There is a time for golf, and a time for putt putt...

Hi everyone! Well, we had a VERY important day today for two reasons! The first and most important reason was that our nephew, Julian Troy came safely into the world today at 7:49am! He was a healthy 7.5 lbs and 19.5 inches! He's so cute! See??!!

We are so excited! We are still praying for Erin (Chris' sister) as she recovers and cares for this new little addition to the family! We love y'all!!! XOXOXOXOXOXO

The second reason that today was important was because it was a day that Chris and I chose to rest. We didn't spend a day at any of the theme parks today because we were specifically seeking out a restful day. So instead, I tested my skills at driving a golf cart while Chris impressed me with his golf swing. We chose the course at random and later found out that it is one of Disney's most unforgiving courses! I think Chris did a smashing job and I really enjoyed driving the golf cart. Chris played with a couple from Boston, Mass. Their names are Bob and Terry. They were a very nice couple and Chris was very comfortable playing with them.

 

 

 

 

After the big golf game, we came back to our resort to rest a while and have some lunch. We ate at the resort restaurant. It was tasty, but didn't compare to the other delectable feasts we've shared in the last few days. Earlier this week, we spotted a couple of really neat putt putt golf courses and today we tried one of them out! It was a lot of fun...Chris got 6 under par and I got 3 over par. :) It was a busy day at the putt putt place and we saw many peculiar characters...and I don't mean the kind in a costume. This lady that we saw has got to be the number one Disney fan! She has all sorts of tattoos representing Disney characters. I boldly snapped a picture for you:

 

 

Do you see them all??? on her back, arms and legs??!!! OUCH!

 

Here's a couple photos of us trying the course out!

 

 

 

After putt putt, we again came back to the resort to spend some time resting. We relaxed for a couple of hours before getting ready for dinner and a date night! We zipped around the corner to the Disney Boardwalk, (they have EVERYTHING here!!!). We ate mediocre steaks at the Big River Grille and Brewery. After we finished there, we walked around holding hands and watching parents wrangle their children. Obviously, we also privately discussed how we would do it differently. :) Shortly after this fun, we headed to a place called JellyRolls. It is a dueling piano bar that does only requests all night long! That place is the very reason I'm getting the blog out so late today! It was a blast! GREAT music and comedy. The place was hopping even when we left a few songs after a Bohemian Rhapsody sing-a-long.

 

 

Tomorrow promises to be another lovely day. We are headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios for the day! I am headed to bed today with a happy and rested heart. :) I love my man and we are having such a great time together. I've heard from so many of you saying that you are thinking of and praying for us. I love you for that. Thanks for reading along with us! TwoMadigans, OUT!



 

 

Rawr! Disney's Animal Kingdom

Okie Dokie! So today we went to the Animal Kingdom here at Disney World. We slept in a little today and so we didn't arrive at the park until about 10am. The park was nice and there was a lot to do, but Chris and I almost felt bored. Having lived in San Diego where there is an AMAZING zoo that we have both visited several times, we found that the Animal Kingdom didn't quite measure up. I definitely don't mean that as a complaint! We still had a great time, but we also didn't feel bad about leaving at about 2:30. While we were there, we ate some delicious Asian food and saw some really cool animals. Check out some of our pictures from today! After the pictures, I'll recap the rest of the day. Also, Chris has a little something to add, so STAY TUNED!

 This was a REALLY neat African drum group. They were so full of energy and really got the crowd going! They pulled all the kids up front to learn how to do some traditional African moves and that was hilarious to watch!

We took a short train ride to see the behind-the-scenes of the Animal Kingdom. (By the way, I'm putting forth a valiant effort every time I don't call it the 'Wild' Animal Park which is also in San Diego!) This short trip showed us the back buildings where they take care of all the animals after the park closes. The park closes every day around 5 or 6 because it takes the cast members 3-4 hours just to round up the animals and care for them before the next day.

