WDW: playtime

I realized I never finished posting about my birthday trip.

So why not now?





<---- We left THAT early on Monday morning.

Monday when we arrived we went to the hotel (which I've already covered) and then after I changed really quick, and headed to MGM Hollywood Studios. I love the Hollywood Tower of Terror, so we had to head right there. And then we ran over to the Rockin' Roller Coaster. And back and forth. And Toy Story Mania (more on that later.)

Tuesday, we headed to the Magic Kingdom:

Magic Kingdom Day (the day I met all my sweet friends!) was a lot of fun-- I love the Magic Kingdom.

Again, very few lines of any consequence... of course, Space Mountain was having issues (perpetually).








I love taking pictures with the characters!!




We took this one for Carson:

  

Wednesday, my actual birthday, we spent in the Animal Kingdom. We took a bunch of pictures of various animals that I won't bore you with. Then we went to the Spirit of Aloha dinner show, which I'll cover in another post. 

Thursday, we floated from park to park. We spent the most time in Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom.

We went back to Hollywood Studios to ride Toy Story Mania a few more times. It is SUCH a fun ride--



and was so popular that at a time of year when we walked onto Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster, this ride still had a 70 minute wait.

Worth it, though.

Zach, in particular, really loved this ride. 

And I loved playing along with him.

Name this film... 

For Liam... he loves this movie!!

I particularly wanted to go back to the Magic Kingdom to take pictures of the fall decor. We'd never been during the autumn before, and I just cannot tell you how enchanting it was. 

I love the Haunted Mansion.

See? So charming!

We saved the best for last-- Friday we went to EPCOT!

(explanation will follow in next WDW post)

Sigh... Norway.

Food and Candy!

Germany

We had such fun on our trip!!

super seventy-two (a.k.a. steve says)

 Right now, I am lounging on my couch, watching Jane Austen's Persuasion (my favorite of her works) and enjoying our second pajama day at the Clark house.

Liam is sporting a cough and runny nose, so we have opted to take it easy the past few days. But, that has not stopped us from having a fantastic past 72 hours.

Monday started off rather skunky, with my having to spend hours on the phone with billing @ Methodist-- which I have resolved never to use again. Beside the point. Little man and I had a hair appointment (Liam's FIRST!) that afternoon. As you can see above, his hair had gotten QUITE long. So, we headed down to City Centre around 2 to see Steve.

Steve, beyond being an absolute gem of a hairdresser, is exceptionally good with children. He talks about his own kids all the time, and you can tell he is just fantastic with all children. So, I was very comfortable with letting Steve cut Liam's hair. Steve has told me before that it is all about the experience for children as small as Liam, he said if their first few experiences are scary and bad, you can bet they're going to be screamers. He seems to know his stuff, because I have seen young-- and I mean, probably no older than 3-- children go with him, unafraid, without needing Mom and sit quite happily in his chair and chat with him. He is a GEM. Liam didn't shed a tear, or whimper or pout at all. Steve says (I must add that to the title of this post...) that he always tries to be done about 10 minutes before the child is, and in this case, he was done LONG before Liam would have started to mind.

 My "baby" no longer looks like a baby! I love his new hair cut!! And, I must say, I'm enamored of my color. Steve and I opted to darken up for fall & winter, and I'm thrilled with the results.

However, one little Monday mishap? Liam has been SO interested in my puzzle I was working on. I love puzzles, and started working on one last week.

We caught Liam a couple of times trying to pieces in his mouth, so we started watching him like a hawk...

(note: the missing pieces...)


Well, Monday before we went to see Steve, Liam popped a handful of pieces in his mouth without our seeing and proceeded to turn them into this:

Tuesday, since we'd had such a busy day on Monday, we decided to sit around the house on Daddy's day off. Liam loves to watch him play X-Box, so we planned on just hanging around.
Around noon, Zach left to go pick up lunch (our Tuesday treat!) and while he was gone I was checking the latest posts on the internet and saw one by Bobby Flay, saying he was in Houston for the day signing copies of his newest cookbook. Needless to say, I was ecstatic, because Bobby is Zach's all-time favorite on the Food Network. He calls him his hero. So cute.

So I called my mom, talked her into a trip to The Woodlands, told Zach I'd made plans when he got home and we all headed to Barnes & Noble @ The Woodlands Mall around 3:30. The line was long, and we waited for over an hour (who cares!?), but Liam was a champ. Afterwards, we headed to Freebirds for dinner, Liam's first 'official' trip. I say official, because I ate it like a mad woman when I was pregnant with him (there was one at the end of our street we lived on in CS)... and I love Freebirds. You cannot be an Aggie, have lived on Northside across the street from the original, fabulously dive-like Freebirds and not love it. love. LOVE. Hadn't had it since I was pregnant. TOO long.

mom and zach were so excited! leaning around shelving to "catch a glimpse"

the clarks meet bobby flay.
(if only the picture taker had taken an extra second, it wouldn't have been blurry)

When I was getting my hair done on Monday, mom and Liam discovered a fabulous new nail polish.

