Trip Report: Day 2

Saturday, January 15th 2010. 0730. WDW, FL.

Alarm went off. I hopped in the shower and Joey was up and at 'em. Then we remembered our two guests asleep in the other room... "Um... if you want to go to Rope Drop then you better get moving! We need to leave at 8:15!" That caused some mild panic. While we missed Rope Drop (no Disney park can simply "open", there has to be a big production!) we did make it into MK by 9:05AM. And we basically had the park to ourselves. We stopped first to take some pictures in front of the castle avec crane. A Love is going to help edit this thing out. SRSLY WDW?!

Crastle

Then we went on a gazillion rides. Ok 12 rides. By 2pm. In Disney World, that is AMAZING. And we stopped several times for lunch , bathroom breaks, photo ops, etc.

Here's a list of the rides we did in Magic Kingdom!

It's a Small World
Tea Cups
Space Mountain
Buzz Lightyear
Peter Pan's Flight
Haunted Mansion
Pirates of the Caribbean
Tom Sawyer Island
Philharmagic
Whinnie the Pooh
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Carousel of Progress

A Love and Joey on the Tea Cups!

Around 2:30, we headed down Main Street through the shops. We took our time, shopped a bit, took some more pics, and I mailed a post card to a family from my message boards. ("Dear Zach and Emma, We cannot wait to see you at the end of February for Zach's 10th birthday trip! Love, Mickey, Minnie and the gang!") Totally going to make their day. It's called being a "Fairy God-Mailer". Judge me if you must...

Ball and Chain joke. Funny.

Then we hopped the monorail to the Polynesian resort for an afternoon break. We posted up at the lounge area of Ohana's bar, and got some interesting tropical drinks to kick back and relax with. By this time, we had each missed a call from our friend Peyton, who was trying to "surprise" us by showing up in Florida... except we know him too well ;)

This is called a Lapu Lapu

\

Enter Peyton and Casey.

Peyton: 25, Going to Baghdad in a few weeks for civilian contract work, likes beer, cooking, and often threatens to put Doc in the microwave.

Casey: 22, USMC, Likes running, trying on thrift store wedding dresses, and hates Mexico.

We headed over to the Kona Café sushi bar to eat some delicious dinner. There was an incident with wasabi. A huge chunk of it. It's on video, don't worry. We enjoyed our dinner and the four of us headed off to MK for the parade and P/C went back to their hotel to put on some warmer clothes. The weather was nice, (MUCH nicer than it was in DC) but it wasn't exactly "warm" either.

Purple Castle- Can't see the crane at night!

We posted up at a nice spot to the right of the castle on the circle under a light post for the parade/fireworks. Joey and I were extremely disappointed that the parade was no longer "Spectromagic" and now, "Disney's Magical Light Parade" or something equally lame. The song sounded like the worst video game theme music ever and we were sooo mad. Luckily Wishes didn't disappoint, and we all linked arms and A Love cried, and it was very magical indeed. Then we sang the song for the rest of the trip.

We boarded the bus back to Saratoga Springs. What a long day.

...But it wasn't over. We decided we were going to meet some friends at Downtown Disney later. The College Cheer/Dance National Championship also happened to be that weekend at WDW, and I had lots of Masonette alumni friends in town to help cheer the team to victory! We got home and brewed a pot of coffee. Somehow we got on the subject of Mandy Moore's song, "Candy"...and the rest was history. There was a bottle of Jack, a dance party, a run through the sprinklers, and a Mickey Jackson montage. We were ready to go!

Mickey Jackson...

We arrived at House of Blues and got a table outside and some huge beers. Peyton and Casey met us there and there were some shots taken as well. We moved inside to order some snacks and that's when the rest of the crew arrived!! There was crazy dancing, singing, eating, drinking, and all around fun. On our way home that evening there MAY have been a photo shoot on the putting green...



House of Blues



Late Night Photo Shoot...

We finally made it home and collapsed into bed. WHAT. A. DAY.

Headline of the Day

We interrupt this 2011 Disney Trip Report to bring you this fascinating news brief:

What is H.O.T.D.?
Any stupid, pointless, or completely unbelieveable (that. REALLY. happened.) news story headline that I come across while checking numerous news sites at work or at home <- yep, my life is super lame now.

