Comfort Food Sunday!

I think Andy and I have decided on a new Sunday tradition. See last Sunday, after we got the news about Maddie's passing, I spent most of the day crying off and on and all I wanted for dinner was comfort food. We ended up making pot roast, mashed potatoes, peas and biscuits. Talk about delish! It was a huge, lethargy-inducing meal combined with a nice fire and some good TV, it was the perfect way to end an evening. Anyway, I had to work today and Andy was kind enough to drive me and pick me up, (I had a long night of driving for a family event last night) so on the way home I ran the idea of another big Sunday dinner by him and he went for it. Tonight we decided on roast chicken, mac and cheese, broccoli and biscuits. I'm thinking about making this our own little family's tradition. Andy and I both thing that it could be a nice thing that we get to do together and it's also relaxing.

What do you think? What kind of traditions have you and your significant other come up with?

The SalTals Do Disney: Day 3

Day three was glorious because we finally got to sleep in and just kind of chillax in the morning. We had done most of the things on my "Must Do" list so we could take it easy and basically do whatever we felt like. We decide to mosey on through EPCOT because the International Food and Wine Festival was in full swing. Well, that was...uhh, interesting. Let me explain a little first for the Disney novice, EPCOT is broken up into two separete areas, one is Future World where there are attractions focusing on technologies and advances in the future and the other is World Showcase where 11 different countries are represented around a lagoon that you can walk through and see similar architecture, foods, goods, and even people from those countries. During the Food and Wine Festival little stands are set up around the lagoon (this year there were 28 stands) each representing a specific country offering samplings of food and beverage from said country. It's pretty epic, it's also very crowded. It also gets pretty stupid. When people set up drinking teams whose main goal it is is to consume alcohol at every stand, the festival kind of loses it's charm. I don't find people slobbering drunk at 2 in the afternoon that much fun to be around. I'm all for drinking and all that jazz but with kids in strollers nearby and families trying to enjoy their vacation it doesn't seem like the most appropriate venue.

Moving on, we decided to head over to the Boardwalk to catch the boat to Hollywood Studios where we had dinner reservations at 50's Prime Time Cafe. We had a bit of time before we had to be at dinner so we walked around a bit, cruised the shops and tried to ride the new Toy Story Ride but the wait was 70 minutes, yeah, thanks, but no thanks. Dinner was amazing, I had pot roast and my dad was spoon fed at the table by our waiter, ahh, memories. I'm sure some of you are confused, but the premise behind the restaurant is that it's set up like a traditional 50's kitchen. It has old TV sets that play clips from shows at the time and your waiter is some sort of relative (Mom, Dad, Uncle, Cousin etc.). You have to set the table, keep your elbows down and finish your meal if you want dessert. Well, as you can guess my dad didn't finish so our waiter spoon fed him a bit off his plate. It was hilarious, I should have recorded it.

The rest of the night was relaxing and more window shopping downtown.

Up next: Day 4 and some dirty signs.

The SalTals Do Disney: Day 2

Day two at Disney was an early one, like, the-sun-isn't-even-up-yet early, I know some of you out there are thinking why the heck would you do that, you're on vacation, aren't you? Well, we had breakfast reservations at Crystal Palace. For those of you not in the know, Crystal Palace is actually in the Magic Kingdom, which means if your reservations are before the park opens, you get in early and get to see the place basically deserted, it's awesome. Besides the early bird benefits this place has some memories for me, my family goes there for breakfast every visit to Disney, it's tradition. It's also a character breakfast with Pooh and friends so they come around to your table while you eat. Obviously, we started this tradition when my sisters and I were younger and enjoyed that, but I'll tell you a little secret I still do.

So after we had our delicious breakfast (all buffet style, so I had a bit of everything), we headed into the park to check everything out. The benefit of being there so early and being deeper into the park when it opens means no lines. We literally jumped on everything right away. This meant that Magic Kingdom was basically done by noon. Awesome really, but I was at a loss as to what to do the rest of the day. We ended up going to Downtown Disney and having some Ghiradelli ice cream and walking through the shops. After that we had a nice nap/lounge around time at the hotel for an hour or so and then Andy and I headed to Animal Kingdom to check out the park and grab some dinner.

Animal Kingdom had extended hours that day so they were open until 7 instead of 5, it was the perfect amount of time to ride Dinosaur and Expedition Everest. Unfortunately, both rides disagreed with Andy's constitution so he was feeling pretty sick for the rest of the night. After Animal Kingdom, we caught a bus to EPCOT to meet my parents for the fireworks, which was an awesome end to the night.

