Giveaways Galore

Hey!

Lately, while I have downtime at work or at night, I have been following different blogs and Facebook pages that do neat giveaways. I just wanted to share those with you because they're pretty neat sometimes :)

They are really easy to enter, and I've actually won THREE times now.  All I had to do was like something on Facebook, tweet something on Twitter, or pin something on Pinterest. It's super easy! Although, I'm considering getting a separate Twitter because I don't want to bug followers with giveaway tweets they don't care about...

Anyway, these are the things I've won:

Back in November, I had re-tweeted something about a giveaway from Nylabone- a dog toy company that makes some of the only toys Elwood can't destroy. I was chosen at random as the winner and they sent me $200 worth of toys and treats!

Last month, I won a dress from Twelve Saturdays. All I did was repin a dress they were giving away one time (that they had originally pinned), and I was randomly selected as the winner of it.  It's gold, too, so it's perfect for gamedays! I actually wore it to the season opener.  Twelve Saturdays specializes in cute gameday wear (dresses, skirts, etc.). I just ordered another dress from her- check them out! ;)

Dress I won!

Dress I bought!

Last week, I entered a giveaway held by The Gameday Girls.  They are a Facebook page/shop I follow that sells cute gameday necklaces, bracelets, koozies, etc. 

They had a giveaway on their blog run by a widget called "Rafflecopter."  This widget has a list of different ways you can enter the giveaway, and each thing you do is worth one or more entries.  For example, if you tweet something you get an entry. If you follow them on Facebook you get an entry.  If you follow their blog you can two entries... and so on and so forth.

I was lucky enough to once again be randomly selected as the winner! I won custom pearl studs that will have a purple paw print and purple and gold polka dots, a "pearl and ribbon necklace" that will have purple ribbon and a gold flower, and a koozie.

    

I got the pink koozie

Example of earrings I'll have

 

Example of necklace I'll have

I also follow a blog/Twitter account --The College Prepster-- that has a different giveaway starting every Saturday and ending the following Friday.  I haven't been fortunate enough to win anything from her yet, but I hope to because she always has awesome stuff.

Another blog with giveaways is Chicago Prepster.  I just started following her so I'm not sure exactly how often the giveaways are, but the two I've seen so far are pretty cool. She also has a Facebook page.

Mary Beth Goodwin Design is a Facebook page/blog/Etsy shop that has cute graphics.  You can buy them in her Etsy shop, but she also has a few Freebies right now.  To get the freebies, follow this link and the directions given.

Also, she told me an has announced that anyone in the areas affected by Hurricane Isaac can get a FREE monogram poster made with the letters and color of your choice. Just message her on Facebook STARTING TOMORROW and tell her that you heard about it and would love one! She will make you one and e-mail it to you.  She said that you don't have to like her om Facebook or anything, so don't do that if you don't want.

There are also some other giveaways I enter that I just see at random on Facebook... but I can't even remember which ones they are haha.

xoxo,

E

Florida Vacation - May 2012

I know I promised this entry a couple of weeks ago, but there were some hold ups. But, alas, here it is! )More pictures will soon be on Facebook, too.)

At the end of May, Clay and I took a road trip through Florida. We went to three main places: Siesta Key, Key West, and Orlando. ALL of them were wonderful!

We had never heard of Siesta Key before, but Clay was doing some research when we were planning our trip and came across it in an article as the U.S.'s #1 beach.  He had read that once you go to the beach there, you don't want to go to any other beach. Turns out, it's totally true.

That was our first stop. We got there right before sunset, so we walked over to the beach after checking in and it was BEAUTIFUL. The sand was powder. The sunset was gorgeous. The crowd was perfect.

Our room was pretty awesome, too. It was a decent price, just a very short walk to the beach, and very clean.  It reminded me of my grandparents' beach house they had in Destin. It had its own little mini kitchen and dining area, and it was just so cute. Pictures don't do it justice, but it gives you the idea!

              

We spent a couple of days there. It's a little town, so we walked everywhere. It wasn't cluttered with tourist beach shops or anything either, so that was neat. They have some good food there, too. I would definitely go back.

