Our blog begins a week before our departure to sunny Lake Buena Vista, Florida, so don't put on your sunglasses just yet!
I have been wanting to paint our guest bathroom for a while, and I finally did it. The Purdue bathroom is now bright yellow and has new towel bars as well. It still needs a little bit of a touch-up, but for the most part it looks pretty good!
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| The yellow guest bathroom |
On Saturday, April 21, Bob and Sheila came up for a visit. They arrived in the mid-afternoon, after a day filled with tornado relief efforts with a group from their church. After they got here, we went downtown to attend an Indiana Pacers basketball game. It was "Family Night" at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and our ticket prices included admission to the game, a hot dog, a bag of chips, pop, and a t-shirt. The game was close the whole time, although the Pacers only led the Sixers once during the game. The game ended up going into overtime but unfortunately, we lost in the end. However, if you follow the NBA, you would know that the Pacers are currently in the playoffs and have won their series against both the Sixers and the Magic. On to the next challengers!
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| After the Pacers game |
After the game, we came back to the house and ate dessert. I had made a red velvet cheesecake as well as a gluten-free Boston Creme Pie. The cheesecake was very heavy and unfortunately, lacked the flavor that I was going for. The Boston Creme Pie was very good, though!
The next day, we went to church and then picked up Chipotle for lunch. Matt wanted to look at internet routers at Best Buy (ours only seemed to be functioning about half the time) so he and his dad went there while Sheila and I took a short trip to the Old Time Pottery store. Old Time Pottery is basically a wholesale discount store on drugs (think Big Lots, but more beefed up). Sheila was able to find some artificial flowers for some planters at their house and I got a spring-themed flag for the front of our house.
We had a nice visit with Matt's parents and it was good to see them!
The next week was full with anticipation for our big Disney trip. I swear, my days at work dragged and dragged and dragged leading up to it!
On Sunday, April 29, my dad was kind enough to pick us up and take us to the airport bright and early. He also was able to get Thor and take him back to the Seitz house so that he and Mom could take care of him while we were gone. Our flight left at 8:00 am, we had a layover in Atlanta, and we arrived in Orlando at about 1 pm. After our arrival, we headed to the Disney Magical Express terminal where we were taken by bus to our hotel on the Disney property. A nice service that the DME provides is that someone picked up our bags from the baggage claim and delivered them right to our room a couple hours later!
We stayed in the All-Star Sports Hotel. It was quite busy when we arrived because apparently there had been a cheerleading competition that weekend. It was a little loud the first night with all the cheerleaders running back and forth to each others' rooms, but a lot of them must of left on Monday morning because it was a lot more quiet after that!
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| When we booked our trip, we indicated that our vacation was to celebrate our upcoming 2nd anniversary and my 24th birthday. We got special buttons and the check-in cast member (what Disney calls its employees) even gave us this cool picture frame! |
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| The building that we stayed in--"Touchdown Hotel" |
We had planned to go to the Disney Marketplace for dinner on Sunday night but we both fell asleep pretty quickly after arriving to our hotel. We ended up taking a nap and then just eating at our hotel's food court. They had a pretty good selection and Matt fell in love with their pizza.
On Monday, we started our day at the Animal Kingdom park. We loved riding the roller coaster "Expedition:Everest" and the ride wasn't busy at all so we were able go two times in a row! One of the big thrills of the ride is that the track switches a couple times...it starts out going forwards, then you travel backwards (in the dark!), and then forwards again! Another draw of the ride is a big animatronic Yeti that "attacks" the car at the end. We also enjoyed Kilimanjaro Safaris, where we saw lots of animals including lions, wildebeast, flamingos, hippos, rhinos, giraffes, and elephants!
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| Matt in front of a dinosaur statue outside of the ride "Dinosaur" |
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| You can see one of our favorite rides, "Expedition:Everest" behind us |
After Animal Kingdom, we got on a bus to Hollywood Studios. We had a dinner reservation for the Sci-Fi Drive-In Theater restaurant. At the restaurant, you sit at tables situated in vintage "cars." There are twinkling lights above you in the dimly-lit restaurant and you watch previews and short films from the 50s. Most are old sci-fi movies featuring crazy creatures like giant lizard men and cat-women from outer space.
After our meal, we were able to ride a couple rides before heading over to the big outdoor theater at the front of the park, where we watched the show "Fantasmic." The show takes place on a big mountain-themed stage surrounded by water and the premise is that Mickey Mouse has a crazy imagination and he lets his imagination run so wild that Disney villains enter his dreams and threaten him. The show uses a lot of fireworks, as well as clips from different Disney movies projected onto screens made of water. It is a bit hard to describe, but the show is really cool! If you click this link and then click the box that says "video," you will see clips from the show. http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/hollywood-studios/entertainment/fantasmic/
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| The Tower of Terror ride at night, after the Fantasmic show |
On Tuesday, we went back to Hollywood Studios and ended up spending the whole day there. We had both ridden Tower of Terror before, but we had forgotten how fun it is! Other highlights included Toy Story Mania (an interactive arcade game), Rockin' Roller Coaster, and Star Wars.
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| We ate dinner at the Pizza Planet restaurant |
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| We met Phineas and Ferb! |
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| Posing with Lightning McQueen and Mater from "Cars" |
On Wednesday (our last day in the parks), we started the day at the Magic Kingdom. The first attraction we went to was the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor, which is an interactive show. The premise is that the monsters from the movie Monster's Inc. used to use human screams to power their city, but after finding out that laughter is more powerful than screams, they are trying to collect laughs instead. They have set up a comedy club and all the humans were invited so they we could help power their city. While waiting in line, they invited us to text jokes to the phone number given for the opportunity to have them used in the show. It was amazing to see how the "monsters" on the video screens interacted with everyone. They could ask questions and talk to specific people and the people would appear on special screens next to the stage. Matt happened to wearing a red and white striped shirt that day and he ended up appearing on the screen, with the monster saying that he "found Waldo!" Also, they used a joke that I had texted in the show. My joke was:
-"Why were the kids not allowed to see the pirate movie?"
-"Because it was rated ARRRRRR!"
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| In front of Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom |
After the Magic Kingdom, we went to the EPCOT park. We were able to get a few rides in (including Mission:Space, a realistic space flight training simulator) before dinner at the Coral Reef Restaurant. One whole wall of the restaurant is a huge fish tank and we enjoyed watching the fish as we ate dinner.
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| Matt about to go through space flight training on "Mission: Space" |
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| EPCOT at night...so pretty! |
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and we headed home on Thursday. Our flight was scheduled to leave Orlando at 9:50 am and the Disney Magical Express bus picked us up at 7 am. We arrived home around 3 pm and Dad picked us up and brought Thor with him. Thanks again for the ride, Dad, and thanks again for watching Thor for us!
When we got home, I was looking forward to running the Mini Marathon (13.1 miles) on Saturday, May 5. Unfortunately, I began experiencing sharp pain in my left chest whenever I took a deep breath after we arrived home. I was hoping that it would go away by race day, but on Saturday as I was driving downtown for the race, I realized that it was probably not a good idea to run. The pain was still there and pretty severe when I breathed too deep, and the temperature and humidity were supposed to be exceptionally high that day. I decided to use my better judgment and sit out of the race.
However, Dad and Eric both ran, finished, and did great! It was Eric's first half marathon and despite the less than optimal conditions, he did very well. Congrats!
Happy birthday to Dad and cousin Amy on May 8!
Here is a video that we took in Epcot, outside of the Finding Nemo ride. We just loved the seagulls!
Love,
Stacey, Matt, and Thor
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