Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Amber's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, May 26th, 2012
7:18 am	So glad it's a 3-day weekend! I'm going to get my hair cut in a few hours...decided I'm going to go about chin length with short layers....haven't had my hair that short since high school, so hopefully it turns out alright. I just don't want it to make me look any younger lol. It'll be nice to change it up though. We're having an ice cream social/pool party on Monday, which I'm pretty excited for! It'll be an interesting mix of people, that's for sure....we're likely to have more kids here than expected, but I get along with kids well so it shouldn't be a problem. :-) We'll be dedicating the next few days to getting the house all clean and ready for the party....but hey, that just gives me motivation to finally get some of the stuff done that I've been meaning to, so no complaints. :-) Next week is the final week of school before summer, and it's going to be bittersweet. Ready for the school year to be over, but not ready to say good-bye to so many people I've come to know and love. We've already said good-bye to Marcela, Kelly, and Mollie....and next comes Kaleigh, Cortney, Ashley, and any number of kids that won't be back next year. :-( But I guess that just comes with the territory when you work in a school....there are always a few difficult good-byes, and lots of brand-new hellos to follow. I've always worked well with new people though, so I'm not too concerned there. Oh, and a side note...I guess I'm officially going to be the new Room 5 (one-year-olds) assistant next year instead of going back to Room 8. They needed an experienced staff member in there to help out the new lead, and they asked if I'd be willing to move over. And of course I'm always willing to help wherever I'm needed, so that's the plan. Current Mood: motivated (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
9:11 pm	Summer's Coming! So I'm sitting outside at the moment enjoying the warm evening breeze, and I realize I am totally ready for summer to come. I don't know if it's the kid in me that still gets excited for summer, or just the fact that I have a month off that's doing it, but there's just this feeling of longing for summer to be here. I think summer just kind of symbolizes the end of a chapter for me, and I'm anxious to see what the new chapter has in store. There are roughly two weeks left of school before my month off, and I'm sure they're going to go as slowly as ever lol. Just the last 3 days have seemed to drag on, being on my own with the kids in the afternoons now. I've officially decided that I am going to chop off my hair at the start of summer vacation....possibly Memorial Day weekend if I can find the time. I'm just tired of putting it in a ponytail every day because it's too hot to wear it down, and I'm excited to have a fresh look to play around with. :-) My month off seems to be filling up (and adding up) rather quickly....but in a good way. Mommy decided she wants to take a girls only trip to CA, so that's tentatively scheduled for June 12-19. We're renting a car and heading to San Diego for a couple of nights, hitting up Sea World, then over to Anaheim for Disneyland and the opening weekend of Cars Land! I know, I know....it's going to be insanely busy and all, but it just so happens to work out for us to go that weekend, so with free tickets we might as well check it out. :-) The last night we're staying at a hotel near LAX, as we will be flying home from there (the rental is a great deal one way so that's why we're flying home). So those are the basic CA plans in a nutshell....should be a fun trip! :-) Then I'm heading to Colorado from June 23-30! Got the flights all booked, and I've done a bit of research to see what I'd like to do when I go there....I figured the theme parks in CA weren't enough, so we're going to Elitch Gardens. :-) Haha I'm pretty excited just for the fact that it's a theme park I've never been to, so it should be fun to explore. There were a few shows in Denver I looked up that I mentioned to David, and he said he'd like to take me to see "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change", so that should be fun. Aside from that, I don't really have my heart set on anything in particular, so we'll probably take it easy and play it by ear the rest of the time I'm there. And on that note, it's time for me to go call David and head to bed soon after! Adios! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 9th, 2012
8:47 pm	Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! I can't believe I haven't updated this thing since mid-March! I guess I've just been so caught up in all the activity around me that I haven't taken the time to stop and write about it lol. Well major events that have happened since the last update... Phoenicia and Jimmy's wedding: It turned out really nice, and it was definitely the most exquisite wedding I've been involved in thus far. It was at the Orange Tree Resort in Scottsdale, and the room for the reception was beautiful. I really liked the set-up they had, with a floating dance floor in the middle, round tables for the guests all along the walls, and the head table divided into two sections....the ground table with the bridesmaids and groomsmen, and the bride and groom with the best man and maid of honor up on a stage behind us. Overall the wedding and reception went smoothly, with the few small mishaps that seem to occur at all weddings. :-P Angelica's birthday: I was put in charge of planning it a week before it happened, so of course I was a bit stressed out trying to make it some big extravagent thing....but after much research and some discussion, we decided to go to the iPic theaters in Scottsdale to watch Titanic in 3D. I took Angelica to get her nails done that morning, then I went to my dance class and the Relay meeting at Becca's, where I hung out till the girls arrived. From there Amy drove us out to the theater. After the movie we went back to Rebecca's house and had yummy cake (which Annie made) and Angelica opened her gifts, and we decided to call it a night....we really are getting old. :-P Relay for Life: Overall, I think it went pretty well this year. I really liked our team, and our team captain did an amazing job leading us and trying to keep us motivated to reach our goals (Thanks, Becca!). We did the one at Peoria Sports Complex this year, which was huge! They had some things that worked out really well....and other things maybe not quite as much. But hey, that seems to happen no matter where we are for Relay lol. Our on-site fundraiser (and pre-event fundraisers, too) worked out better than I expected, so that was awesome. And that about covers all the major events that have happened....so current things going on. Our numbers (of kids) at work are getting really low....we've had less than 16 every day for the past couple of months, and we're averaging between 10 and 12 on a daily basis right now. Of course I'm not complaining, but less kids means less money for the school, and they're having to cut back on a few things. They're making it a requirement for all workers to take two weeks off this summer to keep with the budget, which isn't a huge deal for me, as I had already requested two weeks off and gotten it approved. Well, a few of the girls kinda freaked out because they can't afford to take any time off, so I volunteered to take an additional two weeks off so one of the girls could work in my place during that time. So now I have the entire month of June off. The last week in June I'm going to visit David in Colorado, but still not sure what I'll do with the rest of my free time lol. And when I go back to work in July, they need me to work in Room 5 with the 1-year-olds (by myself) until the start of the school year, since Miss Kaleigh and Miss Cortney are both leaving. That'll definitely be interesting, to say the least. I'm always happy to help where they need me though, and I'm sure it'll be nice to have a change of pace from my always hectic 2-year-olds. So it's teacher appreciation week, and I'm definitely feeling appreciated so far. :-) Kaleigh and Kyler have had something for us every day when we go to work, and each day gets better. Monday she gave us little potted plants with a note that said "Thanks for helping Ky blossom", Tuesday she gave us Starbucks gift cards that said "Because I drive you to drink...", and today we got gift certificates to get our nails done. Jenny has also had some nice things for us....Monday all the teachers got Starbucks gift cards with a note that said "Thanks a latte for all you do" and yesterday there was an edible arrangement sent to the school for the teachers to enjoy. Today they gave each classroom a jar of M&M's for the teachers with a little poem attached. I'm excited to see what the rest of the week brings! Other things to mention that have happened lately....Katie and Hector got engaged, wedding in October of this year. Kristine got engaged, wedding next summer (where I'll get to see Nick and Claire!). Finished the Harry Potter series earlier this week....glad I finally read them. Thinking about chopping all my hair off for summer....more to come when that actually happens. And now I think we're all caught up with my life, so ttfn! Current Mood: sleepy (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 17th, 2012
9:39 am	Happy St. Patrick's Day! Usually I don't do much to celebrate this holiday, but I'm going to the "Go Green" Dance tonight at Avalon Ballroom, and I'm pretty excited. I bought myself a cute green dress last weekend, and I painted my nails green and gold to be extra festive. :-) It should be fun, and Mommy and Daddy may even go with me. So my spring break was pretty fantastic. It had the perfect mix of relaxation and productivity. I finished my second panoramic puzzle last weekend, and worked on my cruise scrapbook the majority of the week. On Monday I took it really easy...played the Wii, watched some How I Met Your Mother, made chocolate covered strawberries, did laundry, and worked on my scrapbook. On Tuesday I went to the Wildlife World Zoo with Angelica, and we had a blast. :-) We got to feed the Lory Parrots and Turaco Birds, which was my favorite part. We also fed the giraffes and some of the animals in the petting zoo, where I got chased by a llama. :-P We ate at Dillon's (which is the restaurant at the zoo connected to the shark aquarium), and they had a pretty decent selection of food there. Wednesday I had an appointment to meet with the financial services guy at AAA, so I took Mommy to work, then went shopping with my Kohl's and Target gift cards. Bought some clothes at Kohl's, and couldn't decide between the Wii DDR game and Back to the Future Trilogy at Target, so I got both. Should have just gone with Back to the Future....would have saved me a lot of frustration. Apparently the new version of the Wii that was released in October of last year (the red and blue one) is not compatible with Game Cube like the older version is, so there is no Game Cube controller hook-up. And that's what the DDR dance pad hooks up to....so it's not compatible with my Wii. But I already opened the game itself, so I won't be able to return it to Target. So now....I'll probably just end up giving it to Angelica or something. So anyway, I met with the Financial Guy Wednesday afternoon, and learned all about long term investment and retirement funds and what not. Then Wednesday evening I went out to Angelica's house and she made a yummy grilled chicken and rice dinner for us, and we went out to get Frozen Yogurt at Ocean Blue and a movie from Red Box. We ended up watching Courageous, which was pretty good. Not the best acting or camera work, but good story. Thursday and Friday I just took the time to relax and enjoy the rest of my week off....more Wii, tv, movie, and scrapbook time. Now it's the weekend, and I go back on Monday to see all my precious 2-year-olds. Time to enjoy the weekend first though! :-) Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 10th, 2012