On one of our beach days, we rented a kayak and went along the coast for a total of about 2 miles.  We saw some of the really nice houses we couldn't see from the road.  Before we went out on the kayak, we saw a ton of dolphins that weren't too far out, but they had already gone when we headed over there.

Our next destination was Key West, but on the way there we rode through the Everglades. We stopped at Shark's Point (I think that was the name) and did a 15 mile bike ride. There were gators everywhere. Literally. On the side of the road, crossing the road, in the creeks... there was no barrier between us.  There was some pretty cool wildlife other than the gators too. The 15 mile bike ride thing definitely proved I'm way too out of shape to just randomly jump on a bike and ride forever.

       

After that, we made our way to Key West. We crossed all the many bridges between the islands at night.  They have deer crossing signs everywhere, even on the bridges, which took me by surprise. We actually almost hit one on the way out of Key West. Anyway, we stayed in a hotel called Pegasus on Duval Street. Duval Street is like the Bourbon Street of Key West, but it's way cleaner, nicer, and calmed down.

It was really nice staying in the middle of everything. We brought our bikes so we biked pretty much everywhere we could, unless we walked. We were really looking forward to trying this place called Peanut Butter 'n What?, but they had closed down... they make everything you can think of with peanut butter. We were pretty bummed about that. They had other places with pretty good food, though!

I hadn't really been on a rocky beach, so I was surprised when we went to the beach that it was as rocky/shelly as it was.  The beaches there are considered parks, so you have to pay to get into some of them.  Where we went was pretty nice, though.  We found a little cove made from a palm tree, so we just relaxed under there and enjoyed the day.

Public Beach

Park Beach

We went to the Southernmost Point... which really isn't the Southernmost point of the US, BTW. We didn't take a picture with the big buoy because there were a million obnoxious people in line to do it and we figured it wasn't worth it, so I just took a picture of it by itself.

On one of our days in Key West, we took a boat trip to the Dry Tortuga Islands. It has an old fort- Fort Jefferson- on it. It was overpriced and I'm not sure it was worth the money, but we had a nice time on the beach there. I think it would be more worth going if you actually chose the option to camp out there.

                                


At the fort, we walked around and saw a nurse shark, barracuda, and cool colored fish.

After Key West, our final destination was Orlando as we made our way back home.  We had gone to Disney in February and bought a 4-day park hopper. Well, we only used three days because Clay's Aunt Teresa who works there went with us one day so we just got in free. That remaining day didn't expire until September, so we took advantage of it. It was also Star Wars weekend, and Clay LOVES Star Wars.

It was a lot of fun. We chose to just stay in Hollywood Studios since that's where SW Weekend was taking place and we spent the least time there in February. They had a huge tent set up with special Star Wars merch, so we stocked up on t-shirts and stuff. They had amazing artists there doing awesome paintings. They had everything Star Wars you can imagine. We even got our first ornament- an R2-D2 head with Mickey ears.

I LOVE Disney and can't wait to go back! The annual Food & Wine Fest is in October, so we're going to go catch that for a day. Seriously, we're addicted to Disney World.

Anyway, we had a really nice time everywhere we went, and it was a nice way to start off the summer.
Stay tuned for an update about our new home! I promise it won't be too long from now!

xoxo,
E

Forgive me!

I thought that keeping up with this would come naturally, but I find that it slips to the back of my mind a lot... and for that I am sorry!

You would think that since I'm out of school for the summer that I'd have plenty of time to do this, call everyone, etc. Well, that couldn't be farther from the truth. I work almost double than what I did before, and I've been moving for the past two weeks.

Here's a few basic updates:

Clay and I went on vacation to Siesta Key, Key West, and Orlando in the end of May, and I still haven't even uploaded pictures from that! I'm uploading pictures and blogging about it this week- PROMISE!

Sunset in Siesta Key

On June 16, Niki (Clay's sis) had her beautiful baby boy- Stephen Alfred Bech II. He is absolutely precious and has more hair than I've ever seen on a baby. I wish we lived closer so we could see them more (as well as everyone in both of our families)!

