Max's 7th Birthday Party: Start Your Engines!

For this years theme, Max had chosen Mario Kart for his 7th birthday party. We had just had a pool put in a few months ago, so we wanted to have a pool party. So it was a Mario Kart/pool party. We had swimming, set up 2 Nintendo Switches with Mario Kart in the family room, remote control race cars, and a hot wheels track to entertain the kids. We also had someone make a spiny blue shell pinata. 

The very cool blue shell pinata!

Goody "item boxes". Each had a star cookie, video game eraser, and a Mario bookmark. 

My Running Story...

I've gotten away from my blog, but I have recently been inspired to write another blog post. I have been listening to a lot of podcasts lately. Some of these are about running and it has gotten me thinking about how I got into this sport and it made me want to write about my running story. 

A little background on me. When I was around 8 or 9 years old I was diagnosed with asthma, this lasted through my teens and then thankfully disappeared. I was never a "sporty" girl, but for some reason in my sophomore year of high school I decided to try out for the field hockey team. (This from a girl who had never played any sports, let alone even held a field hockey stick!?) I by some miracle made the junior varsity team and this is where I met my best friend Chrissy (with whom 20 years later we would run our first half marathon together). Chrissy and I bonded quickly through our lack of talents on the field and our lack of running abilities! Part of our practices was running. My asthma was partly induced by exercise, so I was a lot slower than the rest of the team. Chrissy would always stay back with me during our runs. Field hockey didn't last for us past that season, but our friendship did. This was my first experience with running and I did not enjoy it. 

Fast forward to my college years. During college I majored in Sociology in 2002 with a concentration in Criminal Justice. Again just like field hockey, I out of the blue with no experience or background interest in it decided I wanted to get into the police force and eventually become a detective. (This coming from barely 5'1 me who had never held or been near a gun in her life, and was probably spooked by her own shadow!?) So just like field hockey, part of getting into the police academy was passing a physical agility test that included yup running. I had to run a mile and half in something around 14-15 minutes I think? One thing about me is when I am determined to accomplish something I put in every effort to achieve that goal. I knew I was not a strong runner and even though I didn't have asthma anymore, I was still scared whenever my breathing started to get out of control. But I was determined, so I started jogging on a regular basis. I went in to complete my test and passed every part, except the running. I think I missed it by a few seconds. But I was still determined and went back out practiced more and retook it and passed the second time. I did end up getting accepted into a local police academy, but somehow some sense got knocked into me and I no longer wanted to be a cop, I had a new adventure ahead of me... I was moving to Florida. Although the law enforcement dream did not stick, this time running did. During my training for that mile and half run, I had proved to myself that I could overcome my fears and I found out that hey this running this isn't actually half bad, but my true love for it didn't really grow until many years later. 

In September of 2003 I moved to Florida. I ran a little bit here and there, but never on any sort of regular basis. In 2007 I moved in with my now husband and we lived around the corner from a park that had a decent running path. I picked running back up on a more regular basis, but was only running distances from 1-3 miles at this point. As I became a little more confident in my running over the years, I decided to sign up for my first 5k. In January 2010 I ran the Walt Disney World Up & Away Family Fun Run 5k with my husband. I don't know what my time was, but I think it was around 45 minutes or so. Later that year I became pregnant. I ran a little bit through the beginning of my pregnancy, but not too much towards the end. After I had Max in August of 2011 I started to slowly get back into running. I even bought a jogging stroller to bring Max with me on my runs! Yeah, have you ever tried running with a jogging stroller?! I have so much respect and admiration for anyone who can do that! In 2012 I started to run more frequently. Chrissy had also joined me at this time, it was a good way to see each other more and exercise at the same time. The more I ran the more confident I became and on March 19, 2013 I announced (aka posted to Facebook!) that I was setting a goal of running a half marathon. Chrissy decided to join me on this adventure. So the 2 girls who could barely run a mile in our field hockey days were going to accomplish something their 15 year old selves would have never believed they could do! Up until this point I hadn't run more than 4 miles. Thanks to my posting on Facebook I can look back and see that where I had posted in July of 2013 that I ran 5 miles and in October 7.5 miles. In February of 2014 Chrissy and I registered to run the Wine and Dine Half Marathon at Disney World in that upcoming November. I wrote a blog post recapping my first half marathon here. 

