Disney 2014: Room & Food

My family & I just got back from an amazing, magical trip to Disney World! It was a lot of people going-- Matt & me, my parents, my brother and his daughter, my grandfather, and my aunt and uncle. We didn't try to tour the parks together but got together for meals. It worked really well and we were still able to make a lot of good memories together!

As Matt & I had last been to Disney for our honeymoon, it was so fun to go back and relive some of those memories. It had only been 2 and a half years, but life changes quickly and I was so glad to get to go back!

I took a lot of pictures so we will spread the pictures out in several posts. Here I will share our room and the amazing food! My parents are Disney Vacation Club members so we were able to get a Grand Villa at the Boardwalk Villas. It has 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, a full kitchen, and a nice living room. It was perfect for my family and the view couldn't be beat!

Our bedroom had 2 queen beds. Nice for spreading things out!

The 2 secondary bedrooms were upstairs with the master
bedroom, kitchen, and living areas downstairs

Oh the view...

And if you read my honeymoon posts, you would know we ate amazingly well. This trip demonstrated that once again! From an All-American BBQ to Indian cuisine to seafood, we were able to get it all. Plus who could forget the amazing pastries and other desserts :P

At the Boardwalk Bakery, just a few steps from our room

Their strawberry cupcake was amazing!

Our first night dinner- Hoop Dee Doo Review

All-you-can-eat chicken, ribs, sides, and strawberry shortcake!

On a separate night, we went to 50's
Prime Time. Matt's fried chicken.

And his delicious apple crisp!

Raglan Road's Shepherd's Pie

Raglan Road's Fish & Chips

We split their famous bread pudding for dessert.
Highly recommend it!

Another famous dessert- the Magic Kingdom's
Dole Whip!

We had an adults' only dinner at Sanaa- an Indian-themed restaurant at a resort.
This was their bread service with several types of Indian bread and chutneys, hummus, etc.

Matt ordered the butter chicken & short ribs

I really enjoyed their rack of lamb

And a very large & delicious dessert platter for the table

One morning we had a special breakfast treat- Kona Cafe! My POG juice (passion fruit, orange, guava juice) and pineapple macadamia nut pancakes

Matt's Tonga Toast

We had to try the cronut-- very light & tasty!

The dessert trolley at Be Our Guest.  I would
recommend the strawberry cupcake :)

So now that we're all starving, I will sign off so we can grab a snack salad. And go run a few miles. Oh maybe that's just me...

Texas Triangle Number 3

We did it! Not only did Matt & I survive our third year of Texas Triangle (DFW--> Houston --> El Paso --> DFW) but we also survived 2013! Both were honestly great though a little exhausting. Regarding our trip, it was great celebrating Christmas with both of our families and we loved all the family time we got. We have a lot of unpacking and getting life settled to do, so instead of going into a lot of detail, here is a quick picture recap of our 8-day trip!

Making sugar cookies with my niece

Celebrating Matt's birthday at a
local pizzeria. So good!

Stockings on Christmas morning!

Christmas morning cinnamon rolls

Christmas afternoon at the park. Guys
tossing the Frisbee. 

Love this picture of my brother and his daughter :)

While in El Paso, we visited Hueco Tanks state park. 

Starting to climb up

One of the huecos, or water tanks.

All the climbing cousins!

We definitely had a great time but we're glad to be home for New Years! Our 2013 was a great year and I hope 2014 is just as full of blessings and time with family. 

Hope you have a great & safe New Years!

Weekend Festivities, Part B

If you missed my post from yesterday (I know, 2 posts in 2 days!), just scroll down and catch up on what we did this past Saturday. Sunday was also filled with holiday-themed adventures, this time in Grapevine. 

Following church Sunday morning and a quick lunch at home, we headed to downtown Grapevine as they always decorate Main Street. We weren't the only ones with that idea as it was certainly a popular activity that day. Plus, the weather was perfect (sunny, temperatures in the upper 50s) so we enjoyed being outdoors! 

Along Main Street- love the Parisian themed decorations
outside a French bakery!

After walking around and doing some window shopping, we took the shuttle to the Gaylord Texan. For anyone interested in visiting, I highly recommend taking the shuttle instead of driving to the Gaylord as it is substantially cheaper. Anyway, at this time of year the Gaylord is known for its ICE exhibits (large ice carvings, 9 degrees Fahrenheit) which I've heard are really cool (pun intended). But the cost of admission wasn't quite in our budget this year so we skipped out on that. We still had a lot of fun walking around the large resort, people-watching, and looking at the Christmas decorations. 

Christmas everywhere!

Very cool model train set

Matt spotted this detail: shotgun shell Christmas lights!

Poor lighting but cool gingerbread display 

Gotta have a margarita glass Christmas tree.
This is Texas after all.

We ended our visit with some ice cream. I have no clue why
they didn't have Blue Bell-- what's more
Texan than that?

We then got the shuttle back, walked to the car, and came home. Matt finished wrapping his Christmas gifts to me so we are now DONE with our Christmas shopping. We met up with some friends for dinner and then went to small group for Bible study. Once we got home I realized how exhausted I was and pretty much went straight to bed. I love 9:30 bed times! 

We had a great and much more eventful weekend than our normal study-filled two days. It was fun to get out, explore the area some more, and see the Christmas decorations!