A couple of weeks ago, Clay and I signed a lease and started moving into our new townhome. It's really cute and was just remodeled. and I'm going to have a lot of fun doing DIY stuff from Pinterest to decorate it!
I'll blog about that with pictures as well as things come together a little more.

More soon- for real this time!

xoxo,
E

Busy, busy, busy! And big news (for me)!

This past week was probably worse than finals week will be. I had two tests (not finals), three papers, three smaller papers, and a presentation. I'm EXHAUSTED!

Last weekend, before this Hell week began, Clay and I went hiking. Elwood came too! There is a place a little over an hour away from Baton Rouge called Tunica Hills. It has beautiful creeks and waterfalls. It was a lot of fun!

         

This past Wednesday was a nice break from everything I had going on this week.  Ms. Peggy (Clay's momma) invited me to go with her and Niki (Clay's sister) to the Viking Cooking School.  It's located on the pool level of the Hilton in Downtown Baton Rouge.  We didn't actually cook, but we learned how to cook a few things that we were served: Grilled tuna, grilled shrimp, and grilled drum fish.  Each one was different and SO delicious!

Last night, Clay, his roommate Stephen, and I went to see the midnight premiere of

the Avengers.

IT. WAS. AWESOME.

This weekend we are doing a beer tour in New Orleans with Clay's parents, his sister and brother-in-law, and my parents, Niki's baby shower, and JAZZ FEST!  I'm excited. Unfortunately, I will have to return to finals next week. But oh well, it'll be nice to relax before it.

Oh! And my big news! Actually, a lot of people already know. But here are the two awesome things I'm excited about:

1. I am going to be the Godmother of Chad & Tiffany's (my cousins) new baby due this October!

2. I got a promotion at work! I will be the manager of Storyville Baton Rouge for the summer :)

That's all for now! Stay tuned for an update after this weekend.

xoxo,

E

ΣΦΛ Initiation

On Wednesday night, my sisters of the Beta class and I were officially initiated as members of Sigma Phi Lambda! I am very excited! We had 16 girls, including myself, that stayed in the class to initiation.

I'm not positive I can really go into detail about it, but I will tell you that it was a beautiful ceremony. We were all dressed up, so that was fun. And we received our sorority pin! It's a little lamb [our symbol] with our letters under it! I have such a beautiful Phi Lamb family and I am so blessed to officially be a part of it!

Our pin!

After the ceremony we took loads of pictures [and ate some appetizers], so check some of the pictures out below!

Beta class & the execs

Janie, Cally, and me

Grand big (Candace), Big (Cally), and me

Pretty much the whole sorority, minus a few red-dressers that couldn't make it

French Quarter Fest!

This past Sunday, Clay and I went to the last day of the French Quarter Fest. It was pretty fun, just because it was so nice to be down there with all the people.

We had Elwood with us, and the only picture I got that night was of him! He seems to love NOLA just as much as we do.

Wassupppp

We just walked around and listened to the music as we passed. We stopped and ate at a little gelato shop in Pirate Alley called La Divina Cafe e Gelateria that also sells good sandwiches. They even had frozen gelato treats for pups, so we got Elwood one.

After that we just walked around the French Market, and on our way back to the car, stopped and listened to The Revealers. They're a reggae-ish band that I definitely enjoyed!

That's pretty much all I have for now- it was just a really relaxed day, so even though it makes for a dull post, I'm not too sorry cause it was nice to have a day like that!

xoxo,
E

PS- This week I signed up to do the Color Run coming to New Orleans in November! So far my mom, Clay, and some of my sisters are on my team. Anyone who wants to do it can join my team! I don't benefit from it, but if you register with a team it's cheaper than registering as a solo runner. So, feel free to use my team! Just contact me for details on how to join it if you're interested.

[[INITIATION BLOG COMING TOMORROW]]

Oops!

Yep! A blog for the second day in a row! My mom reminded me I forgot to blog about some stuff- some big stuff that I can't believe I forgot! This is gonna be a long one...

Number 1: FORMAL!

Last month, my sorority had its very first formal! It was at the absolutely stunning Nottoway Plantation. I had seen many pictures of this place online and I've been in love with every aspect of it, so when I found out that's where our formal was to be held, I was beyond ecstatic. 