8:32 am	Spring Break is finally here! I've been anxiously awaiting my week of no plans lol. I decided to take it easy this time around and just use my week off to relax and enjoy life. :-) I'll be able to work on my scrapbook, watch some movies, do some shopping, hang out with friends....looking like it's going to be a wonderful, much needed week off. The last couple of weeks have definitely been busy, to say the least. My birthday weekend was AMAZING! :-) David got here Saturday morning, we went to my class, then David and Tiff picked us up and came over to the house to celebrate. They got me all kinds of stuff for the Wii...2 more remotes, colorful remote covers, rechargeable battery packs and chargers, a second microphone, and Disney Sing It. :-) We spent the afternoon playing Sing It and Just Dance (hilarious and dangerous with 4 people playing at once) until it was time to head out to he dance. The dance lesson that night was the rhumba, and we did a decent job with it. :-) The dance went pretty late, so we called it a night since we had to be up early for church. Sunday morning David gave me the rest of my gift (he gave me a few things Saturday as well). He got me the last 3 seasons of Boy Meets World, 2 miche bag shells, and a pretty heart necklace and earring set. <3 I'm getting quite the little collection of miche shells now, soon I'll have one to match every outfit. :-P Haha no complaints though, I love them! So back to my weekend....well Sunday morning was church, then Sunday afternoon we came home to relax for a bit and get all dressed up before going out to see Wicked! I absolutely LOVED the show, and I really want to watch the Wizard of Oz now to see it from a different perspective lol. Angelica got me the soundtrack, which I've been listening to in the car every day since. :-) Monday we decided to take it easy and hung out around the house most of the day. We went shopping and got lunch, then came back and watched a movie (which I do not remember Blue Streak being an over-the-top black comedy) and played my new Mystery Detective Wii game. :-) Took David to the airport Monday night, where his flight was delayed, so we sat around chatting (and learned that David was quite the fugitive as a teenager :-P). Soon it was time to go since me and Daddy both had to be up early for work the next morning...so we said our good-byes and headed out. Tuesday was my birthday celebration at work. I got a huge lunch from Red Robin (crispy chicken salad, hawaiian heartthrob smoothie, and an ice cream mud pie dessert) and I got a gift card for Target and a gift card for Kohls from the ladies at work. Miss Mollie gave me a bunch of Dollar Store Disney stuff, and Miss Ofelia gave me a cute Mickey desktop set that her daughter made. :-) It was a pretty good day, even though I had to work late for Miss Cortney. And that about sums up my birthday weekend....it was definitely a great birthday. :-D Current Mood: relaxed (Comment on this)
Monday, February 20th, 2012
6:50 pm	It's been a fantastic weekend. :-) Saturday I went to my class and practiced the cha-cha and the rhumba, both lots of fun. Then I came home and cleaned downstairs till Amy and Becca showed up, and I made quesadillas and we watched Monte Carlo. It was a cute movie, good for a girls night. :-) After the movie we just sat around chatting and catching up, and looked through old yearbooks, which is always entertaining lol. I'm glad we just decided to stick around the house and didn't have much planned...it was a nice change of pace from my crazy schedule where I'm always out and about. Sunday morning I went to church, then David and Tiff came over after church to hang out and keep me company. We played my HSM3 Sing It on the Wii, and decided to make my brother watch High School Musical 3 since he hadn't seen it before. We were finishing that up when Mommy and Daddy got home, and then we went upstairs to play a game....decided to stick with the theme and played my HSM3 Board Game lol. We went out to get some Frozen Yogurt at Yogurtz, then came back and decided to watch Once Upon a Time. After that we decided to call it a night because I was getting tired after only 6 hours of sleep the night before. :-P Then today I worked on cleaning upstairs....and as I was working on the loft I decided I really wanted a flat screen tv in here, so Daddy took me to buy one. :-) I got a pretty good deal, and I'm really happy with my decision. It gives the loft a whole new element, and now I don't want to leave the room lol. It'll be nice to have for next weekend, too. I'm getting super excited...it's looking like it's going to be a great birthday. :-D David gets in Saturday morning, we're going to try to make it to my dance class at GCC, and then we're going to the dance at the Avalon Ballroom Saturday night. We're celebrating with my family either Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon....haven't exactly figured it out yet. I think Saturday may work out a bit better, but we'll see. Sunday morning I have church, then Sunday night is Wicked with David and the girls! :-D Soooo excited! Then Monday we're probably just gonna chill and go with the flow till it's time to take David to the airport that evening. :-( I'll be spending this whole week getting ready for him to arrive, so I'm sure the weekend will come quickly. And now I'm going to go spend the rest of this weekend watching the newest DCOM with Mommy and Daddy. :-) Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Saturday, February 18th, 2012
8:02 am	3-Day Weekend! It's finally the weekend! It's been a long couple of weeks, and I'm so glad I finally get the chance to relax. My parents are in Tucson for a Desert Storm reunion, so I get the house all to myself, which is nice on occasion...especially when I'm practically surrounded by people 24/7. The only time I feel like I'm by myself anymore is when I am sleeping. Last weekend was pretty crazy...I had my dance class Saturday morning, the Relay meeting right after, and then I went back home to get some stuff ready for the bridal shower the following day. I convinced Mommy to come to the red and white dance with me Saturday evening, where we learned the night-club 2-step. I really enjoyed that dance, and it was probably one of the easiest ones I've learned thus far. I practiced some of the dances we've done in class out on the floor with some of my classmates, and we sat with them and chatted for a while before we decided to leave. Sunday morning went to church, then had David and Tiff over after. We stopped to pick up my bridesmaid dress for Nicia's wedding on the way home, ate lunch, then had about an hour to finish getting everything ready before heading out for Dominique's Bridal Shower. We agreed to help with the shower even though we don't know her too well, since I've got so much experience and all. :-P I had to leave the shower early to go to the Rep Dinner though, since they changed the night on us at the last minute. Met up with Sean and Jessica at GCC and carpooled to the Old Spaghetti Factory, which wasn't as impressive as usual (not that I've ever been a huge fan of going there....but this time we had a limited menu to choose from). After the rep dinner it was finally time to head back home....only to get up for work the next morning. Definitely no time to relax last weekend. Monday at work they handed out the papers for the assistants to fill out about our summer weeks, and I decided to do Disney week. :-) I spent Monday night researching ideas and crafts, and I think I came up with some pretty good activities that the kids will enjoy. Tuesday (Valentine's Day) was a pretty fun day, even though I worked late for Miss Cortney that night. I got all kinds of goodies from the kids...candy, chocolates, cards, toys...I felt like a kid at a Valentine's Day party. :-) And David sent me flowers at home, and he got me a Miche bag shell, a strap for my purse, and a bag of dark chocolate hearts. Perfect little gift from the sweetest boyfriend. <3 Wednesday night I was supposed to have a Collage and Career meeting with Frank at the church, which I wasn't even sure was going to happen....but I went anyway since I told him I'd be there, and let's just say I should have just stayed home. Thursday evening was the Open House at work, which was from 5:00-7:00, and I didn't get out of there till 7:15. Friday finally rolled around, which Miss Mollie took off, so I was the lead for the day. Work was pretty chill...it was Caleb's birthday and Owen's last day...so kind of a bittersweet day. I'm definitely going to miss that sweet little boy. Got home, watched the Valentine's episode of Glee, and then Angelica called and we chatted for two and a half hours until David called, and then I chatted with him for another two hours lol. I've got my class in a few hours, and then the girls are coming over tonight to keep me company, so that'll be nice. :-) The rest of my day will be spent relaxing and taking the time to clean up a bit...because like Becca, actually having the time to clean and do laundry makes me happy. :-) Current Mood: relaxed (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 28th, 2012
9:43 pm	Productive day! I'm quite glad I devoted today to getting stuff done....most of my to-do list for this weekend is complete. :-) I got up this morning and finished up some laundry, then went to my latin dance class. I think I may be enjoying this one even more than the ballroom one I took last semester. Granted, we've only had two classes so far....but I'm so comfortable in this class because there are so many people I know, and it seems like we've made a lot of progress in the two classes we've had. After class, I stayed on campus for a bit to do some DCP whiteboarding. Didn't get quite as much in as I would have liked because nearly all of the study rooms in the media center were being used....I even decided to intrude (as nicely as possible) to get a few extras in lol. But even so, I'm glad I finally got to do something to help out the reps, though it seems they haven't exactly stepped up to the plate from what I've heard. :-/ Anyway, after that I headed home and watched some Disney Channel while I ate lunch, played a little bit of Just Dance, then got to work cleaning up the loft. I still hadn't finished putting away my Christmas decorations (got put off a few times because something more exciting came up lol), but I finally got it all finished today. Got the tree taken down and all the decorations put away, so that was a really big thing I was happy to check off of my list. :-) After that I went down to help with dinner and ended up reorganizing the pantry (again) because my parents can't seem to put things where they should go. :-P We got dinner all ready and sat down to watch the series finale of Chuck....only to find out that our DVR didn't record the first hour of the episode. :-( Tried to look it up On Demand (no such luck) and online, but of course it's not available yet. We decided to go with a movie instead, but I was having trouble getting into it, so I left about 20 minutes in and went upstairs. Got my puzzle glued together, updated my rep rewards, and even had time to paint my nails. :-) So yay for an accomplished day! That means tomorrow I'll have even more time to relax and enjoy my weekend. Current Mood: accomplished (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 26th, 2012