Here we are at The Tree of Life. It is an ENORMOUS tree that has hundreds of animals carved into the trunk of it! It is really stunning! And inside of the Tree of Life, is a theater in which there is a 4D show called "It's tough being a bug!" This was arguably the best show we saw today. :) A close second was the bird show, (I can't remember the name of it...)

Here we are on the park's Safari ride! I don't know why, but in my mind I had this attraction built up to be more Safari-esque. This was more of a ride through some different exhibits. The only free roaming animals were the giraffes and other non-aggressive animals. (Where's the fun in that?? :) )We were able to snap some neat pictures and a video of the elephants taking a dip!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we left the Animal Kingdom, we went back to our Little Mermaid room at the resort and unashamedly took a NAP! Go ahead and judge us if you want to about napping while at Walt Disney World, but after 2 days of lots and LOTS of walking, we were tired!

 

After the very refreshing time of rest, it was time for dinner! We made the reservation to eat at Disney's Wilderness Lodge several months ago. I'm going to add a few pictures and then Chris is going to tell you about it!

 

 

 



Well, I told christen that I was going to HIGH JACK the blog at some point this week and for some reason that scared her a little! (those that know me know that I tend to forget when to filter certain things, LOL)! I will stick to the script and tell you a little about dinner. Our reservation was at the Wilderness Lodge "Artists Point" Restaurant. This was exciting for me but Christen came into the date with some hesitation, as she tends to be a picky eater. We sat down at a table for two that was facing a beautiful waterfall outside. Our waiter was a very "SWEET" man named Izzi from Long Island, NY....(Like how i filtered my thoughts there)? Anyway, the picture above is our sparkling wine that was 'On the Mouse' for our anniversary.... he is sooo thoughtful!

 

The menu had so many delicious choices like Roasted Duck, Grilled Chicken, Cedar Plank Salmon, and Fillet Mignon. However, Christen and I went with two different choices. Let me just pause for a moment and say how extremely proud I am of my Picky Eater. The reason being that she ordered the 'Slow Roasted 64*C Bison Strip Steak!!!" This dish also came with mashed potatoes and a sweet corn and Bison sausage hash! Christen will eat a good steak, hamburger, etc..... but she is a WELL DONE kinda girl. This steak was medium (at best) and she ate ever bit of it. Once the steak had disappeared she stated that she would order the same dish again. BREAKTHROUGH!

 

I had a delicious Grilled Pacific Halibut that was cooked to perfection and most scrumptious. The choices for desserts were few but we chose the two winners on the menu. Christen had a sweet treat that included both white and milk chocolate, sponge cake, a raspberry wine reduction with to different cherries. One cherry was soaked in Bourbon for over a month, and the other was soaked in amaretto! I chose a blueberry cobbler with blueberries baked into the batter, topped with fresh raspberries, blackberries, and a homemade raspberry ice cream. Everything was perfect to say the least. The meal would have been $112 without our dining plan that we already purchased. We continue to be amazed by what a great deal we got with the package. Now that I have written a dissertation on our dinner I will pass the laptop back to Christen.....who is a much better writer than me. Thanks for following as we ramble on and on. 

 

OK! I'm (Christen) back. I'm going to sign off here for today. Tomorrow will be bitter-sweet for us. While we will be having a lovely day here in Florida, all the way across the country in San Diego, our sister, Erin and her husband Mario will be having their second son! We will be thinking of them and praying for them and new baby Julian Troy all day! Hopefully we will get some pictures to share with you tomorrow! Thanks for reading along! TwoMadigans, OUT!

 

 

 

Epcot Day!

About 30 minutes after the gates opened and a LOOOOONNNNNGGGGG walk in from the parking lot, we made it to Epcot! Did you know that there is a ride inside of that big golf ball looking thing?! It was awesome! Everyone I talked to told us to make sure to do Epcot first. They said that if we waited and did it after any other park, it would be a let down. Well, after taking the advice Chris and I decided that Epcot would be worth going to any time! Of course, I say that not having been to the other parks yet... :) Epcot was also enhanced while we were here with their annual Food & Wine Festival. It was amazing! Through out the day Chris and I got to sample food from Poland, Germany, France, South Africa, Japan, Belgium and most deliciously: Italy!