Some of my sisters!

Our event was held in the Randolph Ballroom, which is a separate building to the left of the main house. We went around and explored the grounds a little bit. It was dark when we got there, so there wasn't good lighting for pictures, but there was no way in hell that was going to stop me! It's too beautiful!

In front of the plantation

Inside of the plantation, there is this room that is pure white with white furniture, and everything is lined in gold. It is so amazing. We didn't get to go in it, but I got to admire it from the front porch window. *swoon*

The plantation also provided some yummy food for us. I pigged out on red beans... I just can't control my southern girl cravings. We also had a photo booth set up! It made it a lot of fun... Here's one of our pictures :)

I love getting dressed up. And I loved my dress and can't wait to wear it again! Here's one final picture... (there are more of Facebook, though!)

Candace (grand big), Cally (big), and me!

Number 2: Jimmy Buffett

Clay and I went to New Orleans during the Final Four to take advantage of the free Jimmy Buffett concert. I haven't ever seen him before, but I loved him! He was wearing a Free Sean Payton shirt. AND Sean Payton came out for one song. It was amazing.

Both of our parents went, so we spent the first half of the concert with mine, and the second half with his.

Mom and me

Mr. Greg and me

Clay and me

Clay also broke up a fight. Between two women. He was the youngest guy there... it was actually funny.

Number 3: Random upcoming stuff that you can look out for a blog about!

• Tomorrow Clay and I are going to the French Quarter Fest! I've never actually been to that one before (I don't think), so I'm excited. Plus a day off work- YES! 
• This coming Wednesday, I will be initiated into Sigma Phi Lambda!
• Hiking at Tunica Hills at the end of this month!
• We are also going to Jazz Fest this year. We are only going one day though- it's so expensive! And overcrowded. We are going May 6 to see Foo Fighters.
• The Friday before that, Clay's parents, my parents, and Clay's sister and brother-in-law, and Clay and I are going to do the Gordon Biersch brewery tour. Should be fun. But me and his sister can't taste- I'm 20 and she's preggo.
• Clay's family day is in May where we go get to spend the day on base doing stuff. They also have an airman's ball the same weekend- *fingers crossed* we go! It's at the WWII museum!
• There's a trip in our future (at the end of May). All I'm going to say for now is beach hopping (sorta).

Number 4: Color run!

The Color Run is coming to New Orleans! It isn't till February, but that's okay because I gotta train. It's only a 5K, but I can barely run AT ALL. I have zero endurance. I may be thin, but I'm super out of shape. 

If you don't know what that is, it's a run where you get blasted with colored (all natural) powder at each mile marker. At the end, you are all colorful and you get to eat and have a party. It's called the happiest run on earth. I WILL do it! If you want to know more about it, click here!

Okay! I think I finally covered everything.

xoxo,

E

Feeling Crafty

Hi y'all

It's definitely been a while since I've blogged- sorry! I honestly have just been swamped in work and school, tests, homework, tutoring (but that's finally over), etc. so I haven't had time. Plus, nothing interesting has been going on so I wouldn't have had anything to write about.

Right now, I'm on Spring Break. I didn't get to take a long vacation, but my roommate Hannah and I went to the beach for two days. We stayed in Gulf Breeze, which is the little place in between Pensacola and Pensacola Beach, so we were super close to Pensacola Beach but didn't have to pay a lot of money.
On the way there, we stopped at the outlet mall in Gulfport and went shopping. It was a lot of fun and we got a lot of good stuff for cheap!
After that, we made our way to our hotel and layed out the small private beach they had. We had dinner at this place called the Fish House, where I had AWESOME shrimp and grits. It had some cream sauce with bacon and other stuff I didn't even know what it was, but it was good. So good I felt like I should tell y'all.

The next day we went to the boardwalk and ate and walked around, then spent a few hours on the beach again. We caught a baby puffer fish with our bare hands! It was really cute. I'm not even sure if it was really a puffer fish but it looked like one and puffed up like one.

