled between grades 9-12.

My school has a proud history, originally opening in 1918, (the blue outlined building) with an amazing football stadium, known as the bowl that was built in 1921.  So, as you can guess, we also love our football, and I have more memories there than I do my prom.  Honestly, I don't remember a lot about my first actual prom.

I remember that a group of us girls all got together at a friends house, where she she had someone over to fix our hair and we all got ready together.  I don't remember if my group of friends did anything special for dinner, or if everyone did their own thing.  I also didn't take hardly any pictures that evening apparently.  I do know who I went with.  Here's my date and me at the start of the evening.

This guy was my boyfriend at the time.  We had started dating sometime our freshman year, I'm guessing in the spring since I know we didn't go to the Christmas dance together that year.  So, we had been dating about 2 years by this time.  Prom that year was held at the Coliseum downtown, the building below.

Since prom is always planned by the junior class, even though I don't remember helping at all, my mom must have helped decorate since I found these pictures of the amazing parents hard work.  I know these pictures are bad, but again, these non-digital pictures remind me of just how long ago this was, and how old I'm getting!

I also found my picture of Junior girls.  This obviously isn't all the Junior girls, but these are the girls that ran around together with my group of friends.

I know there was also an after prom party, put on by the PTA, I believe, but I don't remember anything about that.  It was possibly at a bowling alley, as I know that's where it was senior year.

I do seem to remember a little more from senior year, but not a lot.  For this one, I don't remember getting ready, but I do remember going to someone's house to take pictures among their landscaping.  I don't remember whose house it was, and I don't think it was a friend's, but maybe a friend of one of the parents who just knew they had a pretty setting for pictures.

This is my best friend and me with our boyfriends of the time.  Yes, I had a new boyfriend this year.  I was such a rebel this year, thanks to my mom.  She absolutely loved this dress, (it was the only prom dress I bought,) even though it technically wasn't allowed by school rules.  We weren't suppose to wear mid-drift type dresses, but my mom made this matching wrap to wear as I entered past the teachers and administration, and no one ever said anything.  Here's why she loved this dress.

After our little photoshoot at the possibly stranger's house, a large group of us went out to dinner at a fancy restaurant that I've never been to again.  This year, the dance was held at the Scottish Rite building, still downtown.  I don't remember the prom's official theme, but different movie scenes were set up around the room for photo opportunities.

My school also always started the prom off with the senior waltz.  This was a nice idea, but everyone that participated had to be a senior and attend rehearsals.  Therefore, I did not participate in this since my boyfriend went to a different school and I didn't really feel like asking anyone else in my class.  The girls picture is a lot smaller this year, but in all honesty, even out of the smaller group, I only ever talk to one of the other girls in this picture.  She was my best friend then, and she still is today.

I do love these girl pictures though, just for the dresses if nothing else.  It's fun to see the different styles and what was popular each year.

Again, after prom was held at the bowling alley, and I actually remember being there for this year.  I remember having fun hanging out with all my friends.  I think it helped, that I seemed to be friends with more students in the class below me than the one above me.  Or maybe it was just a senior thing.

Like I said earlier, my boyfriend from senior year didn't go to the same school, so I also attended his prom this year.  

I think we went out for dinner with a group of his friends, but as with the other dances, I don't really remember much.  Here's the formal picture of us with his group of friends.

I'm sure I had a lot of fun at each of these dances, even though I don't really remember them that much.  It's interesting to think about, but I wonder if kids these days will remember their prom nights better just because I'm sure they all carry their phones with them and take many pictures.  Whereas my generation, I think I may have carried a disposable camera in my purse that rarely was taken out, if at all.  Regardless, it was fun to look at these pictures again, even if I couldn't remember as much as I thought I would.