I've been debating doing this because I don't want to seem insensitive and/or like I am making fun of people in the news when I post their ridiculous headlines.  But I decided to say screw it because, yes, I AM insensitive and making fun of them and if you don't like it then you can find another blog to read, yes?

I figured I'd start off on the Entertainment side of the house to keep it light.

Today's H.O.T.D. is:

"Halle Berry's ex engaged to Prince's ex"

REALLY! Is that where we have to go these days???? Why do I care if two irrelevant people's exes are marrying each other!!??

Don't worry, there will be more fun HOTD's. I am sure of it. Because I have zero faith in humanity and believe that the press has a sense of humor.

Have a good weekend and I'll be back with the next part of our trip report on Monday!

~SG

Trip Report: Day 1

Thursday January 13th 2010. 2100. Fairfax, VA.

Doc was already in Woodbridge for a long winter's nap. Or is that a long

winter's spoiling?

A Love and Warner showed up with their huge suitcases. A Love came
bearing gifts.

We opened our presents to find: AROUND THE WORLD DRINKING
JERSEYS!!!!!!!!

We watched Aladdin and The Lion King, had a few beers, and went to
sleep.

Friday January 14th 2010. 0400. Fairfax, VA.

The alarm went off WAY too early. Ugh. We started to wake up, I paid a bunch of bills, and the CABS AH HEAAAHHHH at 5am. We struggled to get A Love's enormously oversized suitcase into the cab, along with our suitcases, carry-ons, and Mickey ears.

We arrived at the airport, went through security, and A Love almost lost her ID. Disaster was averted when sharp-eyes (moi) saw the ID on the floor by the put-your-shoes-back-on area. We said goodbye to A Love and headed to our respective gates. I wish she could've flown with us, but frequent flyer miles are a plus too. Me, Joey, and Warner headed to the gate and the boys stopped for some breakfast. I'm a nervous flyer, so I
ate like half of the Five Guys (yes, they do breakfast) sandwich Joey bought me. And Warner ate an entire Chipotle Burrito. At 6am.




















We boarded the plane and had an uneventful flight to Orlando.  When we landed, the sun was shining. It was approximately 9am, and 50 degrees or so. Not awful. Joey, Warner and I hopped on the Magical Express and headed through the arch into Disney World. Sigh. We're here!

We checked into our resort- Saratoga Springs, and saw our awesome room-a 1 bedroom suite complete with whirlpool bathtub, view of the 18th hole, and full kitchen. Thanks, Grandmom Giachetti! Then it was time to head to Animal Kingdom to start our day. A Love's plane had landed and she was on her way. She'd meet us there. The bus FINALLY arrived, we hopped on, and I was STARVING. First stop at AK? Pizzafari. I loaded up on cheese pizza, Caesar salad, and breadsticks- And no diet soda here- an ice cold coca cola. A Love called us from a pay phone- her iPhone died due to too many Angry Birds... we finally found her, and we were complete! It was time to hit the rides!

We started with DINOSAUR! One of Joey's classic favorites.

I was too cheap to actually BUY the photo...

Other AK Rides we did:

It's Tough to Be a Bug

Kilimanjaro Safaris

Expedition Everest

The Festival of the Lion King 

From AK, we headed to the Contemporary Resort for our dinner reservations at The Garden Grill. While waiting for dinner, we grabbed some delicious concoctions and headed out to the walkway to look out
over Disney World. It was a beautiful view, minus the stupid crane hovering over Cinderella's Castle (Really?! WHY?!!!). It was also a bit chilly but we didn't mind. We took some pictures and enjoyed our drinks until our pager lit up like a Christmas tree on the 4th of July.

Our buttons say "Happily Ever After"

Our server? Completely magical. He recommended the most AMAZING sushi appetizer, along with the other 4 appetizers we ate, and entrees that were to die for. THEN we ordered dessert, and we get a bonus chocolate cake due to our recent marriage (Disney knows everything). 

We were GOING to go over to Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks, but as we ran to the monorail (I hurt my big toe) and watched the minutes tick away, we realized we didn't have enough time. That and it was FREEZING COLD. We almost froze to death while waiting for the bus to take us home. We called it a night and fell asleep by 9:30.

We had a GREAT first day in Disney's Animal Kingdom!

Stay tuned for Day 2, coming soon!

~SG

And We're Back!

