"Ooooh we're halfway there!!...

Ooooh livin' on a prayer!"

Ok... now that I've gotten that out of my system :) ... The last two weeks since my last post remained gloriously busy! My parents came in town to help celebrate another year of my life on this earth and we really had a great time! We were able to head down to Disney World for the weekend and enjoy some beautiful spring weather in all the parks. Mom & Dad even braved some of the "scarier" rides with me... I was so proud ;) And we may have snapped some pictures with a character or two, because you're never too old for that! I'm really so glad they were able to come into town - they made my birthday week so much fun!

I was really truly spoiled all week. First of all, my co-workers are ridiculously awesomely sweet and, despite my best efforts to prevent them from doing so, they totally decked out my cubicle and showered me with love. Even some of my Florida Gator loving co-workers got their hands dirty with hanging purple & gold balloons for me. It was shockingly sweet ;) Then, later that evening when I got home from work, an awesome & delicious Edible Arrangement from a very sweet husband of mine was waiting for me! Also, this past weekend, as a part of an extended celebration, my favorite fellow Navy wives surprised me with an outing to "Yes You Canvas" here in Jax where we painted, sipped some wine, ate some snacks, & learned that despite what the instructor may tell you, the fine detail brush causes fewer headaches than the angled brush ;)

I'm truly blessed to have such wonderful people in my life and I'm looking forward to all the things I have going on in the weeks to come!

Disney & Diving

Last weekend we finally took advantage of the Disney World passes that were so generously given to me at work a few months back. We purposefully waited for the weather around here to cool down to use them, and we couldn't have picked a more perfect weekend - the weather was soooo nice! After Sayre's Warfare pinning, we went and ran some errands (mostly to stock up on uniform items for him) and then drove on down to Orlando and arrived just in time to spend the evening in Epcot to enjoy the beautiful Christmas lights.

Before setting out on our Disney adventure, we new it was going to be epic :) We planned to squeeze in all 4 of the Disney parks in just one weekend! Anyway, on Saturday we woke up early to get to the Animal Kingdom before it opened to be sure we were able to ride our favorite ride, the Expedition Everest, and we were so glad we did because we got to ride it 3 times :) We hung around there all morning, left the park to grab lunch, & then spent the rest of the afternoon in the Magic Kingdom. It was soooo much more crowded there than we anticipated, but we still had a lot of fun and actually got to see them filming some concerts for the Disney Christmas Day parade, so that was pretty neat. On Sunday we spent the morning at MGM (or Hollywood Studios as it's known now - although I'll probably always call it MGM) riding our favorite rides there, taking pictures with characters, and eating some yummy treats.

We left MGM around lunch time and headed out to our last adventure for the weekend: Indoor Skydiving! Yep... that's right! It was sort of a spur-of-the-moment decision, but we're so glad we did it! We had an absolute blast and would highly recommend it to anyone :) It's like skydiving without any of the real risks - you're just basically in a giant wind tunnel floating around. Overall, it was a fantastic & very memorable weekend and a great way to begin the holiday celebrations!

Here comes Santa Clause

Time seems to be flyyyyyying by these days! I can't believe that Christmas is just 2 weeks away! Yaaaaaay!! Sayre and I have been getting into the Christmas spirit recently with a few fun activities. Last Thursday night we went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas concert. It was sooo awesome! Their stage is an amazing array of lights, moving parts, and lasers... combine that with their rockin' renditions of classic Christmas songs and you're in store for a very memorable evening! We had a great time!


To top off last weekend, we made another trip to Disney World to make use of the last few days on our military passes before they expire at the end of the month. Once again, we had an amazing time, despite a little bit of rainy weather. This time we went to MGM Studios (now referred to as Holywood Studios) on Saturday which included the Rockin' Roller Coaster, the Tower of Terror, and Lights Motors Action Show to name a few. That night we went to the Magic Kingdom to see all of the pretty Christmas lights as well as the fireworks display. We were also thrilled to get the chance to ride the newly refurbished Space Mountain while we waited to see the fireworks! On Sunday we went to the Animal Kingdom. The main attraction there, and our absolute favorite ride: Expedition Everest! Also, before leaving, we tried out the Rapids ride even though we knew were going to get soaked... and we did! It's ok though because we were about to leave to drive back to Jacksonville and we had a change of clothes in the car. Overall, it was another great weekend!

Now we're eagerly awaiting the start of the Army/Navy game! Sayre invited a few guys from his ship over to watch it, so it should be a good time. Go Navy!!

Click here to see some more of our Disney trip pictures.

Disney World!!!

As I mentioned in the last post, over the weekend Sayre and I went to Disney World and oh what a bast we had! We drove down to Orlando on Friday night after another one of Sayre's ship's Hail & Farewell parties, got a good night's sleep, & then woke up bright and early to begin our adventures in the Magic Kingdom. The park didn't open until 9am, but we got there at 8am to be the first ones in line. Somehow or another (I won't reveal our secrets here ;) ) we managed to actually get into the park before it opened to the general public, so we got some great pictures of the castle & various places without anyone else in them! The rides themselves didn't open up until 9, but that was perfectly fine because we were still the very first ones on Splash Mountain... and when I say "the very first ones," I do indeed mean the very first ones. That's both a blessing and a curse because... well... you see... we got soaked. Lesson learned: even if they tell you to ride in the first row, ask them if you can sit in the back! Regardless, it was still awesomely fun and we eventually dried off.

Unbeknown to us, we picked the perfect weekend to go to Disney World. The crowds were almost non-existent. In all my past Disney experiences, it was just expected that for most rides you'd have to wait at least 30 minutes or so in line to ride a ride (and even that was pretty short!); however, this weekend, we were able to literally hop off and hop right back on to most rides. I was dumbfounded. Case-in-point: we rode Thunder Mountain four times in a row. It took us longer to wind through the path up to the ride than it actually did to get on the ride. Now, granted, as it got later in the day the crowds did pick up a little bit and Fantasy Land in the Magic Kingdom was probably the most crowded area (that's the best place for mammas & daddies to take the little ones), but it still wasn't bad at all! We had sooo much fun!! Usually, because you spend most of your day just standing around in lines, you're able to stay in the park late into the evening without being too tired... well, since we spent all day hopping on & off rides time & time again, by around 4pm we were utterly exhausted! Although we would have liked to have seen the fireworks that night, we decided to conserve our energy for the next day, so we left around 5 and headed over to the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney for dinner. Yum!

On Sunday we decided to go to Epcot before heading back to Jacksonville in the afternoon. Once again, we arrived at the park at 8am even though it didn't open until 9am hoping that we could get in early like we had done in the Magic Kingdom the day before. Unfortunately, that didn't work out so well for us, but we were still happy to be there bright & early & first in line to get in! Once again, there weren't any waits for the rides... I felt like I was living in the twighlight zone! It was fantastic! We rode the Test Track 3 times in a row before deciding that we should probably move on to other things since we were planning to leave the park around 2. When talking with some of the Disney workers during the day, they told us why they thought the parks were so empty this particular weekend: it was the weekend right after the Epcot Food & Wine Festival ended and it was also the weekend right before the crazy Thanksgiving crowds were going to show up. Bingo! That made a lot of sense to us! Anyway, Epcot proved to be tons of fun as well! We were sad to leave, but we're hoping to go one more weekend before Christmas (and after Thanksgiving) before our nice little military discounted tickets expire. We were told that they're not going to renew the offer next year, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it isn't true. We'll just have to see!

Click here to see more of our pictures & videos from the weekend.