8:42 pm	Well this is looking like it's going to be another busy semester for me....on top of work, church, and rep stuff, which keep me pretty busy to begin with, I've also signed up for a Latin Dance class on Saturday mornings, and I've got Phoenicia's wedding coming up in March. It's also Relay season, and I would really like to reach my fundraising goal this year, so time to get started on that. Now don't get me wrong, I like having worthwhile things to keep me busy, and I'm excited about all the things I'm involved in....I just hope I don't overdo it. It's nice to have time to just relax, and I need to remind myself to do that every once in a while. I already find myself pushing rep stuff to the side because of all my other priorities, and I don't like that. I think I may need to take Miss Ofelia's advice and just take a day off for myself, with nothing planned. Granted, I'd probably spend the day planning and organizing....but at least it would give me a free day to do that. It's crazy how much my free time (when I plan on getting things done) disappears for one reason or another. Hopefully things will go according to plan this weekend and I'll have time to do a lot of the things I have been meaning to do lately. Current Mood: exhausted (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
8:48 pm	Not really having the best evening....and I can't seem to cheer myself up. The smallest things can really get to me sometimes, and I guess that's the case today. I ended up having to leave work ten minutes late this afternoon, which isn't a huge deal, but I was ready to leave at 5:00 and things just kept happening to make me stay later. Then when I was nearly home, I realized I left my book at work, so no reading to help me relax. :-( And it was just getting to a good part, too! I probably would have finished it tonight if I had brought it home. I just decided to work on gathering and packing my scrapbooking stuff for this weekend, which ended up being a drawn-out process that took much longer than I expected. Around 7:10 I got a call from Cassie....asking if I was almost there. Apparently the first Campus Rep meeting of the season was tonight, and I had no idea. She sent out the e-mail late Tuesday night, and I didn't get a chance to check my e-mail yesterday. So they had the meeting without me, and Cassie said she'll send me the notes when she gets a chance. And it shouldn't bother me that much....but knowing that I could have been there had I known, it does. Especially since there is a limited number of things I can make it to anyway. It makes me wonder what the season is going to be like now that Cassie is lead rep....and I know I told Sean she would do things differently and that was okay, but I'm starting to wonder if it's going to be like going from Elaine to John. I'm sure I'm exaggerating....but so far Cassie hasn't stepped up her game the way I thought she would. She is trying though, and I'm sure she just has to figure out how things work best and go from there. And it's obviously not Cassie's fault that I didn't check my e-mail....I'm just so used to getting a text or something to let me know about stuff, especially when it's late notice. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes this semester and hope for the best! Current Mood: blah (Comment on this)
Saturday, December 10th, 2011
7:17 pm	My first Disney Cruise <3 Sunday, November 27th, 2011 8:45 am (LA time) - LAX waiting area "Hopped off the plane at LAX..." Just landed in Los Angeles, and now we're waiting at the airport for our bus to take us to the DCL port! The first DCL bus doesn't come till 9:40, so I've got a bit of time to kill. :-) So far, everything has gone pretty smoothly. Got up at 3:30 this morning, got myself all "Mickey"ed out, and we left the house about a half hour later than anticipated. Got to the airport about an hour and a half before our flight, and the Southwest line to check baggage was ridiculous! We had to wait about a half hour, and we figured Security would be just as bad, if not worse, so we were all getting a bit nervous. :-/ We chatted with the people around us in line to pass the time, and that definitely helped to ease our minds a bit. Got all 4 of our bags checked, and headed off to the security checkpoint. We got there....and there were no people in line! Lol we went right through and were at our gate within 10 minutes. We took the opportunity to go grab some drinks at Starbucks and use the restroom, and soon after boarded the plane. The flight felt really short compared to what I'm used to, but no complaints. :-) Landed in LAX and went to baggage claim, where we were greeted by DCL personnel. Shirley and Norma (earning her ears) showed us where to take our bags and where the waiting area was, and now here we sit patiently waiting. Can't wait to go check in on the ship! :-D 3:10 pm - Stateroom 2544 So we got picked up a little early at the airport, and we were on our way! We watched a little Cruise Video on the bus ride over, and were at the port within a half hour. The check-in was nicely organized, and we got through it very quickly. Then we had some more time to kill, so we went and found a little spot to wait (with Disney channel on in the background) and look through our first days Navigator! Got a basic game plan for the day all set, and DCL Mickey and Minnie came out to take pictures! I was so excited, we were one of the first groups in line. :-) After a while, they started to call groups to board the ship! We were in group number 4, and before we knew it we were walking onto the ship! As we entered, the hostess asked for a family name, then announced over the loudspeakers "The Disney Wonder would like to welcome the Madison Family on board!" I took a video of it (though I have horrible cameramanship -- if that's a word -- so it's mostly of floors and feet). We were all starved, so we went straight to Parrot Cay for the buffet lunch. Such a nice little restaurant! I loved the atmosphere, it reminded me of the Tiki Room. :-) I had a small salad and some grilled chicken, which was actually really good. I also tried my Mama's Strawberry Mint soup, which tasted like a melted smoothie. :-) Of course, I had to check out the dessert bar, and my favorite thing there was the fruit tart. Yum yum! First meal on the ship -- success! After our tummies were satisfied, we decided to walk around the ship while we were waiting for our stateroom to be available. We walked by some of the lounges, the pools, and the spa. Got myself a soft-serve ice cream cone, as well. :-D Yay for free treats! Around 2:00, our room was finally ready! It's a nice little room....kinda cramped, but after we unpack it should be quite manageable. Our luggage just got here, so time to go help Mommy get everything organized! Monday, November 28th, 2011 5:35 am - 2,193 guests on board, over 1,000 cast members "I throw my hands up in the air sometimes sayin' AY-OH, baby LET'S GO!" After we unpacked our things and tucked our suitcases under the bed, we went to the mandatory safety drill. That was finished in no time, and then came the Sail Away Party! We went up to the deck and found a table close to the stage and waited for the fun to begin. Cast Members were handing out sparkly streamers for us to wave in the air during the party, which of course I couldn't get enough of. :-) I was dancing with them and waving them around, and Mommy took a little video of me having some fun lol. I know some people may not be fans of dance parties, but I absolutely loved it! I think it helped that we were off to the side of the crowd and not in the middle of it, so I had plenty of room to move around and dance. :-) The Cast and Crew all came out on stage doing flips and dancing and getting the crowd pumped up, and they had a fun little dance that they taught us to do to the song "Dynamite". Then of course they had a special appearance by the Fab 7 all talking about how excited they were that we were going on a cruise with them. :-) We left the dance party a little early so that we could finish settling into our room before dinner. We wanted to go to the Spa Raffle just before dinner, but we were running a little behind schedule. We left in a rush, went to the deck and headed to where we thought the Spa was....turns out it was on the opposite side of the ship, so we hurried back across the ship only to arrive at the raffle 10 minutes after it started. I was surprised at how packed it was in there....I guess everyone wants free Spa treatment on a cruise. Our dinner was scheduled for 5 minutes after we got there, so we stayed to hear just a few names and headed out to Animator's Palate. Got to the doors of the restaurant, where there was a huge crowd waiting to go in. It was then that we realized that many people around us had dining tickets out....and we left ours in our stateroom! We sent Daddy down to get them for us while the Cast Members started herding everyone into the restaurant. We stepped off to the side to wait for Daddy to come back....and turns out we didn't need the tickets after all! All we needed was our room key, which had all of our dining information on it already. Would have been nice to know that sooner. :-P Dinner at Animator's Pallate was nice....we were seated at table 61 (!!!) with another family of 3 -- Dave (the dad), Diane (the mom), and Dan (the son -- probably a few years younger than me). Our server, Made from Indonesia, was very friendly and accomodating. And his assistant, whose name will take me forever to remember, was very attentive and sweet. :-) I didn't really like any of the appetizer menu items available, so Made offered to bring me a fruit salad to start off with. I like the dining treatment already! I ordered a different chicken item for dinner, and honestly I liked the one at lunch a lot better. The dinner wasn't bad, it just didn't impress me a whole lot. Dessert, however, was DELICIOUS! I got the warm apple crumble with vanilla ice cream, and I was ready to lick the plate when I finished it lol. The show in Animator's Palate was cute....the theme of the restaurant is that everything starts off in Black and White, and gradually turns to color throughout the meal. They had a little video screen that showed some scenes very similar to what you would see in Fantasmic, and then Sorcerer Mickey comes out with all the Cast and Crew in their color outfits and parade around the restaurant to the Fantasmic music. :-) We were hoping to be finished with dinner by 7:30 for the tree lighting ceremony, but no such luck. Oh well, we still got to see it all lit up when we walked by later....we just missed the big ceremony. :-( The show of the night was All Aboard! It was fun, but nothing to write home about. The majority of the time, the Cruise Director was up on stage telling us about some don't-miss opprtunities throughout the duration of our cruise. The show itself was pretty short, but it was broken up into little parts to it seemed to drag on a bit. The show was about a little boy who wanted to be a sailor going on his first Disney cruise. :-) There were some really cute song and dance numbers, including Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast. We also have a special guest on board the ship right now...Michael Harrison, a ventriloquist and comedian, who was apparently a front runner on America's Got Talent. He did a little preview of his act, using one of the kids from the audience as a puppet. He was really entertaining, and we may go see his full act tomorrow night. After the show, we had planned to go to the Mickey Mania! Trivia Game Show, but we were all so tired we decided to call it a night. We were about to head back to our stateroom, when we ran into Peter Pan! Got a few pictures with him (Cassie is going to be so jealous), and walked right by where Mickey Mania was happening, so we stepped in to see what it was all about. There was hardly anyone there for it, so we grabbed a seat to hear a few of the trivia questions. Some of it was more challenging...some of it really easy. They even had the audience participate, and my Mama got to answer a question: What used to be where California Adventure is now located? A parking lot for Disneyland, of course. :-) We left after a few more questions, and walked through the shops on our way back to the room. My parents decided to get a few things, and I found out that I get my Cast Member Holiday Discount! Heck yes! 40% off! I'm going to be doing a bit of shopping for myself today. :-) We got back to our room, where we found our first towel animal, a swan. The beds were all set up, and our navigator was sitting there waiting for us with some chocolates. We figured out a basic itinerary, and went to bed, totally exhausted. Slept better than I thought I would, and the earplugs definitely helped. And now it's time to go get ready for Day 2! 