Our long awaited Disney Vacation has come and gone! We are sad it's over, but glad to be back home with our baby dog. Luckily he didn't gain too much weight at the in-laws'... :)

I'm currently working on a Trip Report that I will most definitely share with you guys (OMG I have Followers! Begging totally worked!).

Here is my pre-report:

Trip Dates: Jan 14-18, 2010

Resort: Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa

The Cast:

Me: 26, Disney Freak, Likes dogs, happiness, pixie dust, and taking
patron shots in the Mexico Pavilion.

Joey: 25, Disney Monster that I've created, Likes golf, making up songs
on the fly, and winning.

Warner: Real name Ryan, 25, Disney Veteran, Always down for a good time,
blacked out in EPCOT.

A Love: Real name Amanda, 25, Disney Newbie, Likes little baby things,
is scared of Tower of Terror, and found her English heritage in the UK
Pavilion.

And some of my favorite pictures to hold you over until I'm finished!

The Four Best Friends that Anyone Could Have!

Dorks? Yes. Adorable? I think so!

Surprise! We made a few additions...

No caption needed here!

Be on the lookout for the first portion of my Trip Report coming soon.  We also took TONS of video during the trip, and A Love and I are going to work on completing our movie and getting it to youtube so you guys can check out some of the more hilarious moments of our trip.  (Like Joey eating a ball of wasabi...)

Have a Magical Day!
~SG

Squeamish? Vegetarian?

Turn away, now.

OK I warned you! Today’s post is about the many things you can make with deer meat.  You can’t be mad because I already warned you that this post wasn’t for the squeamish or vegetably inclined…

I also know that by writing this post it makes me a redneck, or at least a redneck by association.  But by marrying into this family, I had to accept that fact that they do enjoy hunting.  (Even though I cry when Joey’s watching hunting shows on TV and I don’t look away in time.)  I actually even went with Joey one time on a hunting excursion.  Back in the day when we were first dating.  I suited up in a nice warm camo outfit and put on a cute orange hat that said “Buck Buster” and trekked about a mile to the chosen spot and sat down in the brush next to Joey.  We were verrrrry quiet and we could hear some squirrels playing in the trees.  Then it hit me.  “If something comes out of that forest, right in front of me… I’m going to watch it die.  Umm I don’t want to be here anymore…” Luckily for everyone involved, no deer, bear, etc. came out of that forest and we returned back to the trailer empty handed.  And that was my first and last hunting trip.  Here’s a pic to commemorate the occasion, since I don’t have any others for this post.  Note the long blonde hair and ridiculous tan. Those were the Wizards days.  Sorry…

Back to the original subject. 

What can you do with deer meat? 

Well apparently in our recent state of broke-ness we’ve become quite creative when it comes to cooking with deer meat. Ok ok and when I say “we” I really mean “Joey” because I don’t cook.  I mean, I do, but… that’s for another post.

What does deer meat taste like?

Honestly, if you make it right, it tastes just like steak.  Certain parts of the deer taste better than others, though.   Some parts taste “gamey” which are the parts I don’t like.  I also cannot think about the deer while I am eating it.  Because then it will gross me out.  It’s funny because I don’t have trouble eating at Coral Reef, this awesome seafood restaurant in WDW where we will be eating next week, where you sit next to the biggest fish tank on the eastern seaboard and watch your dinner swim past you…

What recipes have you tried?

OK well I’m not Susie Homemaker so I’m not going to post actual recipes with ingredients, so sorry if you were expecting to go shoot your dinner tonight and cook it as per my specs…

1. Deer Steaks- nuff said. Add some mashed potatoes and a salad and you’ve got a nice meal!

2. Deer Fajitas- We used a fajita kit from the grocery store, mixed in the spice packet and added some onions and peppers.  Topped with sour cream, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. and a side of Mexican rice? Delicious.

3. Deer Fried Rice- This one makes me laugh. Not sure exactly how this one goes down, but I know it involves deer meat, rice, soy sauce, some chopped onions, etc.  This is a really filling meal, good for dinner and always enough left over for lunch the next day.

4. Deer Chili- I admit we haven’t tried this one yet, but it’s on the menu for this week.  No, we don’t grind our deer meat. Same ingredients as regular chili- beans, beans, tomatoes, chili powder, etc. plus some deer meat, add some corn bread and voila! I’ll let you know how it goes!