OPI seems to know how much I love a good glitter polish. :)

I'm going to HAVE to remove the sparkles before Halloween, but I love the beige-green glitter on my nails!

Speaking of Halloween...

My doorbell rang yesterday, revealing my neighbor with a package in his hands that had been put in the wrong mailbox.

Liam's sweet Auntie Ashley (who is going to be an aunt again next year!!) sent him a special Halloween treat! We both love Casper, so it'll be great to watch it with him.

Thanks so much, my dear, darling, wonderful friend!!!!!

Also speaking of Halloween:
                        The last part of my costume came today (which concluded the super 72 hours we've had)!!! I must admit, I order things off the internet not infrequently. Typically, if it'll cost me more in gas to go get it at the store, or if I have a coupon code, or if shipping is free, I will order online, but it's usually not stuff I'm terribly excited about. Maybe it'll be the infamous Boscia blask mask (which you should all try!), or staple clothing items... but my Paul Smith shirt I was genuinely excited about getting. I am so in love with it, and it's a men's shirt, but looks fantastic on! I tried on my costume-- the whole costume-- and I'm crazy about it. I must say, I did a good job putting it all together. Wait until you see the Clarks on Halloween!! 

{Speaking of which: does anybody have grand trick-or-treating plans? We want to take Liam around, but he has no friends in the area...}

And speaking of Paul Smith...

I very rarely plug products. I don't really like to tell people about all the stuff I buy, but I HAVE to tell you about Paul Smith. Beyond the fact that I'm gaga about my shirt, this company is incredible!! I placed the order for my shirt this past Friday, at lunch time, our time. Paul Smith is an English designer, so by the time I placed my order, it was already after hours there. So, my order wasn't processed until Monday (and, may I say, the shirt, which was re-released in a VERY limited run, was already sold out online), was shipped on Tuesday and was in my hot little hands by 11:00 this morning. They had initially told me to expect to wait 10-14 days for shipment, so I'm amazed that they were so fast at getting my order to me. And they sent it with the bag (which I LOVE for designers to do!), and with a sweet note on the inside thanking me. HANDWRITTEN, Ashley & Betsy-- knew you'd love that!!

Without hesitation, I can recommend this company. You SHOULD check them out.

Oh, and Liam broke my toe. Yep, on the left image, you can see the bruising on the top of my toe, in the right, you can see the funny bump that the break has left behind on the right side of the toe. It hurts like the devil. My poor feet, if it's not one thing, it's another.

Finally, I want to recommend a couple of blogs to you:

Betsy, who we all know I love and adore, has changed the name and URL of her sweet blog. Instead of checking out Miss Monogram, go check out Heavens to Betsy.
(I personally love the change: I say "heavens to Betsy" all the time, and always think of her!!}


Secondly, I want you to hop on over and check out my friend Lauren's new blog. She just set off this past Saturday for a 4 month trip around Europe with her super guy, Adam. Lauren is the one friend I really keep in touch with from my time in Australia and she is one of the most darling, sweet girls. So head on over and let's all live vicariously through Lauren as she galavants all over Europe. 

That's all our odds and ends from the past few days. It's been a wonderful little time, I hope you all have had as exciting a week as we have-- and don't forget to go over to Sweet T Family and wish one special little boy a Happy 3rd Birthday!! We love you, CT!!

WDW: friends old and new

ONE fantastic thing that I got to experience, that I've never gotten to before, was getting to meet up with darling, dear friends while on vacation.

The day before my birthday was that day for me!

We spent the day in The Magic Kingdom, where one of my dear friends from high school works.

Even in HS, I remember that Katie wanted to work for Disney. I am so incredibly impressed by her drive and her ability to make her dreams come true. She was one of the few people I really bonded with in the band, and she was one of my favorite friends from AHS. Katie, I simply adore you!! I hadn't seen her in about 7 years, and that's far too long. She's quite the employee at Disney, and it's so exciting to have a friend there and get to hear about the wonderful things I should be checking out. Seriously, I will be ANGRY with any of you if you go to WDW and don't try to find Katie. She's a gem. You would be lucky to know her!!

Speaking of being lucky to know people...

About 10 days (correct me if I'm wrong, girls!) before we left for Disney, so only a few days before we left for the wonderful Port A, I spent the day emailing with my sweet friend Ashley. We were able to put together plans to meet and I wouldn't be lying if I told you it was the part of the trip I was looking forward to the most.

I must preface this with: if you're an ABDesigns client, and you've been emailing with these girls, you know they're sweet. But in reality, they're about 1,000,000 times sweeter in person. So, what I'm saying is, yes, they really are as good and wonderful as they appear in their emails and blogs. Which is not a surprise, but still totally wonderful.
We met with Ashley and Betsy at the Irish Pub in Downtown Disney (we took the aforementioned boat from the resort!)-- we sat outside, ordered drinks and ate appetizers. Ashley and Betsy-- well, they ordered the most fantastic french fries I've ever tried. I told you all ages ago that I knew I'd be fast friends with Ashley and I wasn't wrong-- and Betsy too! I knew I'd love both of these girls to death and I truly, truly do. Zach was very sweet to play a party to our girl's meet up, but once he discovered Betsy's deep rooted love of college football, he was pleased as punch. Besides that, both Ashley and Betsy have dogs and he's always more than willing to share a story from work (or two...). He still laughs about us posing for the camera, and simultaneously busting out presents for each other.

