Can I just say....

The castle is smaller than it looks in pictures.

I am as big as I look in these pictures (and gosh I hate it!)

That stroller was worth every bit of the $60 bucks I paid. Jackson napped in it while we were in the park every afternoon totally comfortable and undisturbed. Awesome!

Have a great day!

Eggs over princesses...

Yes you read that right. No, it's not the latest culinary creation from the food channel....but rather my son's preference.

Scrambled eggs are apparently far higher on Jackson's list than any of the Disney Princesses that visited us during the "Cinderella's Royal Table" breakfast. The coolest part for (the little girl inside) me was the fact that we were eating breakfast inside the castle I had always dreamed about! INSIDE!

The pictures aren't the best (because they run the princesses through like they are on a cattle drive...and late!) but they tell a good story, so I wanted to share. Enjoy!

Belle.

Jasmine.

Aurora.

Have a great week!

Halloween Greetings!

=

I loaded up my Etsy shop this afternoon! Here are just a few of the cool Halloween items I added.

As always I welcome custom orders, so if there is anything you would like order, please let me know! :-)

Halloween in The Magic Kingdom

Disney sure knows how to do Halloween right! I loved all the Halloween decorations on Main Street and throughout the park!

Getting settled in

Have I mentioned that I'm glad to be home? :-) I really am. Mostly because I was able to go to the doctor and get some serious meds to knock out this Respiratory infection once and for all.

The vacation was fab, but sleeping in my own bed is pretty great too.

I'm also happy to be back on a normal routine (Jackson is twice as happy about this as I am!) Getting back in the swing of things means laundry and cleaning this weekend, but also lots of scrapbooking which I am DYING to do!!! Hopefully I will get alot more Halloween goodies as well as some Thanksgiving ones loaded into my Etsy before Monday, so keep on the look out for that.

And now, for your enjoyment, a little more about Disney.

These are photos from our resort, The Animal Kingdom Lodge. Everything here is done in an African/Savanna type theme...and of course the big deal for staying there is that when you look out over your balcony you get to view African animals on their very own "Savanna".

This is the lobby. Very cold and well decorated.

Some longhorns seen from our balcony.

Jackson checking out the wildlife.

In the distance you can see a giraffe and a gazelle.

This was like animal dinner time because everyone was out to eat.

And now my 2 cents on this Resort.

Overall I give the Animal Kingdom Lodge a 2 1/2 out 5. (What I didn't like:) This is based on the fact that while it was sort of cool to see animals out our window, the newness wore off quickly, and really we weren't in the hotel enough for it to matter that much. Additionally, as you can read in one of my earlier posts, they charge $10.00 a day for High-Speed internet usage. That fact really bugged me because most reasonable resorts/hotels like La Quinta and Marriott now offer it for free with a paid room. So to me, a "high-end" resort like Animal Kingdom should be able to offer that to it's guests. My final issue with it was that the room felt a little cramped (this was partially caused by the over sized African looking furniture which I could have done without) and the bath tub was too small. Again, a "high-end" resort should be able to manage comfort for it's guests easily for what they are paying per night.

Things I did like: They had neat African chants and music playing all around the resort all the time. The staff was unbelievably courteous no matter what you needed. The restaurants in the hotel were speedy and always clean, despite serving a high number of guests all day long. The bed was very, very comfortable. The maid staff cleaned carefully and thoughtfully everyday.

My final vote: On my next Disney Trip we won't be staying at The Animal Kingdom Lodge. It just didn't appeal to me enough to want to go back there. I'm not saying it's not a good resort, it just wasn't amazing to me. And really, Disney has so many resorts available at a variety of costs, I'm excited about the prospect of finding another one that we will love.

So there you have it. More about the trip tomorrow!

Jackson and Mickey

I don't have alot of time this morning, but I wanted to show you a little something from the trip today, so here it is!

Jackson's favorite character encounter was with Mickey, hands down! I got some of the best photos of the trip at this breakfast.

I'll be back later to make a more detailed post with more pics. Have a great day!

Oh, to be home

Well, after 12 days in the land of magic I'm happy to say we're home. Don't get me wrong, we had a blast, but man am I exhausted.