After running this half marathon I was officially hooked! It is hard to believe that it was 12 years from when I first started running training for the police academy in 2002 to running a half marathon in 2014. I sometimes beat myself up for how slowly I have come and think about how much farther along I could be. But then I think back at how much I have accomplished in the past 4 years. Since then I have run 6 half marathons, shaving an hour and 3 minutes off my time. 18 5k's (I have even placed within my age group!), 3 10k's, a 10 miler and a full marathon. I have 2 more half marathons scheduled for this November and am planning on running another full within the year or so. This sport has taught me so much about myself and my determination and what I can accomplish if I just put my mind to it... you just need to believe.

Trails End @ Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort

A few days ago I finally got to try out a Chef TJ meal at Fort Wilderness's Trails End. Chef TJ is one of the Chefs at Trails End. He prepares the meals for guests with allergies at Trails End and also at The Hoop Dee Doo Revue next door. Trails End is a buffet style restaurant that serves Southern style comfort food in a lodge like setting. Vegans and/or people with food allergies would have a difficult time eating right off the buffet here. I am a vegetarian, but follow several Disney vegan blogs and pages because my son has a dairy allergy. I first read about Chef TJ in the Veg Disney Facebook group. He has been a celebrity amongst the vegan community for many years with his elaborate and delicious food creations. I have been dying to try his food for years but alas, I have no vegan friends (or vegetarian friends for that matter). I would have brought my son, because he actually is a pretty adventurous eater for a 6 year old, but the meal can last around 2 hours and that is pushing it for a 6 year old who gets bored easily. A few months ago, we found out my husband has a gluten intolerance and can no longer eat gluten. Since eating from a buffet opens up cross contamination risks with gluten the chef will bring out the food that is served on the buffet straight from the kitchen. So my husband agreed to try it out with me and off we went for our reservation a few days after Christmas. 

When you get to Fort Wilderness you have to park up front and then either take an internal bus to Pioneer Hall where the restaurants are which is at the other side of the resort or walk the approximate mile. Since it was a nice night (and we knew we would be eating a ton!) we decided to walk. 

Once we got there they surprisingly took us 20 minutes before our reservation, which I was surprised since it was Christmas week. But then again we were just at a resort and not one of the parks. 

When I made the reservation I noted our food allergies and they did confirm this when we checked in. Our server said he would send Chef TJ over to our table. Sadly I forgot to take a picture with TJ, but I felt like I was meeting a celebrity! He was super nice and always likes to walk his guests around the buffet to show them the options. As a vegetarian there would have been several options, but I really wanted his full vegan creation. I told him I would prefer if he made mine from the kitchen and added that I am not a fan of mushrooms and he was happy to accommodate. 

The first meal he brought out was a salad for my husband. If I wanted I could have gotten a salad from the buffet while waiting, but I opted to save room for the 4-5 course meal coming my way! Chef TJ dropped his salad off and we were both surprised to see it was topped with cheetos?! My husband who is not a fan of cheetos was actually pleasantly surprised that it did add flavor to his salad.

Shortly after I received my first meal, Chef TJ's famous samosas. I still have no idea what was inside them, but they were so delicious! I would go back for these alone! I think it was some sort of BBQ sauce that was drizzled on top. The inside did have a little spice kick to them as well which I do enjoy.

My next meal/appetizer were vegan nachos. The "cheese" sauce was actually quite tasty and again I have no idea what other sauce was on them. I am bad at identifying food! I brought home more than half of these and my son ate them the next day. Even cold and soggy he sad they were super yummy.