See:

scarf swap scarf from betsy & sweet personalized ABDesigns cards from ashley. love these girls!!

BTW, Betsy, I wore my scarf the other day and got so-many-compliments!! Aaaaand I might have also gotten the "neutral" scarf to match your purple one. Scarf twins!! 

Betsy is also the reason that I no longer find Gatorade appealing. Ashley is the reason that I'm DYING for a Hyatt to open in Sugar Land that is the *bomb* to entice Ashley and Manolo and that they'll have an extra room for Betsy and her soon-to-be Mister.  I'm dying for these girls to make a trip to TX, and I'd go anywhere in the state to meet them (and that's saying something!!! i'm lying, if they said they'd be in NOLA I'd be there... ).
They're so wonderful, so unanimously wonderful, that at one point Zach asked me why I hadn't begged them to take a day off of work and join us at EPCOT on Friday for a few drinks. Like, we love these girls. I'm still trying to convince him to take the FL Vet Board Exam so we can move to Orlando.

OMG, let's do a girl's trip to Dallas!! Sorry... I've been trying to figure out a way to see ABQ and EKH again since, oh... we parted at the pub. 

I love all 3 of you sweet, darling girls!!!! Thanks so much for making my birthday trip EXTRA special.

WDW: louisiana in the sunshine state

When you travel with Disney, if you do it right-- you arrive at the airport, you get on Disney's Magical Express, and then Disney magic envelopes you and you're suddenly being dropped off at your resort, giddy with excitement due to the video they streamed on the way through Orlando (-- which you totally missed, by the way--) and you're transported. You may be transported to the Polynesian islands, to the great lodges in Montana, to Key West, or...

... to Louisiana. We agonized over where we'd stay when we started planning our trip to Disney. The hotel is a BIG part of the experience, so we wanted to pick a great place... We wanted to pick a place other than the Animal Kingdom Lodge -- we went there for our honeymoon, and might stay there when we go back for Liam's birthday in 2012, so we wanted to stay somewhere for us.

We chose the Port Orleans: Riverside.
Port Orleans has 2 "parts:" Riverside and French Quarter. Riverside has multiple stand alone buildings, each only a few floors high, modeled either after the Antebellum mansions of the plantation south, or after bayou cabins. We stayed in the mansions, and it was be-e-a-utiful.

I die for the tile floor in the sink area, and loved that they left us towel animals.
They always make me smile.

The resort grounds itself were incredibly beautiful. Magnolia trees, oak trees with spanish moss, gardenias... it was gorgeous. 

The lobby/ sit down restaurant/ dining hall/ shop were all in one big, v shaped building- but each part had different architecture. 

When you walked out the back of the lobby, you came out on the edge of the lake.

Outside lobby/entrance. Bridge to left takes you to 'Ol Man Island and the main resort pool.

There were boats for the guests to rent, and a landing with a boat (pictured to the left) that would take you to Downtown Disney (we TOTALLY employed the use of that boat-- twice!)...

Boatwright's Dining Hall (left), Riverside Mill Food Court (right).

Entrance of the main building, from the back.

Check-in lobby, from the back.

When I say that I loved the Antebellum Mansions, I really mean it. I dare any girl not to be giddy with excitement about the idea of staying in one of these:

Now, I wish to goodness I'd snagged a picture of the pool. It looked like a backwater swimming hole, and it was so incredible. In addition to the main pool, between the line of mansions, there were smaller, mini pools. There were 7 pools total at our resort, and they were all beautiful. The ones between the mansions reminded me SO much of the pool that Tracy Samantha Lord has at her house in The Philadelphia Story (haven't seen it? You're seriously missing out.)... it also had 4 bus stops, which was nice, and we were at the "north" stop, and it was SO close to our building, it was incredibly nice.

All in all, I loved this resort. It was quiet, and sweet. You could hear the crickets at night when we walked back to our room.  I loved the aura of the place, I loved everything about it. I would recommend it to anyone who asked. It is perfect for a family, or for a couple-- young or old. 

Honestly, I cannot tell you how RIGHT Disney gets everything. There's a reason we keep going back, and it's more than the parks. Did you know from the time we left IAH to the time we arrived back at IAH, I never had to TOUCH my luggage? Did you know that they do everything so right, that it's hard to talk ourselves into going anywhere else? I know when I go to WDW that I'm going to have a fantastic time, every time.  I know my resort will be gorgeous, my room will be spotless, the guest relations will bend over backwards to help us, and the cast members are all to-die-for nice.

We'll be going back in 2012, as I said. We're planning on October, we'll take Liam to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, and The Pirate's League... we've decided to give him the option of where we stay, given a few choices. We're going to give him the Polynesian, the Animal Kingdom Lodge or the Port Orleans.

(I've stayed at all 3, and I'm ALL ABOUT all 3.)

God, I love Disney.