Up next, day three! EPCOT and Hollywood Studios!!!

The SalTals Do Disney: Day 1

So I'm a day late, that's actually pretty good for me, admit it. Okay, so our vacation was, in my humble opinion, awesome.We had a really great time and I think I have convinced my husband that Disney is not just for children.

The question is where do I start? Probably at the beginning, that seems best. On Thursday morning at the absolutely ass-crack of dawn (there really is no polite way of putting it, seriously it was 3AM) we got up, got ready and headed to the airport. You know it's an early flight when there is no one even at the desk yet to check your bags. So anyway, we're up super early and waiting for our plane at the gate, it's about a half hour until we are scheduled to depart, so I took a Xanax, yeah, I'm a nervous flier. I'm telling you this because it didn't kick in until about a half an hour into the flight, which was a half an hour too long for me because we experienced some turbulence. After nearly breaking Andy's hand I couldn't take it anymore and decide another pill was needed, which means I don't remember too much from Atlanta to Orlando, but it's probably better that way.

We arrived in Orlando about 10:30 and we hit the ground running. I am telling you what, the pills wore off and I was ready to go. We caught a taxi to Universal Islands of Adventure to go check out Harry Potter Land leaving our luggage to be safely delivered to our room at Disney thanks to some very convenient tags. We got to Universal and I was nearly dragging Andy to the back of the park where the Harry Potter portion was located, I had to remember that he had never been there before and we had the time to slow down and take a look at everything.

Fresh off a flight at Suess-Landing

Finally, oh, finally, we were in Hogsmead and it blew my mind. I felt like I was walking into the pages of my favorite story, like someone had taken images from my own mind and created them in reality. I must say, if you are a fan of the movies or books this is just a must see. It was fabulous. We walked the stores and streets just admiring everything, which was really all that I desired to do. I only wanted to ride the ride in Hogwarts which is the only ride we did, thankfully because that was nausea inducing, worth it but we were both very sick afterward. After the ride, we hit up Ollivander's to get my wand, because I am that much of a nerd. That experience was really cool. However, I think that the design engineers behind that idea could have expanded the shop a wee bit and had more than one person handle the wand choosing. As it is right now, you wait (depends on the time of day, we waited about 30 minutes) go into Ollivander's with a group and only one of you gets the wand choosing experience. I think they could have had about 10 stations to do the same thing and let a few more kids have that special experience. (If you are reading this Universal Design Engineer people, please find a way to expand that shop) After Ollivander's we hit up the Three Broomsticks for some yummy lunch, I had roasted chicken and Andy had a Shepard's pie, he sampled the Hog's brew and I had a frozen butterbeer, which was tasty. After that we bought any other little trinkets that we wanted and walked through the rest of the park. We ended up spending probably about 4 hours there total.

 (from top to bottom: Gates of Hogsmead, Hogsmead, Gates of Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Me in a Ravenclaw Robe, Ollivander's Wand Choosing, Zonko's, Three Broomsticks, Me with a tasty butterbeer)

We then hopped in a taxi and took our exhausted selves to our hotel Disney's Port Orleans Riverside Resort. Once we got there all Andy had to do was flash his I.D. and we got our welcome packet and keys and headed to our room, where our suitcases had already been delivered. We then headed to the food court to see my parents for a minute and grab a drink then we decided to take an hour nap and try to catch dinner with them. I'm so glad we had dinner with my parents that night because it was fabulous. They had reservations at Le Cellier Steakhouse in Canada at EPCOT. It was fabulous. I ended up having a fillet  (only the second steak I have ever eaten in my entire life, but it was to die for) with cream cheese mashed potatoes, for dessert a s'mores brownie sundae. Uh-maz-ing!!! Best part, it was basically free because we were on the Disney Dining Plan which was free with our stay at Port Orleans. We scored a major deal with that, and honestly, highly recommend adding and paying for the plan to anyone going to Disney, it's really easy and more than enough food. After that meal, Andy and I were basically ready to pass out, so we headed back to the hotel to crash for the night.

Gosh, writing it all out makes me tired, I have no idea how we did all that. Anywho, I have pictures for all of this but I need to format them into blogger, which always takes time. I'll let you know when I add pictures in, promise.

In other news, I got a job at the library!!! Isn't that fantastic? Now I just need another job and I'll be set, but I'll fill you in on all that later.