3:28 pm -- Stateroom It's a good time to relax and enjoy the stateroom a bit. :-) We've kept pretty busy today, even without having a full schedule. We got up and got ready this morning by 8 am so we could go to our character breakfast in Parrot Cay. Our table mates decided to skip the character breakfast (they're frequent cruisers), so we had the table all to ourselves. We all ate pretty light because we had a brunch reservation at Palo at 10:30, so Mommy and I got cream of wheat with brown sugar, and it was the perfect thing to hold us over. :-) Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip and Dale were the characters there, and they made their way around the restaurant while we ate. After we finished with our meal, Made and Mindaugas (I had to write his name down) made us napkin hats! Me and Mommy got Minnie bows, and Daddy got a Peter Pan hat. We took lots of pictures in those, and then wrapped up our meal there. Came back to the stateroom to straighten up a bit, then went up for our Palo Brunch. The service there was phenomenal! I mean, I know Disney always has awesome service, but this place definitely made you feel classy. :-) It was buffet style, and our waiter gave us a tour of all the food tables, describing in detail what each dish was. I fell in love with the dessert table right away lol. I started off with some assorted fruits and pastries, and I ordered a Cream of Strawberry soup, which was super yummy! Then I went up and got a plate of desserts with Mommy, and between the two of us, I'm pretty sure there weren't many that we didn't try. I wanted to head down to the shop after I finished eating, and Mommy and Daddy wanted to stick around for coffee, so we split up at that point. I bought myself some scrapbooking stuff and an ornament as a souvenir, and still have a few things to go back for, but I've got lots of time. :-) I dropped my stuff off in the stateroom, then took a few things to Guest Services that I wanted to get autographed by the characters, which will be delivered to me the last day of the cruise. Then I went to meet up with Mommy and Daddy, and we went to the Promenade Lounge for Disney Movie Trivia. :-D We did really well, got 21 out of 25 multiple choice questions correct, but we came in second, so no prize. :-( Then we stayed for Disney Tune Trivia, where a guy played small sections of Disney songs on the piano, and we had to write down the song title, the movie title, and answer a bonus question. Again, we did really well, got 33 out of 36 points, but came in second again. Gosh darn those people who are Disney Trivia fanatics like us! :-P After we finished there, we browsed through the shops again, and decided to head back to the stateroom for some rest and relaxation before dinner tonight. Daddy went up to get us some drinks, and he should be back any minute. Mommy and Daddy brought back a plate of desserts from Palo, so I think I'm going to go enjoy some of those! :-) 10:30 pm -- Stateroom We spent our afternoon relaxing in the stateroom until it was time to get ready for dinner. Tonight was formal night, so we got ourselves all dressed up and headed off to Parrot Cay. I had a really good turkey dinner, with a garden salad (special request) to start. Made was very accomodating and brought out just what I liked. :-) For dessert, I had the sampler trio, which included a raspberry cheesecake, a creme brulee, and a chocolate mousse cake (delicious!). After we finished up with dinner, we went out to meet and take pictures with the captain of the ship in our formal wear. :-) After that, we walked around taking a few more pictures on our way to The Golden Mickeys show. The show was phenomenal, but I had a bit of a hard time watching it because the tall man sitting in front of me kept moving his head around. I really loved the way they incorporated some of the classic Disney movie scenes into the show though, I would totally love to see it again with a better view. :-) After the show, we stopped at the shop to pick up a few more things, then came back to the room. The clocks are moving an hour forward tonight, so that means I am losing an hour of sleep, so time to go to bed! Tuesday, November 29th, 2011 3:00 pm -- Stateroom "Today I swear I'm not doing anything..." Today we decided that instead of having a plan, we'd just play it by ear, and that's definitely working well for us. :-) We got up around 7:30 this morning (slept so much better last night) and went up to Deck 9 to eat at Beach Blanket Buffet. We decided to eat out on the deck by the pool, since the weather is so nice. Had a pretty good breakfast, then me and Mommy went up on the pool stage for the line dancing. :-) We did the cha-cha slide, the electric slide, the macarena, the hussle, the cupid shuffle, and the YMCA -- has a blast the whole time, of course! After that we split up and I went to Animator's Palate for an animation session, where I learned to draw Goofy. Mine turned out pretty good, though it's definitely not professional lol. Then I met up with Mommy and we went to Who Am I? at the Promenade Lounge, which was basically like a game of 20 Questions (except you only got 10 questions). I volunteered to go first, and the categories were Disney Character, Celebrity, Job on the Ship, or Job in the Real World. If you could guess who you were within 10 Questions, you got a prize. I found out that I was a celebrity -- an adult female musician -- in my late 20's/early 30's, still alive today. Based on that information....I was pretty clueless, but I guessed the first thing that popped into my head and I was right! Who was I, you ask? You tell me. :-) I won a Disney Cruise Line Keychain, then stuck around and watched the rest of the contestants compete. From there, we went up to the pool deck and met up with Daddy, and Mommy went swimming, while I sat down to relax a bit. Daddy and I decided to take turns watching the stuff at the table while the other went to get lunch. I got chicken fingers at Pluto's Doghouse, which were really tasty. Mommy came back and got some food, then we all went down to Wavebands for Wonder Quest, which is a family scavenger hunt. It was mostly of things you had on you, like a camera or a pair of sunglasses. There were a lot of families with younger children there, so we didn't really compete too much...it was fun to watch though. Now it's about time to head up for Deck the Deck -- a Christmas dance party on the pool deck with Disney Characters. Yay! 5:40 pm -- Stateroom Deck the Deck was cute, they had Lilo and Stitch come out and dance to Mele Kaliki Maka, and Chip and Dale held a limbo contest with giant candy canes...fun little things like that. We wanted ice cream cones, so we missed a bit of the party, but we came back and the characters started a huge conga line lol. After that, we went to meet up with our table mates at Diversions for 70's Music Trivia. They played the beginning of a bunch of 70's hits, and we had to write down the name of the song and the artist. I knew maybe 3 or 4 out of 30 lol...but Dave (who was the one who talked us into going) knew almost all of the answers. We got 47 out of 60, and tied for first place! We got winner ribbon lanyards for that, so I was glad we went. :-) Now Mommy and Daddy are at their Palo dinner, and I am trying to decide what to do next. I'll probably finish up some more shopping and find an easy meal so our stateroom host can set up our room for the evening in peace. 11:37 pm -- Stateroom So I did end up going shopping, and I got some chocolates for my co-workers (for putting up with the extra hassle this week without me there) and some stickers for the kids. :-) I finished up in the shop and went over to Studio Sea for Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer! I loved the way they had it set up (very similar to Millionaire), but I didn't get a chance to play. :-( Mommy and Daddy called on the Wave Phone when they got back from Palo, and I met them in the room. We got a basic game plan for tomorrow (first day on land) and I ordered some chicken noodle soup (I have a bit of a head cold) and big island chocolate chip cookies from room service for my dinner. Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer was happening again at 9:30, so I dragged Mommy and Daddy along for that one. Again, didn't get to play. It was fun watching the other people who got to sit in the hot seat though. After that, we walked around Route 66 a bit to see if there was anything happening, but it was pretty quiet. Went back to the shops for a few last minute things (since they're closed the days we're in port), then came back to the room to get ready for our Port Adventure tomorrow! Not exactly sure what to expect with that....so here's hoping it goes well! Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 3:50 pm -- Stateroom "You can't stop the motion of the ocean or the sun in the sky..." Got up a bit early this morning and went up for breakfast at Beach Blanket Buffet. We were already in port by the time we got up there, so we took a few pictures from the ship and got ready to head out for our Port Adventure in Puerto Vallarta. We met up with our adventure group and took a short bus ride over to the Paradise Village Beach Resort, where we spent the day relaxing on the beach. :-) The weather was in the mid-80's, which was perfect for the beach. We found a spot under a straw umbrella with a few lounge chairs that we claimed as our own. There were a ton of vendors walking around trying to get us to buy their stuff....and before we even had a chance to set our stuff down we were bargaining with a woman for some swimsuit covers for me and Mommy. I got a long white one with blue hibiscus flowers, and Mommy got a hot pink one with sequins. We could have gotten a better deal for them, but we were anxious to check out the beach, so we settled for $20 each. As we were getting ready to head out to the water, a guy came over taking drink orders (drinks were included in the price of our port adventure), so Daddy got a beer (boring) and Mommy got a Mai Tai, which was pretty good (especially before it was mixed all the way lol). I shared some of that with her, then we went out into the ocean. The beach was absolutely beautiful here....no seaweed, no seashells, no sea creatures....just waves and golden sand. Mommy ventured off way further into the water than I wanted to go, so I just hung out near the edge running from the water, while she went past the breaking waves to bob with the motion of the ocean. After a while it was time for lunch (also included in the price of the package), which was a buffet. The food was alright, but I wasn't super impressed....I was hoping for something a little more Mexican. They had salad, barbequed chicken, fried fish, and burgers and fries as the main options. They had a few side things that were Mexican...rice, refried beans, tortilla chips, and mini quesadillas....but that was about it. I'm hoping we'll get something a little more authentic in Cabo tomorrow....but we'll see. Regardless though, I walked away with a full tummy. We decided to walk around and check out the resort at that point to see what else they had to offer. We found a nice little spot by the quiet pool to spend the rest of the afternoon, right by the hot tub (which was empty most of the time we were there). The water in the pool was too cold for my taste, so I opted to sit out on a lounge chair. Another guy came over to take some more drink orders, and I went with a virgin strawberry margarita. (I just can't convince myself to get an alcoholic beverage, even when it's free). I was glad I made that choice, because it was DELICIOUS! I finished it in like 5 minutes lol. We wrapped up our afternoon there and took the short bus ride back to the ship. Now Mommy and Daddy are napping before we head out for another trivia challenge! Thursday, December 1st, 2011 7:55 am -- Stateroom "There's no place like ::1" So yesterday caught up with me pretty quickly....I was too tired after the show to do much of anything. Backing up a bit though....we went to the trivia challenge, which had some difficult questions! We only got 15 out of 25, but it was still fun and informative. :-) I learned that the license plate number A113 on the car in Toy Story refers to the classroom number the animators for the movie worked in. After the trivia game, it was time for dinner at Triton's. Very pretty restaurant, there was a Little Mermaid mosaic on the wall right behind us. :-) The menu was mostly seafood (blah) but I ordered a grilled chicken salad that was pretty good. I wasn't super hungry, so I didn't eat a whole lot, as I wanted to save room for dessert. I got the chocolate mousse with brandy soaked cherries, which was yummy. :-) After dinner, we caught the tail end of "The Wheel" in Diversions, which was like Wheel of Fortune, but kind of lame (all done with a computer -- and not very good puzzles). But just after that was Toy Story: The Musical! The show was really good, in my opinion. I loved some of the music they added....especially Sids song lol. I wish they had a CD I could get with the music on it. The costume and sets were really well done, as well. After the show, we went over for "Think You Know Your Family?" in Studio Sea. Decided to let some of the families with younger kids volunteer to play, so we just watched. We probably would have won if we played though, cuz we were answering the questions about each other and got most of them right. :-) I decided it was time for me to head back to the stateroom at that point, while Mommy and Daddy went to "Match Your Mate" in Wavebands. We passed through Shutters on the way out, and saw a few of the professional pictures that were taken of us throughout the trip. While I was looking at the pictures in there, I felt something on my shoulder....looked up, and it was a big black nose! Pluto was standing right over my shoulder trying to see the pictures, too, lol. I love some of the character interaction we've had on this trip....haven't gotten a whole lot of character pictures yet, but the characters are definitely all around. We saw Belle the other day (in her casual dress) walking by with a book in hand! We said hello, and she waved and told us to have a lovely day. :-) Anyway, after that I came back to the room and decided to head straight to bed. Our shore excursion In Cabo is later in the day today, so we're gonna go get breakfast and take our time getting ready before it's time for that. Friday, December 2nd, 2011 11:23 am -- Stateroom Things have been pretty non-stop since yesterday morning, I've barely had a chance to sit and relax. We left just after noon for our Cabo Port Adventure yesterday, and didn't get back till 5:30. Definitely not as nice as our excursion from the day before, but still saw some cool things. We did the Coastal Highlights Tour, and after taking a tender boat to get off the ship, we went straight to a bus. Honestly, I feel like a lot of my day was spent on a bus....that was the downside for this excursion. Our first stop was a glass blowing factory, where we watched a guy sculp a turtle. After 20 minutes there, we were back on the bus on our way to a restaurant with a nice overlook of the ocean. We stayed there for 20 minutes (only enough time to get a drink and take some pictures of our ship off in the distance), and then we were on the bus again. We went to downtown San Jose, where we got off to shop for 45 minutes, which wasn't much time at all. I was getting pretty hungry by that point, since we hadn't had any food since breakfast, but we didn't want to spend all of our time there eating, so we just got a few snacks at a pharmacy. I got Nacho Doritos (how can you go wrong?) but they were actually spicier than American Doritos, so I didn't eat a whole lot. :-( We went to a few of the shops and got our souvenirs (I got a little bobble head turtle for $3), and then it was back on the bus again. Our last stop was at Cacti Mundo, a cactus garden with over 300 species of cacti. Not the most thrilling thing for me....but it was alright. From there, we were back on the bus for a half hour drive back to the bay. Got back a little behind schedule (our dinner started at 5:45), so we rushed up to the room to change into our pirate gear and headed up to Animator's Palate. Our table mates didn't dress up, but plenty of other people did, and we were pretty proud of our costumes. :-) Dinner was decent, and dessert was delicious, as usual. After dinner we went to see The Muppets in the Walt Disney Theater, which was pretty entertaining. I liked the cheesiness of it all, and the song and dance numbers were fun. After that it was time to head up for the Pirate Party by the pool. When we got up there it was pretty packed, but we found a spot near the back to watch and dance along. There was a cast member showing everyone the dance moves and dancing with the little kids right in front of us, and she was quite entertaining to watch, so I kept myself amused. After the dance party came the fireworks....yeah, Disney Cruise Line is the only cruise line able to shoot off fireworks at sea. Pretty cool. :-) When that was all finished, we went to grab some dessert from the Pirate Buffet....nothing too spectacular there. I'm definitely looking forward to tonight's dessert buffet though. :-D At that point it was pretty late, so we opted to come back and go straight to bed, since Mommy wanted to be up for the sunrise this morning. Saturday, December 3rd, 2011 8:00 am -- Stateroom Yesterday was our second day in Cabo, but we decided to stay on the ship rather than do another excursion. I really wanted to check out the Buena Vista Theater, so after a quick breakfast at Beach Blanket Buffet I went to see Winnie the Pooh. It was cute, very much like the classics I grew up with. I was the only one in the theater when I got there....a few people showed up just before the movie though. After that, I met up with Mommy and Daddy at the Promenade Lounge for Disney Trivia. Again, we came in second. They really should have second place prizes on this cruise. :-P Then Mommy and Daddy decided to go see Real Steel, but since I had just watched a movie, I figured I'd try to get some character pictures. I went up by the pool and took a picture with Pluto and Goofy, while Lilo and Stitch was playing on the big screen on deck. I was getting hungry, so I decided to eat without Mommy and Daddy. Got a burger from Pluto's Doghouse....not the greatest burger I'd ever had. After their movie we met up and went over to the adults only pool for a quick swim, then worked on our little Hidden Mickey Scavenger Hunt until it was time to get ready for dinner. It was semi-formal night, so we got all dressed up, and Mommy went up to get some pictures of the sunset before dinner while I grabbed a few more character pics (I bought the one of me and Mickey). Dinner was at Parrot Cay, and it was the Captain's Lobster Dinner. I ended up ordering chicken strips from the kids menu, since nearly everything on the menu was seafood. After dinner, it was time to go Disney Dreams....such an amazing show. It had all kinds of characters and songs in it, and they made it snow in the theater during the Beauty and the Beast scene. :-) After the show, we decided to stop by Mickey Mania again, but there were a lot of really loud tweens in there so we left early to get a good night's sleep before our final day on board. Sunday, December 4th, 2011 2:05 pm -- LAX Terminal 11 "Now it's time to say good-bye to all our company..." I can't believe it's over already. The week FLEW by, but it was definitely worthwhile. There were a lot of great memories made, and I can't wait to start my scrapbook (which I bought on board) after I get home. Yesterday morning was one of the best moments for me....so let me back up a little. We got up yesterday morning and went to the breakfast buffet at Parrot Cay. There was something called "The Ultimate Race" at Promenade Lounge just as we were finishing breakfast, and we almost skipped it to get a head start on our packing. We stopped to see what it was all about though, and I'm super glad we did. :-) It was a scavenger hunt throughout the ship, where we had to figure out clues and call in our answers. We decided to play, and we got our first clue: "It's your home away from home. How high do the numbers go?" We stopped to grab a map at Guest Services, and took off. We got to the 8th floor and checked the highest stateroom number: 8602! We called it in and got our next clue, and the race was on. We figured out where to go for most of the clues pretty quickly, and they definitely had us running all around the ship. Thank goodness we had done our Hidden Mickey search the day before, it really helped us out with some of the clues. :-) We were getting close to the end when we called in with an answer and they said we were correct but they already had a winner so it was time to head back to the promenade lounge. :-( When we got there, a few of the teams were already back, so we figured it must have been one of them who finished before us. Robin (Daddy's bff) announced that they hadn't told the winning team who they were yet....and it ended up being us! We were all so excited to have finally won something on our own. :-D We got Disney Cruise Line baseball caps for our prizes. After the scavenger hunt we went over to the 50 Movie Quotes Trivia game in Diversions, and our table mates were in there already so we joined their team. The movie quotes were fun (especially since Christiaan was doing them), but we didn't come anywhere close to winning. You had to know the name of the movie and the actor/actress who said the line. We got like 65/100. Then we went back to the room to pack up our things and went to lunch at Beach Blanket Buffet. There was a Towel Folding lesson in Studio Sea, so Mommy and