We also had an encounter with an evil goose. The thing came out of nowhere and followed Hannah and me when we were walking back to our chairs. When we got to our chairs, it got out of the water and started coming toward us. I know from my aunt having goose trouble in the past that they are not animals you wanna mess with. So I bolted. Hannah was able to swoop in an grab some of her stuff real quick, but I didn't even try- so I wasn't able to get any pictures of it. It tried to steal Hannah's mat and my beach towel. Any time Hannah would go towards it, it would flare up its wings and growl. IT WAS SO EVIL. It finally went to drink water, so we snuck in and grabbed our stuff and went to the pool. The beach wasn't big enough to escape the goose.

On the way home, we stopped and pigged out on Dairy Queen because it was our last fast food experience. We vowed to stop eating fast food and drinking soda... and when we figured out our small meal there was 1000 calories, it only made me feel better about doing it.

Even though it was a very short trip, it was nice to get away. Every day of the break, other than those two days, I'm working. But, since I don't have school, I've been able to relieve my itch to craft!

I've been wanting to paint a certain thing for my parents' boat, and I was finally able to do it last night.

     

   Just the background

Finished product

I came home from work yesterday and just sat on my back porch and painted.  The quote is an Emerson quote that I really like, and I felt like it fit their dream that they are working on making a reality. (Click the pictures to enlarge them!)

I woke up this morning and sewed something, too. I can't post it yet because it's a gift, but I'll post a blog about it after I give it to the recipient! I'll probably do the tutorial on it for y'all. I'm really excited about it! I'm probably going to wind up sewing something else to go with it, but again, I can't say what it is! It's killing me. Here's a sneak peak- but I promise you won't guess it if I haven't personally told you what it is. I hadn't even heard of it till I found it while hunting down projects on a craft blog.

I also have another painting in the works that it almost done- another quote painting. It should be done tomorrow! *fingers crossed*

And after I finish that one, I have another Star Wars character painting to do. It's a new one that I came up with the pattern for, so I'm hoping it comes out okay! I actually made a pattern for two different characters, but I'm probably only going to have the time to do one before the break is up.

Another thing I want to sew is a maxi dress. I found a really easy tutorial for it, but with all these paintings and other sewing projects going on, it'll be summer before I can do that. I have been feeling so crafty that I went overboard and put too many projects on my plate LOL.

That's all for now! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend :)

xoxo,

E

Birchbox

Hey, y'all!

I just wanted to tell y'all about a little box of awesome I'm starting to get every month.
It is called Birchbox, and it contains beauty products and samples. You pay $10 a month and receive it in the mail. It's like Christmas every month!

This is the first month I have gotten it. For the month of March, Birchbox teamed up with TeenVogue and let the editors pick what went in the box for the month.

Inside was the following:

• Sample of hair serum
• Essie nail polish
• Lip gloss/moisturizer
• A TwistBand
• Sample of Twirl perfume
• Discount for TeenVogue
• Discount for ModCloth

I like being able to try out products :) I'm not sure if it will always be this type of stuff since it was picked by TeenVogue, but I'll find out next month!

If you like something in the box, you can go to the Birchbox website and purchase it. Most of the things in the box are samples, but some (like the nail polish and lip gloss) are full-sized. They offer full sizes of every product in the box.

If you are interested in learning more about it or getting it, go here!

(I am not affiliated with or compensated by Birchbox)

Just thought I'd share!

Xoxo, 

E

Orlando 2012

I figured it was about time I got my Disney trip pics and stuff on here! I've just been so busy within hours of getting back to Baton Rouge from our trip. I won't be able to put all of the pictures in the blog, so check Facebook for those. Anyway, here we go! (Click the pictures to make them larger)

Before I go into day-by-day stuff, here's some of the stuff I bought:
Super cute keychain! It's an "E" with Mickey on it, and it's brushed nickel looking.
A Minnie Mouse skirt apron! I've been wanting an apron, and it was just too cute. I would have bought an entire Mickey and Minnie kitchen set if I could and it wasn't such a cheesy thing to do.
A vintage-style Minnie Mouse ears cap!
I bought Clay an R2D2 Mickey Mouse ears cap, haha.
A little "Vinylmation"- it's little figures shaped like Mickey, but they are all painted different things. They had an "occupations" series, so I bought a teacher one that had an apple painted head, and a books painted body. I got Clay one that is computer themed, since that's what he is studying.
We got Mickey & Minnie Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker.
And a cute scarf! It's white with green polka dots, and some of the dots are really Mickeys.
I can't think if I bought anything else...

