Outside with Kids

I think we’re in the better-than-average realm of outdoor play, but I know we could be better. Hardly a day goes by (even a rainy one) without us finding a window for playing at the park, walking the dog, or riding bikes.

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Rainy hike in Smuggler's Cove on the Oregon Coast

Wordless Wednesday • Cool Slide at Port Orleans

 

 

 

 

Find more Wordless Wednesday at 5MinutesforMom

We Went to Disney World, and Didn't Spend a Fortune on Food

I was a little nervous about how much money we would need for food on our trip. We packed snacks, I pored over menus of the various restaurants throughout Disney World. I even bought a restaurant.com* gift certificate for Garden Grove, a restaurant at one of the hotels (but not where we were staying).

I'm happy to say that we found the food to be fairly reasonable! Yes, we could have easily spent a LOT more. But we didn't have to. Here's what we did:
Brought granola bars, fruit snacks and jerky from home. This was our snack foundation. Oh yeah, and vodka.  Brian walked to a grocery store from Downtown Disney (about a mile walk) to buy orange juice, bananas, cheese sticks and our very important cocktail fixings. The taxi back to our resort was $20, which we figured was totally worth it.

Most mornings, we started the day with our snacks, plus coffee in our refillable mugs at the resort food court. The refillable mugs were great. They cost about $15 after tax, and saved us a ton over the week. One note about cleaning plastic mugs: if you have a lingering odor from a previous beverage~even after washing~simply fill it up with hot water, let it set for a couple minutes, then dump it and fill it with ice water for a few minutes. Dump, and you're ready to go. It works every time. I shared this tip at the beverage station almost every day. I felt like making signs to post to save everyone the eww factor of drinking lemonade that tastes like coffee.

There were a few days that we ate breakfast at the food-court/quick service restaurant at whichever resort we were staying. Check out this breakfast I got at All Star Movies, for only $9:

Eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage, biscuit AND a Mickey waffle.

Most days, we found we were too busy to want to sit down for lunch, so we often ate the snacks out of the backpack as we went about our day, then ate a real dinner.

The kids meals ~ breakfast, lunch and dinner ~ were all only $4.99 each and offered two sides plus a beverage. This seemed consistent at parks and resorts, and the sides were awesome. Grapes, carrots, apple sauce... it was nice to have healthy options. Since we have two kids, we usually chose four different sides and split them all between the two kids. 

We had heard about the T-Rex restaurant in Downtown Disney, and wanted to check it out because the kids are soooo in to dinosaurs. Arriving at 7ish, we found a 45-minute wait. But look! Just to the left was a new little place that sounded right up our alley. Pollo Campero offered a family dinner of citrus grilled chicken, rice & black beans, tortillas, and chips & salsa – all for only $19.99. Plus they had free wi-fi which is rather hard to come by at Disney World. We did make it back to T-Rex another day. We realized we hadn't spent any money ALL DAY. Not a cent. So we splurged on a big dinner. We got there at 5ish, and walked right in – no waiting. Kids were thrilled:

I've got to say that the biggest dining surprise and delight came from Gasparilla's at the Grand Floridian. We ate so well there! I've been craving this ever since I had it:

Grown up Mac & Cheese with LOBSTER. Yes, LOBSTER, and a lot of it! $9.99 at Gasparilla's

I almost couldn't eat it all it was so much, but I somehow managed. Delicious.
Since The Grand Floridian is so accessible from Magic Kingdom, I've recommended to several people heading to Magic Kingdom that they take the boat or monorail over to the GF and have a nice dinner before heading back to Magic Kingdom for the evening.

It's good that we were so prepared with snacks, but we almost had too much. Now that we know we can get reasonable meals, we won't pack nearly as much next time.


*I declined to buy a $25 gift certificate for $10, but then saw a special on MouseSavers to buy the same $25 certificate for only $2! How could I pass that up? We didn't even end up using it, but I'm not too worried about giving up $2.

Travel with my Family

Wow, I have so much to process and write about from the fantastic trip we took to Disney World. I was fortunate enough to be included in Disney's Social Media Moms Celebration March 17-20, and I'm still pinching myself. It was overwhelming and unreal, to be honest. I learned so much, experienced so much, and met some pretty incredible people ~ all of which I'll be writing about soon!

But the biggest headline from the trip is that my family travels well together.

On the river boat from Port Orleans to Downtown Disney

Fairly early into my relationship with Brian, we realized that we could travel well together, and we were so relieved! It's not that it would have been a deal breaker – or maybe it would have – but since we both love travel, it's nice that we are such a good team.

As we were tucking the kids into bed upon returning from this big trip, Brian told the kids how proud we are of them for also being such good travel team members. I got all mushy when he said that. I'm sure it's just because I was so tired...  But how sweet, right?

And really, the kids were awesome. We've been on many trips together, but nothing this complex or scheduled. We were trying to squeeze as much as possible into this trip! They were such troopers, and I just couldn't be prouder of my little team.

At the airport for our red eye flight, way past their bedtime in jammies & backpacks

I saw so many families at the parks sniping and yelling at each other, and just generally being unkind. It was so sad, and made me that much more grateful that we all discussed it and agreed to be nice to each other. It made the whole trip better. Don't get me wrong, there was tension at times. But we were committed to not taking any frustrations out on each other.

I actually came back from this trip more in love with my husband, and more in love with my kids. That's pretty good for a 10-day extravaganza.

I'm so grateful. And so proud. And already planning our next trip!

I attended the 2011 Disney Social Media Moms Celebration at Walt Disney World. Although we paid for our own trip to Disney World, the conference fee included 3 nights at the Grand Floridian, the conference and meals for me, several amazing meals for our entire family, park hopper passes for each of us, and some pretty incredible swag items to take home. Disney did not ask me to write about this event, and all opinions are my own.

Anna's Birthday Beach Trip

Whenever asked what she wanted to do for her birthday, Anna has been saying (for months) that she wanted to go to the beach. I was so glad! I mean, who doesn't want an excuse to go to the beach? So here we are! At this moment (3:30 p.m.), she and Brian are swimming in the indoor pool while Eric has some quiet time. I'm sitting here drinking some extra-yummy wine, looking out the window at the crashing waves, and playing with the video clips we took in Gearhart earlier. Here's what I came up with:

And here are a few other photos from today...

Selves Portrait at the Peter Iredale

He's the king of my world, in any case.

Thinking their daddy is pretty silly.

Jack spent most of his first beach trip with his nose in the sand.

Anna inspecting a shell, Brian getting a crab leg away from Jack.

Anna's latest creation.

Does that boy know how to pose, or what?

diggers

A lot of "firsts" for Jack today. First "Head-Out-The-Window."

Disney Social Media Moms

Well, I just registered for the Disney Social Media Moms conference.
I've been wanting to attend a social media/blog conference for about a year, but since I'm not in to monetizing my blog, it's never seemed like the right investment (of money and time away from the family).
But this conference presents a unique opportunity. Not only is it fabulously priced, it welcomes the family!
So... I can learn more about social media (about which I am passionate and nerdy) AND have some fun with the family?
Count me in!

I hope I get to go, but there are a lot — and I mean A LOT — of people who want to go, and space is very limited. I go back and forth on wondering who should really be attending this conference. Sometimes I think it's me, sometimes I don't feel like I'm quite the target demographic yet. I don't have 10,000 followers on twitter or 5,000 Facebook friends... but really, do I want them? I have great relationships and I value them. So is more really better? Nah. Anyway, I'm grateful that I got my registration submitted.
If I get in, AWESOME. If not, it wasn't meant to be, and we'll go to Mexico instead... :)