It didn't help that I started the trip with a minor sinus infection and a sore throat. After little sleep due to the rush to get away from Hurricane Ike, our first 3 days in Florida I was terribly ill with congestion, fever, and chills. But, when they rolled around for us to finally go to the parks, I was feeling ok (after about 10 million doses of NyQuil/DayQuil alternating).

So for most of the middle and latter parts of the trip, I felt good. Then 3 days before we were due to leave, a very crumby thing happened. My infection, while not making me feel so terrible any longer, had left me with a nasty cough....and was suddenly in my chest.

For most people this would be somewhat bad, because it would mean feeling sick for a few more days. For me it is terribly dangerous because I have weakened lungs from my life-long asthma.

So, by the time I got off my flight in Houston yesterday I could barely breathe. My mom (an RN) was waiting for my at the pickup area with medicine, but in order to get to her the flight attendants had to call someone to push me in a wheel chair, Jackson in his stroller, and the cart with all our luggage. Wow, it was some assembly.

The medicine my mom gave me offered some immediate relief, but now I' m off the the doctor today to get some medicine to knock out this infection for good. I think on my official count I have been sick now for 3 weeks.

The best part is I was still able to have a blast at Disney in spite of it all. Yes, I had to sit down alot, and occasionally go back to the room for a nap, but I had an awesome time (which I will be telling you about the rest of this week)...so to me that's all that really matters. :-)

Now, off to the doctor I go!

Disney Days 1 and 2

Ok, so we are here and loving it! I'm just going to make this psot and give you a quick view of what we've been doing the past few days.

I had originally intended to blog every night after we came home so I could share our adventures with you, but I was disappointed to learn that our resort charges $10 a day for internet access (at La Quinta it's free, couldn't the Disney resorts manage this too??? I'm just sayin') which means this will be my last post until we return home.

At that time, I will make posts with the rest of our adventures!

So here goes nothing!

Day One!

Jackson's first flight! He fell asleep about 5 minutes after this photo was taken and continued to sleep throughout the flight (what a fab baby!)

The Lego Loch Ness at Downtown Disney.

Jackson's first day in the Magic Kingdom! (Can't you feel the excitement??)

Cool Halloween decor already! (me and Mickey agree on this point!)

A towel mickey at our hotel.

Strollers are never lonely at Disney. (never)

A cool show in the Biergarten in Epcot.

Day Two!

Expedition Everest Ride in Animal Kingdom! So cool!

Outside the Dinosaur ride which was also pretty neat!

Entrance to Dinorama kids area a.k.a. HUGE DINO!

Well that's it for now gang, hope you all can hang in there until we get back!

I'm alive!

Let me just say Thank You! Right here at the beginning! Thank you to everyone who emailed me concerned about the storm! I am fine and so is my immediate and extended. Some of them did sustain damage to their houses and many still do not have power, but for the most part, all is well. I thank God for that.

Originally, I was supposed to leave for my Disney vacation on Sunday the 14...but because of Ike's presence we changed our tickets and left Friday ( the 12th) morning instead.

My SIL and her family are who I am on vacation with, and we learned on Sunday that the Chimney had fallen off their house in the storm and water was getting inside as result. That is the the only damage though, thank goodness.

My post about the Disney trip will come next, so stay tuned, and thank you again to everyone for all your kind thoughts, it's nice to know you were concerned. :-)

Children's Museum Fun!

Note to self: Find out where orange fish rider toy is sold. :-)

I wish we had a playroom like this!

Who doesn't love bubbles???

Baby Terrain!

Sunday we decided, at random, to take a trip the the Houston Children's Museum. It turned out to be a fabulous idea! We went towards the end of the day, so it wasn't very crowded. The toddler room was amazing! Jackson had such a great time, I know we'll be headed back really soon.

The Big One! (It tastes pretty good!)

I am soooo happy to finally have these online proofs to show you! These are Jackson's One Year pics, and I just love them!

Especially because they turned out so cute even though he had a pretty nasty cold when they were taken!

So, anyway, enough Mommy bragging time, I've gotta go clean! :-)