Disney

Jeff took me to Disney this year for my very first trip ever. He hadn't been since he was little and didn't remember a lot so it was a blast experiencing the whole thing together. The only this is we really didn't take the many pics cause we were too busy between Disney and California Adventure. We got the maps and rode every ride. We were there for 3 days which was plenty of time to leave us exhausted and smiling.
On one of the mornings that we were there we had a "Magic Morning" which lets you into the park an hour early and some of the sections of the park are open. So we rode splash mountain for I think the 3rd time and we had the ride all to ourselves.
I apologize that all the pics are of me. We actually had someone take a pic of Jeff and I standing in front of this very spot but somehow it didn't take and we didn't want to have to bug someone else. This is prime picture taking area and you kinda have to wait for the crowd to clear to get a pic. We went in October during Halloween Time and it really wasn't that crowded but our last day was Saturday and that's when we took all of the pics and Saturday was definitely more crowded.

I couldn't bring myself to buy a pair of ears because really when am I going to use them. But I did want a pic of myself in the ears.
Saturday evening we had ridden everything there was a took a break from Disney and took th bus out to Newport Beach. We got there right at sunset. We walked around for a while checked out the shops then took the bus back to Disney to ride Jeff's favorite ride for the 3rd time (Indiana Jones).
We actually lucked out from what I understand. The only ride that was closed at Disney while we were there was the story book land ride, from what I understand that wasn't bad at all. We had a blast and will probably go to Disney World next time.

Virginia

My trip to Virginia started in a special and unexpected way. It turns out that my flight was a make a wish flight, meaning that there was a little girl and her family that they were flying to Disney World on my flight. So at the gate in the airport they created Cinderella's castle and had the whole place decorated, she even had a cake and presents and this was at 7am. It was so cute and special I have never experienced anything like it before.

Once I got to Va things were very low key which was nice. I had a few extra vacation days this year and got a good deal so Jeff stayed behind in WA. and gave me the chance to spend time with my family. This is her new horse Brummy. He was getting his saddle fitted as he has outgrown his old one.

This is my adorable niece Stella and my new nephew Roy. These are my brother Russell's kids and his wife Chas is kinda cut off of the pic (sorry) but I was kinda just focusing on the kids.

While I was there my mom and I became tourists for the first time and we visited Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home). It was perfect weather, a little cool which is nice when VA can be so hot. The home was amazing, he had incredible gardens, kitchens, and really unique and modern clocks for his time. It was just a really nice day and it has been a while since we've been able to spend time one on one like that so all in all it really didn't matter what we did, we just had fun hanging out. However I would recommend checking out Monticello if you ever get the chance.

Wedding Cake Surprise

Some friend's of mine were getting married and they had a very small budget for their wedding. They were just going to do bunt cakes for their wedding cake. I found out and told them that I would get together with my mother-in-law, who does wedding cakes and I would make their cake for them. Everyone should have a wedding cake and they didn't mind that I would be doing it for them with no real prior experience. So we came up with some suggestions as far as flavor combinations and luckily what they wanted as far as a cake goes was really simple.
So I made them a white lemon cake with blueberry filling. It matched their colors which were white, navy blue and green.
Other than the ribbon they just wanted dots on each layer. Which is fairly easy but hard to try and get the sizing and spacing even. This was really fun to do.










Now that the two layers are put together, I grabbed the flowers and was ready to do the fun part of arranging the flowers on each layer. I pretty much had the freedom to do whatever I wanted as far as flowers go so in order to stick with their colors I got the green spider mums, some smaller mums and then some white stock for contrast.





Well here it is fully assembled in my dining room. Transporting a cake is usually the most difficult part but this was a really small cake and we weren't going very far. I can totally see my imperfections when I look at the cake but it was really fun to do. It's kinda fun to discover new talents.