Life update

First time seeing the sun in a while!

When we got back from our vacation it was cloudy and rainy. The very next day the sun was out and it was 72 degrees! Finn and I spent most of the day outside enjoying the weather. Since Finn was on his vacation he needed a bath desperately. He doesn't like water very much but he stank! Finn's outgrown his toys. We've been meaning to get more interactive puzzle toys but I didn't get around to until this past weekend. While Guy was in Dallas for a conference I took him to Petco and we bought a few items. I spent more than I wanted to but we haven't really bought him new toys since I left Iowa.

Bath Day

I got him two puzzle toys, a new kong, jolly ball and a squeaky football. He loves caring his jolly ball around. The jolly ball also floats on water so hopefully this summer we can teach Finn to swim and play with it.

On Friday I drove and met Guy in Dallas so we could go to the temple. Oh all the temples I've been in this is my least favorite. It feels cramped and old. On Saturday as I was walking Finn he chased a cat up a tree. Life is never dull around here.

Jolly Ball!

New toys

Cat in a tree. 

Cruise to the Bahamas

Scale basic model of Disney cruise ships

Continuing with my family reunion we left from the parks to do a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas. Monday morning we left for the airport to then take the shuttle from the airport to Port Canaveral, Florida. My brother met up with us later that morning to join us on the cruise. We did a 4 Night cruise through the Bahams that included one day at sea. Our boat was the Disney Dream.

Sunset the first night

On Monday we boarded the ship. Disney is all about families so before you can enter the ship they announce your family to the crew and then you walk onto the ship. After you get on the ship there's basically non-stop activities. As soon as we got on the boat my dad gave us a brief tour of where things are at. There's a kid specific deck as well as adult only areas. There are also several family zones on the boat. Guy and I also played mini golf on one of the top decks and we rode the aquaduck. The aquaduck is a waterslide that is on the top of the cruise ship. It goes out over the ocean. The day we rode it though we were so cold! Usually they keep the water heated but because someone ahead of us had gotten stuck they turned off the water and then turned it back on so by the time we rode it the water hadn't warmed up yet. We also played shuffleboard before the deck cast away party.

Taking in the view

We ate dinner in one of the three main dinning facilities. It's called The Enchanted Garden. The restaurant has flower lights hanging from the ceiling that open and close while you are eating. After dinner we went and participated in the family game show. Then we went to see the "Golden Mickeys." The Golden mickeys pay tribute to the award that Walt Disney created to give out to those in the company. Basically the show is a broadway type show lasting an hour. The first night we saw it they preformed songs from some of the more popular disney movies.

The next day was spent entirely at sea. I had my first ever mani/pedi. I like pedicures more than manicures but both felt nice after having run the marathon. All of the women got mani/pedi's while the men had their own spa day. For their spa day they went to the sauna. Guy's favorite part was sitting in the heated tile chair. He said it was very relaxing and just the right temperature. Also during the day, Guy and I went and saw Rogue One. Disney cruise ships play recently released movies so we were able to catch up on several movies. We participated in other family trivia games and Guy went on a tour of the boat that talked about all of the detail/art work. There were some pretty interesting facts.

For dinner that night we ate in the Royal Palace. I wasn't super impressed with the design of this one as much but the food was still pretty good. Our wait staff was Indian and Brazilian. Later that night we went and watched the next day of the golden mickeys. Tuesday's theme was Villans. So they had some of the popular song from all of the villians. For example, Be prepared from the Lion King and Cruella de Vil. I also was able to layout side and read my book. I learned though that it makes my sea sickness worse.