DAY ONE
On Friday night, Clay and I arrived in Orlando where his aunt picked us up. It was after 11 PM, so we didn't do anything too exciting. We stayed our first three night at a hotel off of Disney grounds. That's about it...

DAY TWO
On this morning, we had awesome breakfast! It was at this Greek restaurant (at the Boardwalk, if I remember correctly). Clay's aunt let me taste her waffle, and it was the best waffle I've ever had.  Saturday was our first day in a park! We went to Epcot! We rode pretty much all of the rides and shows and whatnot. My fave ride there is Mission Space... intense version of course! We spent a good bit of times in the countries. That's probably what makes me like Epcot so much. All the culture they imitate there is awesome. Clay and I got matching-ish shirts haha. I wasn't aware, since I haven't seen it in about ever, that Snow White was based in Germany. In the Germany gift shop, they had shirts that (in English) said "I Know a Little German" with one of the seven dwarfs on it. Mine has Dopey, and his has Grumpy. PERFECT. It also said the same thing on the back, but in German.

Greek breakfast

Our shirts!

That night, we ate at the Ale House and just relaxed a bit.



DAY THREE
Sunday morning, we went to Property Control. That's where only cast members can go and buy Disney items at a discounted price either because it is slightly defective or isn't selling well. We got a few things there- nothing defective! My favorite is the SUPER soft blanket Clay bought. It might go missing from his house.
We spent the day in Universal Studios and Island of Adventure! Guess what Island of Adventure has!? HARRY POTTER WORLD. It was our third time going on it. Still just as amazing. I love that ride. GO RIDE IT.
Anyway, if I've ever had a Cinnabon cinnamon roll, I can't remember. So I just HAD to get Cinnabon from the City Walk thing at Universal... it was my first one as far as I know. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't fresh. Sort of a let down :(
I love universal because most of the rides are thrill rides. The only problem was that Superman was down for refurbishment, and Rip Ride Rock-It was down just cause it a lot-- and that's one of my favorite rides. Of course, it opened AS we were leaving, and even with our FastPass, we would have had to wait a pretty long time to ride it.
We ate lunch at Finnegan's-- and Irish pub/restaurant-- and that was pretty good. I got my Cinnabon, Clay got his fish&chips.
That night, we went to the bar at the Ale House again. I was stuffed from lunch still, but Clay and his aunt got really good wings and beer!

DAY FOUR
Monday, we switched from the off-grounds hotel to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Clay and I treated ourselves with this stay :) It was so amazing to have the animals right outside the window. Even the inside of the hotel was so well decorated and very, very nice. If I could afford to, I'd stay there every single time. LOVED IT.

At the Animal Kingdom Lodge

The room

We spent the day in Hollywood Studios. I still have a hard time not calling it MGM. We had lunch at the Sci-Fi Drive in Theater. It was so cool! We say in little cars in a dark-ish room and watched old black and white clips on a big movie screen as we ate. The food was pretty good, too!

     

 


Even though Mardi Gras is usually not very busy at all at Disney, it was President's Day weekend so a LOT of families were there for the three-day weekend. We didn't get to ride Rock-N-Roller Coaster of Tower of Terror. I love the coaster and finally prepared myself to ride Tower of Terror for the first time. I was actually bummed for once that we couldn't ride it.

That night we ate at Victoria and Albert's- the night we were looking forward to the whole trip. If you haven't heard of Victoria and Albert's, it's a very very fancy (therefore, expensive) restaurant in the Grand Floridian Resort. When you eat there, you can eat at the Chef's table (table where you interact with the chef the entire time), Queen Victoria's Room (which only has 4 tables), or the regular dining room. The first two include 10-course meals. The latter is a six-course meal.
We ate in Queen Victoria's Room. There was only one other table reserved and they wound up cancelling, so Clay and I had a romantic dinner to ourselves in the cozy room by the fireplace. We had two servers, a husband and wife. They were so fantastic. It was being treated like royalty.