Chef TJ then brought out my husbands main course:

Basically every meat on the buffet was piled on his plate on top of corn, mashed potatoes, baked beans and roasted potatoes! (I was bummed my picture came out blurry, but you get the point)

I was expecting my main course when he came out with a soup dish. Again I really wish I had asked what any of these dishes were, but he was so busy I didn't want to take up any more of his time! The soup was creamy and smooth. It may have had a hint of ginger to it? I'm not usually a soup person, but I would eat this again in a heart beat!

 I finally got to my forth and main dish. 

I love tofu and this was cooked just how I like it. Soft in the middle and crispy on the outside. There was a red pepper, tomato and some other green vegetable? on top of a mix of rice I believe and some other stuff that I had no idea what it was? Wow I am really terrible at this! Around the outside with the tofu were zucchini and yellow squash. I was so full, but still ate a pretty decent portion because it was that good!

Lastly came the dessert portion.

When he brought these to the table he drizzled Hershey's Syrup over top of the desserts. Mine was cotton candy, mini ice cream sandwiches, I believe tofutti ice cream, strawberries, bananas and at the bottom of the mug was a candied apple! Instead of the ice cream sandwiches my husbands had gluten free cookies in his.

Chef TJ definitely makes sure you get your moneys worth out of the buffet! We gladly walked back to the car and even got to look at the many lights and decorations that people go all out with around the resort. 

Max's 6th Birthday Party: I Am One With The Force... Star Wars Party

Max had decided early on that he wanted a Star Wars theme for his 6th birthday party. Since we are all Star Wars fans in this family, I knew this would be a big one. So needless to say the party planning started much earlier this year... like 5 months earlier! 

I wanted to create a theme for each room that revolved around each movie. For A New Hope I wanted to turn our dining room into Mos Eisley Cantina, complete with the Cantina band music playing in the background.

Disney Fantasy 7 Day Eastern Caribbean Cruise: Day 5

Day 5: St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

Wednesday: Sept 14, 2016
Evening Attire: Cruise Casual
Restaurant: Animators Palate 
Stage Show: The Ventriloquism and Comedy of Lynn Trefzger

Today was another port day, but unlike the day before we didn't have any excursions planned. We decided to just make it a casual day. The ship was actually pulling into port during my run that morning, so I stopped to take a few pictures .

Disney Fantasy 7 Day Eastern Caribbean Cruise: Day 4

Day 4: Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Tuesday: Sept 13, 2016
Evening Attire: Pirate/Cruise Casual
Restaurant: Royal Palace
Stage Show: The Magic & Illusion of Shawn Farquhar

This day was a super busy, but very fun day. Our first port stop was Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The kids weren't too interested in getting off the ship so we decided to make this port day an adult only adventure. The great thing about Disney is they do allow you to leave your kids on the ship in the kids club at the ports if you choose. I was a little nervous about it, but it made me feel better that he would be with our friends three sons, the security they have in place, and the staff had been great with him the past few days. 

The port at Tortola

We chose the Tour to Virgin Gorda Port Adventure. When we got off the ship in Tortola we boarded an open air boat and cruised along the Sir Francis Drake Channel for about 30-40 minutes to Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda. 

Disney Fantasy 7 day Eastern Caribbean Cruise: Day 3

Day 3: At Sea

Monday: Sept 12, 2016
Evening Attire: Halloween/Cruise Casual
Restaurant: Enchanted Garden
Stage Show: Wishes

Our third day was another day at sea. We had a pretty laid back day. We started off the morning hanging out at the pool and grabbing a quick lunch by the pool at Flo's Cafe. Flo's Cafe has 3 quick service stations that include pizza, burgers, salads, chicken and sandwiches. My son pretty much lived on pizza and french fries during this trip!

In the afternoon we walked around the ship to take in some exploring and played the Midship Detective Agency game. This is a ship wide interactive mystery scavenger hunt game. You are given a detective badge that interacts with hanging pictures throughout the ship that will reveal clues to help you solve your mystery and send you to your next location on the ship. (Be prepared for A LOT of walking!)