I went to that and learned how to make a swan, a dog, and a monkey. :-) Fun stuff! Finished up our packing and got ready for our final dinner on board. We went to Triton's, and Made had ordered a special grilled chicken dish for me because he knew I wouldn't like much on the menu. :-) Yay for special service! Our table mates had Palo reservations that night, so we didn't have anyone to sit with, but it made it easy to see the festivities happening around us. They had a farewell parade with all the waiters, and they were carrying the flags from their countries. They also brought out flaming baked alaska, which was pretty cool (and yummy). After dinner, we went to Remember the Magic, which was like a farewell follow-up show to All Aboard! from the first night. It was nice, and shortly after the show we went out to the Lobby for Till We Meet Again, which was like a meet-and-greet reception with a lot of the characters and cast from the shows. We took the opportunity to get some character pics in, and didn't have to wait in many lines. :-) Our final event of the night was a Pub Skit with the cruise staff, and it was hilarious. It was great to see all of them on stage to entertain us one last time, and I think they're the ones I'm going to miss most of all. We really got to know them through the activities we participated in, and it was sad to say good-bye. This morning we got up and went to our "See you real soon" breakfast at Triton's, and our table mates decided to skip it again. Diane stopped by to say good-bye though, so that was nice. We got our food and thanked our waiters, and then it was time to say farewell to the ship. :-( We waited in Wavebands for our tags to be called for debarkation, and before we knew it we were waiting in line in the cold LA air to go through customs check. Longest line we waited in on the whole trip (well, other than at the airport that first morning). From there we got on a charter bus to take us back to LAX, and we watched a farewell video from Mickey and friends on the cruise ship. Got to the airport WAY before our flight time, so early we couldn't even check our bags yet. Waited around till check-in time, then went through security and got some lunch from a Mexican place. First authentic Mexican meal we had all week....pretty sad, I know. It was really good though! And now here I am at the airport, waiting to board the plane. Overall, I can say that my first Disney cruise was amazing and I'd love to go again sometime! Next time it'll be to Castaway Cay though. :-) (5 Comments |Comment on this)
8:59 am	Staff Christmas Party I had such an amazing night at the staff party last night! I absolutely love the ladies that I work with at MOS. So let me start at the beginning. The staff Christmas party is at a secret location every year because they want to keep it a surprise. They told us directions to the area we were going and gave us the option to meet there or carpool from the school. Well it was in Scottsdale, so I definitely opted to carpool. Showed up at the school at 6:30, and what pulls in behind me? A STRETCH LIMO! Well, a stretch lincoln navigator to be specific. So we all piled in and were on our way. Plugged in Nicole's ipod and danced and sang the whole way to Scottsdale. Kelly brought champaigne, and we blasted Cheers to the Freakin' Weekend as we drank it lol. Stopped by Jamee's house to pick up her and Jenny, then met up with everyone who drove themselves there and followed Jenny to the secret location. She took us to the iPic theaters, where we saw New Years Eve. :-) Fun movie, and the theater was so cool! All the seats were recliners, and there were blankets and pillows waiting for us there. Everyone got to order a flatbread and dessert to share with a buddy, and it also came with popcorn, candy, and drinks (alcohol included). I sat with Miss Ofelia, and we ordered the BBQ Chicken Flatbread and the Peanut Butter Smores Pizza (which sounds better than it tasted). Overall though, it was a really cool experience and I definitely want to go back sometime! After the movie, the ladies split up...a few decided to go shopping in the complex, and the rest wanted to go out dancing. Shopping sounded more appealing to me...but I wanted to stay with the limo, which was taking the girls to Sandbar to dance. We got there and there was hardly anyone out on the dance floor, so Mollie, Ofelia, Kaleigh, Jenny, Melissa and myself decided to take it over. Well that didn't last long....after 5 minutes everyone bailed except me and Melissa. I didn't just want to stand around though, so I stayed and danced while everyone watched and laughed. :-) Before we knew it, it was time to head out. We piled back into the limo and enjoyed our ride back into town. Current Mood: impressed (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 24th, 2011
7:43 am	Happy Thanksgiving! I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving! Time has been flying by faster than I can keep up with! I've done a pretty good job with organizing everything that needs to get done though, so hopefully this weekend I can finish up all my little side projects before the cruise. Decorating is mostly finished...all the important stuff, at least. I put up my Disney tree in the loft, and it looks so pretty! I wasn't sure if I'd have quite enough to fill it, but it worked out cuz I didn't need to put much on the side against the wall. I got my train from Disney Store, and it's sooooo cool! I love it! I've always wanted a train under my tree, and it fits perfectly. :-) I finished up the gifts that I got for the reps....I got Mouse Ear Hat ornaments, and stitched their names into them, which looks really nice. Finished up most of my christmas cards and will be sending those out this weekend. Still need to finish up with some Christmas gifts....I really wanted to have them all set before the cruise, so hopefully I can get that taken care of this weekend. I also need to start figuring out details for the Chrismtas party....mainly what day we want to have it so everyone can save the date. I also need to decide if I want to do a small thing with just the girls again this year, or open it up to a bunch of people. Not something I need to stress over too much yet though. So we pulled names at work for Secret Santa, and I got someone I don't know too well....thankfully, we all filled out little sheets of information that should help. I always love doing Secret Santas though, so I'm sure I won't have too much trouble. I'm really looking forward to the work Christmas party....the owner and director always have some big surprise planned from what I've heard; last year they rented out a nail salon and got everyone mani/pedis and gave them all some really cute flip flops. I'm anxious to see what they have planned for this year. :-) I can't believe how much I have going on in the next few weeks....I'm definitely ready for this little vacation so I can [hopefully] relax a bit. The Thursday after I get back is the DCP Send-Off party, then Friday is the work Christmas party. Saturday, Phoenicia's girls are getting together for the dress fittings, and Sunday may be the day we go shopping for the family the college and career group adopted. I really hope they do it when I'm available, since I'm kind of the one who suggested the idea in the first place. The week after that is probably going to be when we have our penguin Christmas party, and then comes the weekend of Christmas! Eek! Then a few days later I'm flying out to see David, and I'll be spending my New Years in Colorado. :-) Always the busiest time of the year....but definitely the most anticipated and exciting time of year as well. It still hasn't really hit that we leave for our cruise in 3 days...I feel like it's gonna sneak up on me Saturday night and be like "Surprise! Here we go!" lol. I'm a little nervous about how that first night on the ship is going to be...it's always difficult for me to adjust to sleeping in a new place, and the water effect probably won't help. :-/ And I know I won't be sleeping well the night before the cruise, especially considering we're leaving our house around 4 am on Sunday morning. I just hope the lack of sleep doesn't make me feel too motion-sick...as long as I eat right I should be fine though. Regardless of all that, I can't wait! There's so much I'm looking forward to on this cruise....especially the free food haha. :-) I still have a ton of packing to do, which hopefully I can work on a bit today after our Thanksgiving lunch (we're eating early cuz David has to be at work this afternoon). And on that note....happy thanksgiving, time to go watch the parade! :-D Current Mood: anxious (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 12th, 2011
8:05 am	15 Days and Counting! Cruise preparations are definitely underway....but I've had so many things I want to get done before the cruise, I haven't had much time to think about it! I want to get all my Christmas decorating finished before we go, which I started yesterday, and it's looking pretty good so far. :-) Super excited to have the Christmas party here this year. I bought my Christmas cards yesterday, and I want to mail those out the weekend before the cruise (especially since we're at a new address). I would like to have the penguin gifts all ready before the cruise as well, which is looking pretty promising. I still need to find a birthday gift for Mollie and Janet (their b-days are the day before Thanksgiving), and a bunch of the reps have birthdays coming up, too. I want to make them all a photo collage of rep stuff.... but our printer isn't working very well, so I'm not sure if that will happen. I already ordered something to give them all for Christmas, so at least that's covered. :-) Now on to all of the festivities that happened last month....yay for Halloween fun. :-) We had our Fall Festival at the school on October 14th, which went pretty well. I worked the inflatable obstacle course with Kelli and her sister, pretty entertaining. After that, I went out to the corn maze with Amy, Angelica, and Chris, and we got through it a lot faster this year than we did last year. Took all kinds of fun pictures around the farm, then went back to Angelica's house to watch Hocus Pocus. :-) The weekend before Halloween was the Costume Ball at the Avalon Ballroom. Originally, I had a few people who told me they'd like to go....then ended up not being able to, so I was afraid I'd have to go all by my lonesome. :-/ I talked Angelica and Chris into going though, so that made me happy. We went shopping at the thrift store to find a costume for Angelica, and she ended up putting together a cute cheerleader outfit. Chris decided to go as a mobster, complete with toy gun lol. Amy was still putting the finishing touches on my Jeannie costume, and got it finished just in time. :-D The Ball wasn't nearly as crowded as the last one I had gone to, but it was nice having the extra breathing room. There was a pretty even balance of guys and girls there, and the guys were working their way around the dance floor, that's for sure. I lost track of the number of dances I did....most of which I was totally unfamiliar with lol. I danced a tango, a waltz, the hussle, night-club-two-step, a rhumba, a cha-cha, east coast swing....and I'm sure a few others that I can't recall. We all had a blast though, and now Angelica says she's glad to tag along any time. :-) On Halloween day, everyone at the school dressed up and had a little parade to show off all the adorable costumes. I went as a 50's girl, and used my Mommy's first pair of glasses that she got when she was in 7th grade, which everyone loved. :-) It was a bit of a hectic day, but it was fun. Decided to sit outside and wait for trick-or-treaters that night....didn't really have a whole lot, so after about an hour we just decided to go inside and watch the Sing Off and hand it out at the door if anyone else came. We had one final group of teenagers around 8:30, and I wanted to get rid of the candy, so I gave them all a few handfuls. And that about wraps it up....it's been a good start to a 3-day weekend, and now I'm gonna go work on that list of things to do before the cruise! I can't believe it's only 15 days away! Eek! I need to start packing soon! Ttfn. :-) Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)
