Weekend Festivities

I hope everyone had a great weekend and is ready to tackle this week. My weekend was pretty busy although Friday was fairly uneventful. K and I just went out to a small Mexican restaurant close to home for some dinner and had a quiet night at home after that.

On Saturday we headed to Animal Kingdom to go on some rides and have lunch in "Africa". Our season passes were blacked out for summer so we're now able to make use of them again.

 We started off doing the Kilimanjaro Safari and got to see lots of animals and then had lunch in the Harambe Market. The food was so good!

After lunch we rode the Expedition Everest rollercoaster which left me shaking. I almost didn't go on it but sucked it up and the verdict is that I'm a big chicken. The older I get, the more I become terrified of rollercoasters.

  Last we saw the Festival of the Lion King show which was surprisingly really good and entertaining even though it's probably geared more towards children. K and I both agreed it was much better than the Cirque Du Soleil "O" Show that we saw in Las Vegas and paid a pretty penny to see.

After Disney, we headed to International Drive to meet up with some friends for a joint Bachelor/Bachelorette party. We started with dinner and drinks at Brick House Tavern across from the Orlando Eye and then ended the night at Tin Roof bar with some live music and dancing.

Sunday was all about relaxing and getting caught up with blogging and house cleaning before my parents arrive this week. 

How was your weekend?

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

Weekending: Charity, Live Music & Good Friends

Morning loves! Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend! 

On Friday Kerri and I went to a charity event to support sexual assault victims in Central Florida. But first, we stopped for a cold one at The Brass Tap to cap off the busy work week and let the rainstorm pass. 

We then headed over to the Mennello Museum of American Art for a night of live music, silent auctions, good wine, and some amazing live art. 

This artist was amazing and I wish I could remember his name but he does an awesome performance while painting to the music of the artist he creates.

On Saturday a group of us headed to Epcot to celebrate a friend's 34th birthday and to see Jon Secada live in concert.

The Flower and Garden Festival was also going on so there were lots of pretty Disney character displays. 

And Jon Secada rocked the house!

The day was capped off with some grub in Mexico and viewing of some of the pretty flower displays as well as a walk through of the butterfly garden. 

What a fun weekend with great friends! Now back to the grind...

Happy Monday!

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup. 

Valentine's Weekend Festivities

Another busy, busy weekend...

On Friday evening I came home from work to find Lola dressed in a cute Valentine's outfit and some roses from my two loves. You can tell she's getting big but I still love picking her up like a baby!

 

K and I then headed to Downtown Disney to have dinner at Planet Hollywood before the SOJA concert at the House of Blues. SOJA is a reggae band from Arlington, Virginia that I absolutely love. My sister gifted used the concert tickets for Christmas so I've been looking forward to the show for a while.

 

 

On Saturday we took Lola to her final training class at PetSmart. She passed her graduation class not exactly with flying colors and got her certificate of achievement so we're done with puppy training!

After training, K and I headed to Epcot to continue the Valentine's festivities. 

We did some shopping in China and had some drinks in Japan, Morocco and England.  

We capped off the night with a double-date dinner in the France pavilion at the Monsieur Paul restaurant. I had the duck entree which was amazing and same for the wine was but holy expensive!! On the plus side, we were seated by the window which overlooked the 9pm fireworks so the view was priceless.

By the time we were done with dinner it was at 10:30pm and the park was closed for the day so we had a peaceful walk back to the car without tripping over a million people and got some great photos. It was the perfect end to Valentine's day!

Sunday was a relaxing day at home. Lola played dress up in her new Chinese kimono I bought at Epcot and I also love the little Buddha statue I got for my office desk.

Joining the lovely Biana for her Weekending linkup.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Weekend Lounging & Epcot Adventures

I'm thankful things are starting to quiet down after the holidays although I always seem to find a way to make plans for the weekends so it's never 100% relaxing.

I did get some relaxation on Friday night. We watched the movie Let's Be Cops, which was pretty funny. Definitely a Redbox quality movie, if you know what I mean, but good enough for a quiet night at home.

On Saturday morning we met up with a couple friends at Epcot and went on some rides including Soarin' (my favorite) which is such a cool simulated ride where you fly above California in what seems like a helicopter but with your feet dangling below. 

After the rides we had some beer in Germany and some wine in Italy before heading to Morocco's Tangierine Cafe for a quick lunch/dinner.

Sunday was spent at home taking down some Christmas decorations, getting back on track with my recipes and of course spending time with K and Lola.

I love how she sleeps with her tongue sticking out.  haha

How was your weekend?

Joining the lovely Biana for weekending.

Disney Recap: Magic Kingdom & Epcot

I wanted to get my Disney recap out before the craziness of the holidays begins so I'm double posting today. 

About a month ago K and I bought Disney seasonal passes to have in time for my 31st birthday last weekend and to enjoy all year round since we live a short drive away. (I'm especially loving forward to the Food & Wine Festival next year.) I took Friday off of work and we headed to Magic Kingdom in the morning. 

We walked around to admire the all Christmas decorations, went in several shops on Main Street and went on a few rides including Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain and Peter Pan's Flight. 

Then it was time to head over to Epcot via the monorail and I was able to snap this photo of the Spaceship Earth ball. 

We started in Canada and went around to Japan, Italy, Norway, China, Morocco and all the other countries in between ending at Mexico. 

We had beer in Canada, warm sake in Japan, and some amazing wine in Italy. 

We enjoyed the sunset on the lake and stopped off at several of the shops including the Mexican market which has a bunch of fun stuff like piñatas and sombreros etc. Thankfully we avoided the tequila bar!!

After our drinking around the world adventures, we were ready for some dinner so picked the Marrakesh restaurant in Morocco since that just sounded exotic and it was. 

It was the perfect way to celebrate my birthday!