This is the restaurant where we had our main meal. We racked up and $85 meal and didn't have to fork over a cent thanks to our dining package that came with our trip. It was AMAZING! All the waiters and hosts were from Italy. We asked our waiter how he came to work for Disney and he said that he along with many of his fellow waitstaff are all on a 1 year work visa in the US. They go to school and work for Disney. They all stay in big dormitories with other guys and gals from all the other "countries" at Epcot. Every new country had staff members from that particular place. It made everything so real!

 

Chris had the Cannoli for dessert today...

 

I had a delectable piece of Mocha Tiramasu! You now have permission to drool, because these were both totally drool-worthy! YUM! Oh! What did we have for the main meal? I had the lasagna (Divine!) and Chris had the Seafood Risotto and said it was excellent!

 

 

We walked and walked and walked and walked....we were exhausted so we headed to the Food and Wine Festival pavilion to see what we could see. We ended up attending two really cool demonstrations. The first was a culinary demonstration with Master Chef Ed Leonard. We watched him prepare leg of lamb, with a Caesar salad and home made dressing! We got to sample everything he made and it was....well, adventurous for me, (to say the least) and delicious for Chris! I thought that the lamb tasted like smelly feet, but Chris disagreed. :)

 

 

 

They told us in the demo that just one bottle of this wine cost $123! It didn't taste that expensive, but we enjoyed it knowing that we would probably never EVER drink from a bottle that expensive again. It really did taste good with the lamb. I think Chris liked it more than I did, which is odd because usually I'm the one into the red wine!

 

This is the food we got to try. The Chef talked all about how this should be a "regular" portion and all I could think about was, this guy ain't from the South! So in order on the plate was a pita chip, shredded lettuce, olives, tomatoes, feta cheese, a piece of lamb, a Parmesan "cookie" and all of it garnished with an anchovy. I ate everything on the plate (EXCEPT the anchovy...DUH!) which was the equivalent of Neil Armstrong stepping foot on the moon for the first time. I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food. Chris is much more inclined to try new things. He always says that he will try anything at least once. It made me happy that he was proud of me for giving it a shot!

 

From the culinary demo, we went next door to a mixology class! We learned how to make delicious mixed drinks with Red Stag bourbon. One of the teachers is the author of the all the "101 (drinks)" books. All the drinks were kind of sour, so we weren't really blown away by anything we tried. By the way, I feel a need to clarify...Everything we ate/drank were SAMPLE SIZE. Please don't think that we ran around Epcot today like gluttonous drunks! I promise we didn't! In fact, I'm thinking of pulling out our bag of chex mix to snack on because I feel like we only got one full meal today! (despite what that crazy Master Chef says....)

 

Eventually, the end of the day came. We found ourselves a great spot to watch the closing show: "Illuminations: Reflections of Earth". It was beautiful! The fireworks and light show lit up the entire park. The center of the show was in the middle of a lagoon on which all the "countries" were set. Each building in all the different countries had lights on them and played a special part in the show. It was a fantastic ending to a really awesome day. :)

 

After the show, we all pointed ourselves in the direction of the exit gate and moved together like cattle. Being in crowds like this can definitely try your patience. Indeed, it gives you many, MANY opportunities to show grace. We are exhausted and we saw another little person that must have been tired too....

I know this is a dark picture, but can you see the kid thrown over his dad's shoulder? :) that's exactly how we feel! We considered asking other patrons if they would carry us out like that, but our better judgement prevailed.

 

Tomorrow is the Wild Animal Kingdom all day and a dinner reservation at the Wilderness Lodge in the evening. We are still excited and so thankful that God blessed us with this opportunity to be together. Thanks for reading along with us! TwoMadigans, OUT!

 

 

 

 

 

We made it!

We left Biloxi, Mississippi this morning so early that it feels like it was days ago!