So now that you are sufficiently grossed out and judging me, perhaps you’d like to leave a comment with a weird meal that you’ve tried, and actually liked!

SG

They're Here!

We got the BEST New Year's present!  Our wedding photos arrived from our photographers!  We waited a looong time for them, but it was worth the wait.  They are beautiful.  Here are just a couple of my favorites:

We've ordered a 16x20 canvas of this one!

"I'm glad you showed up!"

Joey's Kappa Sigma brothers

SHOUT!

Such a ham...

If you'd like to stalk more of our pictures, you can see a slideshow put together by our photographers here.

If you'd like to see ALL 1,313 photos, you can check out our Pictage site here.

Remember, all photos are copyright Sanderson Images Photography. 

Happy New Year to all, and LET'S GO EAGLES!!!

~SG

Happy New Year!

We would like to wish you all a safe and happy New Year's Eve/Day and entire 2011.  Thanks to our family and friends for making our 2010 a year we'll never forget!

Love,

Sarah, Joey and Doc

Christmas Wrap Up

Instead of doing what millions of bloggers will do today (blogging about what they got for Christmas), I’m going to blog about what I GAVE for Christmas.  Since both are boring, I figure I’ll at least be able to explain my rationale for some of the more creative gifts.

My Mom- Disney Gift Card
An obvious choice, her love for Disney combined with an upcoming cruise made this one easy.  Manicure? Massage? A few drinks? Whatever she wants, she gets!

My Brother- PSU Golf Towel and Club Head Cover
PSU Grad, Golf enthusiast. Easy and spirited.

My Sister-Harry Potter Mug
This mug is SO COOL.  It was so cool that I took it out of the packaging to try it out before I wrapped it back up and gave it to her…so it was slightly used…whatever. It is a black mug that says “I solemnly swear I am up to no good” and when you pour hot liquid in it, it changes white and says “Mischief Managed”.  So freakin cool!

I also got her a pair of flats that go in a little pouch and fit in your purse.  Totally useful considering my own experience of walking barefoot through DC because my feet hurt…

Joey- Disney Golf Bag with Embroidered initials, Concert Tickets
Golf is the theme this year apparently.  Joey loves his new golf bag (it has an insulated beverage pocket!) and we are going to Kenny Chesney on June 4th!

My Dad- And this one was my favorite… Fake Parakeet in a Cage
OK this one obviously merits an explanation.  Ever since our parakeet, Noel, died a few years ago my Dad has been campaigning for a new one.  And when I say campaigning I DO mean spam emails, Facebook accounts, “Parakeets Clearing House” notifications in my inbox, etc.  He already has the name picked out and wants a green one.  Well my Mom is totally anti-parakeet.  So it has become a bit of a holiday…tradition (?) in my house.  Dad wants a parakeet and Mom says no.  So this year I did some googling (which I am SUPER good at) and found a life-sized, stuffed green and yellow parakeet.  Perfect.  Paired with a $10 cage from amazon.com, it was all ready to go!

Here are some pictures from the big reveal!  Poor Dad, he almost got his Christmas wish, but at least Mom is happy too!

The initial surprise!

SO proud with his new Keet

Meeting his new "Friend"

Best Friends Forever!

So, what did you guys give for Christmas?  And yes, I know you are there, even though you are all refusing to follow me... I can still see you!!!!

SG

All I Want for Christmas...

Is some FOLLOWERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And a side of COMMENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I KNOW there are lots of readers out there- I watch my ticker (duh, that's what it's there for) and many of you have told me how much you like my blog.  So why not follow me?! It'll be alot easier to see my updates ;) AND bonus, it'll make me feel all warm and gushy inside. And that's what we all want, isnt it?

Merry Christmas!!

Now, click "FOLLOW"!

~SG

Picture This

7 pound Miniature Pinscher running full speed down the sidewalk, leash trailing behind him, panting, smiling, feeling the sweet rush of freedom.

XXX pound 26-year-old woman chasing him, in a cute dress, heels, dress coat, scarf and gloves, breathing. hard.

26-year-old finally catches Min Pin, tells him what a BAD DOG he is, and goes inside, where she continues to breathe heavily, cough, and otherwise realize she really is in THAT bad of shape for the next several minutes.

And no, to answer your question, I did NOT do Power90 this week. But the above counts as exercise, right?!