Saturday, October 8th, 2011
9:06 am	Wedding Festivities So to pick up where my last post left off...day before the wedding, I got my nails done (turned out really nice), David got his haircut, and we hung out till it was time to go to the rehearsal at the church. Rehearsal took WAY longer than it should have...thank you, Jessica. I know she was just trying to help, but as David put it....she was acting like Bridezilla, and she wasn't even a part of the wedding! After a few hours of rehearsing, we finally made it out to Rock Bottom for the dinner. It turned out really nice, we had a banquet room, and a limited menu that everyone seemed to like. Tiffani and David handed out the gifts for the wedding party...the girls got cute little wedding prep/survival bags (medicine, breathmints, make-up applicators, hair stuff, etc.) and the guys got beer glasses with their initials etched into them. Both very nice gifts. :-) Finished up there at a decent time, and headed home to get a good night's sleep before the big day! Saturday morning I got up and went to my Ballroom Dance class, then went straight to get my hair done afterward. From there I went and met up with my brother and David at the church, where we waited for the florist (who showed up an hour and a half late) and set up anything we could ourselves. The bridal party started showing up to get ready, and at that point I was in and out and all about trying to get things done. The girls were upstairs in the nursery, the guys were up in the loft, and the wedding was down in the sanctuary. The maid of honor was taking her LSAT that morning, and it ran long so she didn't show up till 20 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start. The brides parents didn't show up until AFTER the ceremony was supposed to start....so needless to say, everything was running behind. There were closures on the 101 so out of town guests were getting lost, and a few things were left back at the apartment so a few of the groomsmen were sent to retrieve them. It was just super hectic up until the ceremony actually started....and then everything went pretty smoothly. :-) We decided to just do the pictures at the church instead of going to Murphy Park to save on time, then we all headed out for the reception. The recepetion went really well...everyone seemed to like the [last minute] food, the cupcakes turned out super cute, and Steven and Jason did a great job as DJ/MC. I had a great time dancing and socializing...it was probably the most fun I've had at a wedding thus far. :-) The morning after the wedding, we skipped church so that Mommy's family could stop by to see the house, so we hung out with them for a while, ran a few errands, and took it easy for the most part. Sunday night David and I went out to West Gate to see a movie (Abduction -- pretty good) and I showed him around a bit. Monday we went to Downtown Glendale to check out some shops and do the Ceretta Candy Co. Tour, even though we were the only two people there lol. We also walked around the Mad Hatters shop for hours and found a few cool things, and I must say, David is a very fun shopping buddy. :-) After that it was time to take David to the airport and call it a night. And now it's the start of another 3-day-weekend, and Annie is visiting! Yay! Current Mood: refreshed (Comment on this)
Friday, September 30th, 2011
9:04 am	"A lovely night, a lovely night..." :-) Life has been so busy these last few weeks, I don't even know where to begin! It's been a good busy though....a bit stressful at times, but nothing I couldn't handle. :-) So last Friday was Tiffani's Bachelorette Party. We went out to West Gate and met up at Margaritaville around 9 pm. Paris (Maid of Honor/Sister), Katie (Bridesmaid/Friend), and two other girls I didn't know were there, along with the bride of course. We all got drinks (except me - I had water all night) and found a spot to chill. We chatted about the wedding and details that still needed to be figured out, and waited for Jessica (Unofficial Planner/Church Friend) to show up. We decided to leave Margaritaville after one round of drinks, and went over to Hell's Half Acre to get Tiffani's favorite drink. Found a little spot up on a booth (right by a dance pole...) and everyone got their drinks. It was a lot louder in there than it was in Margaritaville, so we couldn't chat very easily. After everyone ordered two rounds of drinks there, Jessica showed up and brought the party with her. She had all kinds of fun goodies -- a tiara w/veil and a sash for the bride, beaded necklaces for the ladies, fake tattoos (for anyone and everyone, apparently), glow in the dark straws, and dark red lipstick for a "Kiss as many guys as you can" (on the cheek, of course) game. She definitely got the party started....but since she didn't show up till 10:30, the party started a little late for my taste. I was planning on leaving early, but when she got there she asked if I could give her a ride home since it was right on the way. I told her I didn't want to stay out too late, and she said she wanted to leave around midnight, 12:30 at the latest. I figured that would work, so I agreed and stayed for a while longer. Jessica had her heart set on going to Saddle Ranch and McFadden's after we were done there, and Tiff really wanted to check out Shout House. Well midnight came....and midnight went....and people were still ordering drinks at HHA. I tried wrapping it up and moving on with our evening a few times...but no such luck. Around 12:30 I was getting pretty irritated because we hadn't moved on and had 3 other places on the agenda still. I finally got Jessica to wrap it up so we could head out to our next destination, and she insisted that we go straight to Saddle Ranch. We got over there, through the security check, and got a call from 2 of the girls who had left while we were in HHA....they had left their camera. So Jess went to see if she could find it, while the rest of us waited for her to come back. By this time, it's almost one in the morning, and everyone was about ready to call it a night. Long story short, after a fake stomachache from Tiff and a bit of an attitude from me, Jessica agreed to call it a night without riding her bull. Overall it was a fun night, and lots of crazy pictures will be showing up on facebook eventually, I'm sure. Saturday was mine and David's anniversary, and it was also the Grand Opening Ball at the Avalon Ballroom. I planned to go to that with my parents to use as one of my assignments for my ballroom class, and just figured I'd find some guys from my class to dance with there, since I didn't have a date. Well....David decided to surprise me by coming out to visit for the weekend to take me to the ball for our anniversary. <3 Super sweet gesture....a little crazy on his part :-P, but I'm glad he came. We went shopping and got him a shirt and tie to match my dress, and I taught him the basic stuff I had learned in class so we could actually dance. :-) It went pretty well, and we worked on the waltz together, and we danced a tango. It was quite a lovely night (as sung by Cinderella). Sunday morning we went to church, came home and watched some old videos of baby Amber, and went over to Angelica's that night to help her with some Professional Interview questions/answers. David went home Monday morning, worked for three days, then came back yesterday for the wedding this weekend! My dad's extended family came out from Ohio and we had them over to the house last night to hang out, which was interesting. I hadn't seen most of them in over 10 years....so it was a little awkard for me. Mommy's parents came out last night as well, so I spent the majority of my evening going through my Disney scrapbooks with Mommy and Grandma. Today is the wedding prep day....I'm going to get my nails done while David goes to get a haircut. Then this afternoon is the Rehearsal at the church, followed by the Rehearsal Dinner at Rock Bottom. Then tomorrow.....let the craziness begin! Current Mood: giddy (Comment on this)
Monday, September 5th, 2011
9:47 am	My crazy weekend! I survived! And everything went pretty smoothly, for the most part. Saturday morning I woke up and finished preparing for the Friends & Family Bridal Shower before I had to leave for my ballroom dancing class. I left early and stopped at Bath and Body Works on my way into town to pick up some prizes for the games I had prepared. Got to class a bit early (which was nice since the week before I was 5 minutes late). Class was fun, as usual. :-) We learned a right turning box step, which is apparently one of the most complex moves to learn in a waltz. Definitely going to practice that one in my free time today lol. After class, Mommy and Daddy met me at GCC, we did a car swap, and Mommy and I went to T's house (that's Tiffani's mom) to set up for the shower. The decorations I had were very simple, but they looked really nice when we got them all up. :-) The shower went really well....the timing worked out perfectly. I had 4 games, and all of them were a hit. We played "You Can't Say the Bride's Name" with little plastic rings, the Wedding Movie Quote game, How Well Do You Know the Bride, and the Tissue Paper Dresses. Tiffani got a lot of nice gifts, and everything went even better than anticipated. :-) After all the festivities, we cleaned up and came home for me to finish preparing for the Church Shower. My parents watched Prelude to a Kiss (strange movie lol) while I made cupcakes, brownies, and molded little Mickey heads out of Rice Crispies Treats. I got all of that done at a decent time, and then finished preparing the games for the shower. Sunday morning, got up bright and early, made sure I had everything in order, loaded it all up, then went out to the church. Got there about an hour early, unloaded the car and put everything in the sanctuary (where we were supposed to have the shower), and got my game plan all set of how I'd be setting up sfter church. Church was nice, Tiffani and her mom and sisters were all there, and Pastor Ron started a new series, "Good Church, Bad Church". After church ended, I waited anxiously for people to start clearing out so I could set up. Well, it took a while, and there were children running around all over the place, so I couldn't start pulling out desserts and decorations because I knew they would start grabbing stuff the second I did. So I just started rearranging some things....moved some chairs and tables around, pulled out the tablecloths, things like that. Well, less than an hour to go before the shower starts, Karen suggests that we have it up in the loft instead. At this point I was just ready to start setting up and get away from the crowds that were still sitting around, so we surveyed the loft and decided that if we could get guys to move all the tables upstairs, we'd do it up there. Would have been nice to know this before church so I could have already had things set up and had a game plan....but