 Not long after we got our start, we crossed into Alabama...

And still after that, we finally made it to Florida! Which, by the way, looks suspiciously like Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama...

Today's drive really seemed to take a lot longer than yesterday's. Maybe it was because of the anticipation we had for the end of today. :) The drive itself was uneventful... two lanes and lots of trees. As soon as we hit the Florida state line and found the sign to snap our picture, I was out like a light! I'm so thankful that Chris was at the wheel and I could snooze in peace! We turned on our Disney Pandora station about 2 hours into Florida to get us in a Disney frame of mind. Our adoring parents were blowing up our phones with text message versions of "It's a Small World" and bickering back and forth about who ate the rest of the Cheetos. It was almost unbelievable that they were several hundreds of miles away and not right in the back seat! :)

Around 5:45 this afternoon we finally arrived at our destination!! Walt Disney World! I was on sensory overload for probably 30 minutes. I didn't even want to blink for fear that I would miss something magical! From here, it was just a short drive to get to our resort!

I'll try to snap a picture of the lobby some time this week to show you how wonderful it is! Colorful and full of animations from Disney! We checked in with Sarah and she gave us more information than we can possibly absorb about the parks and resorts. She also gave us special buttons to wear to let everyone know that it is our 5th anniversary! Finally, she gave us our room keys and told us how to get to the Little Mermaid buildings! The next few pictures are of our home for the next 8 days!

Here we go! The Little Mermaid Room!!! 

The Seashell beds!Of course with Flounder and Sebastian hanging out too!

Mickey shaped towels from our housekeeper!

Chris was appalled that Ariel didn't have more clothes on...but she is on the shower curtain after all...

 

The inside of the shower is just like Ariel's treasure trove!

I can't say that my heart didn't pitter patter just a little with this picture of Prince Eric and Max!

 

 

After we got everything settled, we headed out for our first dinner reservation. We went to Disney Hollywood Studios and were greeted with our first glimpse of Disney's holiday spirit!

 



Once we finally made it through the gate, I was again overcome with excitement! Lights, buildings, people, mouse ears...it went on and on!

We were pretty early so we started to walk around to see what we could see. It seemed like everyone was leaving just as we were arriving so it felt more and more like we were getting the park all to ourselves. :) I can't wait to go back and visit when we can spend more time at the attractions. Our reservation was at 8:15pm at The 50's Prime Time Cafe. It was an adorable restaurant themed completely around America in the 1950's. Old school televisions, wood panelling, and 50's Pop art everywhere! When we walked in, the hostess called us kids and we thought it was charming. We were early so we sat in the lounge until the table was ready. Every time the hostess called a family for their table, they called them by their last name and then "kids". So when we were up, they hollered out, "Madigan Kids! It's time to eat!" It was really fun! We each had the sampler special and it was DELICIOUS! A little fried chicken, a little pot roast and a little meatloaf with all the fixin's! Our table had an old black and white TV running old 1950's shows. Our waitress' name was Cousin Marnie. She challenged us to come up with 20 movies that Disney made that only have 1 word in the title and that are animated. It could be Disney and Pixar. It was a lot harder than I thought! Can you do it????

 

Now we are back in our hotel room and talking about what tomorrow will look like. We are planning to do Epcot tomorrow. They have a food and wine festival that we have heard great things about. YUM! :) we are really looking forward to it all! I know this post got pretty long with all the pictures, today was a busy day. We will set out tomorrow with our walking shoes on and our Happy anniversary buttons securely in place. Thanks for reading along! TwoMadigans, OUT!

On the road!

Well! The day has finally come! The day Chris and I get to head east for our vacation! We are beyond excited! I feel like I have been looking forward to this for so long that I felt like it would never come. I'm also a little worried that the anticipation for other trips may not be able to live up to the hype of this one! This is a picture of me and Chris before we left our driveway. Ready and full of energy! We even bought a legitimate map for the trip! Look at us, all profesh! :)

We made it from Katy to downtown Houston (about 30 miles) before Chris had his first official traffic outburst. A huge success for us! He has wanted to be the Director of Nonsense Management for quite some time now and he likes to get in all the practice he can...especially on the road! :) I also had my own success: I made it all the way to Baytown (about 50 miles)  before I decided it was time for my first nap. A glorious nap that lasted me about 30 minutes.