The lamb! Our favorite course.

We also got a personalized copy of our menu. In the actual leather-bound menu they presented us with at the beginning of dinner, they had a sheet with our names and it said "Happy Anniversary!" Clay told them it was our anniversary even though it is really May 18 haha. Although, we did make 21 months a few nights before...

        

The menus

They also gave me a single rose that had it's own mini watering vase, and a little breakfast cake for the next morning.
The meal was a little over $200 for each of us, not including Clay's alcoholic beverages. It was BY FAR the best food either of us had EVER eaten. Even though each course was generally just a few bites each, those bites added up quick. I can't believe I nearly completed every single one of them. Unfortunately, the awesomeness of all the different flavors and foods I had never had before didn't settle too well with my stomach. I got sick, but it was still totally worth it. I would highly recommend doing it at least once. It was such an awesome experience. If we go back, we will definitely stick with the six-course meal!

After dinner, we watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the Grand Floridian Marina. It had a perfect view of the backside of the castle. We got to enjoy the fireworks with very few people around. It was nice!

After fireworks, we went back to MGM because they had Extra Magic Hours until 1 AM. We had a FastPass to ride Toy Story since we didn't get to earlier, so I got to ride it for the first time and I loved it! Even with the Extra Magic Hours, we didn't ride Tower of Terror... I wasn't feeling so hot. Toy Story alone mixed me up. I will definitely ride it next time though! We did the walking museum-like tour of Walt Disney's life. It was really interesting. Now I want to read a biography on him!

At 1 AM, we went to the hotel and crashed.

DAY FIVE
Tuesday, we got up and went to Magic Kingdom. I love this park because it has more rides, and my favorite- SPACE MOUNTAIN! I can't get enough of that ride. Except we could only ride it once. We each wore a Mardi Gras shirt and saw a lot of other folks doing the same! We walked around and rode a good bit of rides.

The Buzz Lightyear Ride

Fantasyland being built in Magic Kingdom

We left a little early to go shower for dinner. We went Downtown and did a little shopping/walking around, the went to dinner at Portobello. It was awful. The food sucked, and the waitress was even worse. It got a 10 star rating, so hopefully it was just a bad night. Not to mention, I was pretty much falling asleep at the table haha, so that didn't help. Needless to say, we went to the hotel and crashed for the last night.

Before dinner!

DAY SIX
Our last day :( We got up packed, then checked out. We then went to Shades of Green, a really nice Military/Golf resort right next to Magic Kingdom. They had a military store where you could buy stuff tax free. It is the only store you can get Mickey affiliated with any military branch! I bought Clay a nice polo that had Mickey and it said USAF Orlando on it. He also bought one for his pops.

After that, we went back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to eat at Sanaa. I urge EVERYONE to go eat there the next time you go to Disney World! It is an African restaurant with awesome, flavorful food. Clay has eaten there a few times, and I had eaten there once before. It's both of our favorite restaurant at Disney World. Just go try it! You also get a view of the Savanna while you eat. We got a window table, and a beautiful bird was by our window the whole time. He was a cool dude. Three or four zebras got pretty close, too. Our waitress was cool-- she was nice and had an accent. The waiter for the table next to us was from Baton Rouge!

Our view at lunch

After our lunch, we went to spend our last day at Animal Kingdom. There aren't too many rides there, so we got to ride them all. We actually rode Mount Everest twice. I really wanted to see The Lion King performance, and we did :) So cool. It was a nice park to spend our last day in. The crowds had died down a bit, and it is a more relaxed park to go to.
Then, we went to the hotel and caught a bus to the airport. Sad stuff. Our plane got delayed like an hour... so we didn't get to NOLA till late, then had to go to Slidell and get the pup and my car, then go to Baton Rouge. Got into BR around 1 and went to bed around 2.

You can see all of the pictures on Facebook!

Back to liiife, back to realityyyy.... BOOO.

Love you all :)
Xoxo,
E