we managed to pull it off. It was just extra stressful because of the last minute changes and the lack of help (my mother and I were the only ones setting up, even though I had at least 3 other people volunteer to help me out the week before). Finished setting everything up just in time for the shower to start....but didn't have time to eat my lunch or change into my tourist outfit. Got the first game started, Guess Which Character/Object You Are, while I ducked out to change. That game was a hit to get people chatting, and once everyone had figured theirs out, we did the Honeymoon Mad Lib. After that, I told people to chat amongst themselves and encouraged everyone to eat some desserts (they hadn't touched them because they were too pretty to eat lol), so that I could have a second to eat my lunch. After that, we did the Scavenger Hunt, which was insane. It was finished in like 2 minutes, and I couldn't believe how crazy everyone went lol. It was definitely fun to watch....but I'll have to have it set up a bit differently if I ever do it again, cuz it was way too chaotic. After that we had Tiffani choose the Best Dressed Tourist (I wish more people had gotten into it....only me, my mom, T, Paris, and Phoenicia were dressed for it), and Phoenicia won that one. Then Tiff opened her gifts, and I started to gather my things because I had to go to Robbi's birthday party right after. Got all my stuff packed up while my ride was waiting outside with 2 sleeping boys in the back seat, then we went to Janet's place. She did a really good job setting up for the party, and I'm glad I went, especially since I missed it last year. It was a pirate themed party, and her decorations were super cute. She had two games that she wanted me to host for her, Pin the Treasure Chest on the Map, and a Treasure Hunt, which the kids had fun with. It was pretty chaotic though, and I don't really fit in well with her group of friends....so it was a little awkward some of the time. After 2 hours there I was ready to leave, so she drove me home and I spent the rest of my evening watching a movie with Mommy and Daddy. :-) And now I have today off, with nothing in particular that I need to do....so yay for relaxing! I'll probably do some more cruise research, maybe some scrapbooking, and of course watch a movie with the parents. :-) Current Mood: relaxed (Comment on this)
Saturday, August 20th, 2011
6:22 pm	Barely any time to breathe... I've got so much going on this semester, it's almost too much to handle. I think I can do it though....it'll just force me to manage my time a little better, which is never a bad thing. :-) So of course I've got work, which is 40 hours a week, but totally worth it. :-) I absolutely love my job and all the people and children that I work with....there's never a day that I wake up in the morning not wanting to go in. Of course it gets a bit stressful and exhausting at times, but that's expected in any full-time job, and I wouldn't trade mine for anything else right now. I just love what I do every day. :-) In addition to work, I've got Rep stuff. I know at some point I'm going to have to give this up, but I'm going to stick to it as long as I possibly can. It's my only real connection to Disney at the moment, and I do it because I love it. I'm sad that I won't be able to participate in some of my favorite on-campus activities (like info tables), but it gives me incentive to think outside the box and figure out other ways to promote the program in my free time. As long as I can earn enough points to stay on as a rep (and maintain my Disney benefits), I'll be good. It's going to be hard not seeing the other reps as much this term though, they're my little AZ Disney family and one of the reasons I love being a rep so much. In order to continue as a Campus Rep, I am supposed to be a student enrolled at GCC, so I looked into some 0.5 credit classes that I may be able to take for fun, and I signed up for ballroom dancing. :-) It's every Saturday (today-December) from 11:00-11:55 am. I wasn't too sure if I could pull it off at first, but I decided to sign up and go to the first class to see if it would be managable with everything else I have going on. I went today and had a blast, and it doesn't seem like it'll be a problem for me to miss a couple of classes if necessary. So looks like I'm sticking with it! Yay! What reasons would I have to miss class, you ask? Well, for starters, the GenLife Women's Retreat in Prescott is coming up in 3 weeks, September 9-11. I haven't requested the time off at work yet, and I haven't paid for the retreat, but I am signed up for it, and I would like to go. I just don't know if it would really be the best idea, since I have class the morning of the 10th and the Campus Rep dinner the evening of the 11th. The retreat ends early in the day on the 11th, but there are no guarantees that I'd be back and ready in time for the Rep Dinner. Then I've got David and Tiffani's wedding on Saturday, October 1st. The wedding itself doesn't start till 4:00 in the afternoon, but I don't know how hair/nail/make-up appointments are working out yet. I'm still going to try to go to the class that day, but if it gets too complicated I may have to skip it. Last but not least, I'm going to be on a Disney cruise on Saturday, December 3rd. Definitely can't make it to that class. The cruise is pretty much set in stone now....my mom bought the plane tickets to LA and everything. I have yet to pay her for my part, but that won't be a problem; I've got the money saved up. I applied for my passport earlier this week, and it's processing right now. :-) We're all getting really excited for the cruise, and I'm already planning out my packing list lol. I've been working on the bridal showers and they're both coming together pretty well...I just hope the decorations for the So Cal shower work out the way I'm imagining. I still have to decide exactly which games we'll be playing and stuff, but I have a decent list to choose from so I've got a pretty good start. I can't believe the showers are only 2 weeks away! This wedding is coming up so quickly! David and Tiff are definitely stressing about it, but I'm sure it'll all work out for the best. On top of all that, I've got a ton of special events coming up for work, church, rep stuff, etc. Pretty much something happening every weekend now through mid-October. And then add in birthdays, holidays, and trips....this is going to be just about the busiest semester of my life. Well anyway, the grandparents are visiting this weekend, and I think we're getting ready to go out for dinner....so ttfn! Current Mood: busy, but excited (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
9:25 pm	Planning, planning, planning! So I have been given the wonderful task of preparing two separate bridal showers for Tiffani....one big shower for close friends and family (42 people are invited), and a smaller shower at the church. Not exactly sure how to plan for the first one....I've never been to one with more than 20 people before lol. Still waiting to see how many will actually RSVP for it....hopefully it will be manageable. We decided to have it at Tiffani's parents' house, since that seems to be the most central location available. Still have a lot to figure out for that one. The church shower seems to be coming together nicely though....I decided to do a Southern California theme (that's where they're going for their honeymoon), and I'm gonna ask the guests to dress like tourists. :-) It's still a work in progress, but I have all kinds of fun ideas that I'm trying to put together. It's going to be a lot of work, but I've got time (and a bit of prior experience) so it should be fun. :-D On a totally different note....we're going on a Disney Cruise the week after Thanksgiving! My mom has a travel agent appreciation deal coming up where we can go for about $400 each. :-D It's a 7-night Mexican Riviera Cruise on the Disney Wonder, and I'm soooo excited. Probably a little too excited, to be honest lol. It's not officially official yet, but I just got the time off approved today, and my mom has it booked already....so all I have to do is get a passport and pay my parents for my part....and I'm all set to go! I kinda had my heart set on bringing a buddy along originally, but now I'm at the point where I know I'll have a blast regardless. A buddy would just be a nice bonus. :-) I did all kinds of DCL research the other day and can't wait to check out everything they have to offer! There's still a lot more planning to do, but I'm sure I'll work on it just about every day till the time arrives. :-) Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011
8:43 pm	First Day of School (And Last Day of Summer Vacation)! Today was the start of the new school year at MOS, and it was really quite exciting. Monday and Tuesday were teacher prep days to get everything ready, and we had a staff meeting on Monday to discuss everything about the new school year. We got our event calendars, and I'm pretty excited for all the things we have planned throughout the year. :-) We got the room all set up on Monday, and it looks fantastic! We got all kinds of new "works" for the kids...sound puzzles, gold nugget counting, search and finds...the kids coundn't wait to check out all the cool stuff today. And it's nice to have some familiar faces back that were gone for the summer, plus a few new kids (and all the regulars, of course). :-) Since we finished up everything on Monday, I decided not to go in yesterday so I could have one final free day of summer vacation. I really wanted something fun to do, but all my friends work during the day. Angelica was supposed to work at Coco's till that afternoon, but she sliced her hand open while doing the dishes the night before, and she figured it would be best not to work with food with an open wound, so she got someone to cover her shift. It took us a bit of brainstorming to decide what to do with our day, but finally we decided to go to AZ Mills to shop and check out the Sea Life Aquarium. My mom sells tickets for $13.50 at her work, so we picked those up on the way out. I was actually pretty impressed with the aquarium!I liked it better than the one at the Wildlife World Zoo, because it had all kinds of interactive exhibits and what not. There were trivia spots all throughout where you had to search for the answers, and there was a scavenger hunt to see if you could find all the different types of sharks as you walked through. And there were a ton of spots where you could "take a peek" from the inside of the tanks and see the fish swimming all around you. It was a lot of fun, and we had a great time. :-) After we finished with the aquarium, we walked around the mall and I bought a pet duck balloon, which I named Quackers, and he followed me around the rest of the day lol. We finished up at the mall and decided to stop at MacAlpine's Soda Shoppe & Restaurant (and Vintage Clothing and Furniture Store) in Downtown Phoenix on our way home. It was such a cute little place! It originally opened in 1929 (before Downtown Phoenix was Downtown Phoenix), and it's been there ever since. It's one of those places that you'd never think to stop at though, because it doesn't look like anything too special from the outside. I'm glad we went though, it made for a fun and unique day. :-) After we finished up there we went to Angelica's, where we met up with Amy and played her new Just Dance Broadway game, which was pretty awesome. Overall, it was just what I requested, an adventurous and fun last day of summer vacation. :-) Current Mood: happy (1 Comment |Comment on this)