Eventually, we made it to Louisiana!

We fully intended to board a flat bottom boat and cruise the bayous in Louisiana. Too bad we couldn't find anyone to take us. :( By the time we got to America's Wetlands, everyone capable of showing us gators were all done for the day. Kind of disappointing, but we did find an acceptable alternative: The Candyland Cottage & Ice Cream Shoppe. This is the World's largest gummy bear! It cost $40! We didn't get it, but I snapped a picture so folks would believe us.

                                       LOL! doesn't Chris look great with a moustache? :) HA!

Obviously, that was a great stop. It was a neat shop in Rayne, LA which just so happens to be "The Frog Capital of the World"....in case you didn't know. Even though the Candyland Cottage was great, we actually scooted across the street to Ol' Reliable (Dairy Queen) to satisfy our sweet tooth.

Most of the drive through Louisiana was nice and smooth. However, as soon as we hit Baton Rouge, I lost all awe and respect for the state. The traffic we hit was abominable. I mean it. It was absolutely terrible. And the worst part was that it lasted from Baton Rouge ALLLLLLLL the way through New Orleans! I may or may not have been caught (several times) growling at the slow pokes on the road. I think it put us behind almost 2 hours! We eventually tried pulling over for dinner to try and let the traffic clear up, but no amount of pancakes helped. When we got back on the road we were just that much more behind.

FINALLY, we made it to Mississippi and we are currently holed up in the Ramada Limited Hotel. If it sounds a little shady....it is. We have the deadbolt turned and the chain on the door. It smells a little funny, but the important thing is that we have a room to stay in and it's very inexpensive, (hence the shady-ness...it's really our own fault). I'm thinking about Toby as we get ready for bed and I hope he had a fun day at Waggin' Tails Ranch and that he didn't notice we weren't there.

We have an early start tomorrow. The GPS lady says we have about 8.5 hours to Orlando. We are up for the challenge and so excited for tomorrow! More thoughts and pictures to come! Thanks for reading along with us! TwoMadigans, OUT!

It just got serious....

Oh yeah! Got the Minnie Mouse case on my phone, Mickey and Minnie on my sweatshirt and the vacation laundry rolling! I can't believe that we are just a mere 2 days away from jumping in the car and heading east! I have to remind myself to slow down and not to rush each day. Chris' birthday is on Thursday and that is a much more important day to me than the trip to Disney World. :)

On our way to Florida, Chris and I have decided to leave a little earlier on Friday to be able to stop off in New Orleans. I think there might be a few restaurants/coffee shops to check out, but we also found a swamp tour that we fully intend to be on!! :) We are definitely "that couple" that watches the Discovery Channel and A&E for Swamp People, Call of the Wildman and Duck Dynasty. We must be fascinated because we tune in every week! Really looking forward to spotting some gators and exploring the swamp (with a guide).

I've been reading more about Disney World and about the places we should go and shouldn't go. The important lines and the not so important lines. It's all so interesting. I'm wondering though if I should pull the reins on all the book stuff. I'm almost getting to the point where I know too much. Is that possible? I think I might be spoiling some of the magic of our first trip. I'm hopeful that this won't be our last trip to the "Happiest Place on Earth" so some things we will explore on our own. :)

I don't know who might be reading this blog, but I want to pose a question. Have you been to Disney World? What was your favorite part? What is a must see and what was skip-it? I'd love to have your input!

I'll close here and hopefully leave you with the same excitement that I have. My Minnie ears are out and ready to go. My Snow White t-shirt is clean and folded. The cooler is ready to be filled with snacks for the drive out there. 2 kids trapped in grown-up bodies anticipating rest, relaxation and rejuvenation. TwoMadigans, OUT!