On Wednesday we docked at Castaway Cay. Castaway Cay is an island in the Bahamas that Disney has a 100 year lease on. We got to spend the entire day on the island. We docked early in the morning. Those of us who were doing the Castaway Cay challenge (5k on the island after the WDW marathon weekend) were let off the boat early. We ran our 5k. Guy beasted and finished probably 10th overall. Keith finished behind him then dad. My mom, Rachel and I finished in about 50 minutes. We walked a 16 minute mile pace. It was nice being able to cruise along the coast. After the race we came back onto the ship for breakfast. Then we de-boarded with everyone else. We went to swim out at pelican point. Pelican point as this pier thing that you can swim out to and then on it is are water slides (2) that you can go down. We swam for a while but it was pretty cold so Guy and I went to lay in the sun (shade for him). After a while we ate lunch and then participated in a whale dig. The whale dig was based in an area where they had found whale bones on the island. We were digging trying to find whale teeth. It was actually pretty fun. Guy found a few teeth and then a fin.

5k Castaway Challenge Runners

After the whale dig we got to do the excursion my parents had paid for. We went and fed sting rays and then got to snorkel with them. The sting rays were pretty fun to feed. Keith got his finger bit by one of them so that was pretty exciting. It was really neat to be able to snorkel with them. The sting rays bury themselves in the sand so all you can see is their eyes. Disney has their sting rays trained so there aren't any barbs on the tails. I also learned that there is one male and 70 females. The sting rays were our favorite activity.

When we got back on the boat Guy and I went and saw Dr. Strange. I didn't like the movie very much but I was still glad we saw it. We ate dinner again in the Royal Place. For dinner our Indian server made curry for the men. Guy said it was the best meal he had ever eaten. His favorite meal on the cruise. That night was pirates night. So we saw a pirate show and then they let off fireworks. It was exciting and great to see.

The next day we cruised down to Nassau. We did a city tour and saw the garden zoo. It was really nice to see the garden but the downside was that after the hurricane hit they were still trying to rebuild and clean up. I'm sure that the gardens were much prettier before. It was still fun to be able to see them though. While in the zoo we got to see marching flamingos. Keith posed as a flamingo in the gardens as they marched around him. While in the zoo we also got to feed birds. I opted out of that one but Guy fed them. He had fun but he liked swimming with the stingrays more.

Guy had won a free tanzanite necklace from a drawing earlier in the week so we got to go and pick that up in the market place. We had to be back on the boat earlier since there was a storm coming so we went and watched the movie Moana.

Animator's Palet

That night we ate dinner in my favorite restaurant. This one was called the animators pallet. The design is that the restaurant is sketches of characters from movies. The ceiling changed colors as well. They also had screens all around and Crush from Finding Nemo came out and talked/interacted with guests during dinner. It was really nice! That night we also saw the last of the golden mickeys. This one was entitled Believe. I didn't like it as much but I did like the music they did overall for it. We packed up our suitcases that night. The cruise will check you and your bag in for your flight if you leave them the flight information. It's pretty convenient.

Picking up Finn to go home

The next morning was sad and bittersweet. We ate breakfast on the cruise ship and then disembarked for the busses back to the airport. Guy and I looked at booking another Disney Cruise while on board (10% discount) but we didn't like that they didn't have all of the dates yet for 2018 so we decided to not book another one just yet. I also learned that dramamine is good for me for helping with the sea sickness but it tends to make me really drowsy. Hopefully with the next cruise we can get our sea legs faster.

We both would recommend a Disney Cruise to anyone who wants to try one.

WDW Marathon Weekend 2017

This past weekend Guy and I went to Walt Disney World to participate in Marathon Weekend 2017. Guy signed up to run the half-marathon. I signed up to run the Dopey Challenge. The dopey challenge involves running the 5k, then the 10k the next day, followed by the half-marathon the following day and ending with the marathon. In other words you run back to back to back to back over the weekend. We've spent the last 7 months training for this weekend. My parents and one of my sisters and her husband also participated.

The first day we got to Orlando we went to the airport to pick up our race gear. They had an expo there where you could check out all kinds of running gear and other merchandise. It was fun seeing all of the different vendors. We got to meet Jeff Galloway! Jeff Galloway is an olympic athlete who now writes most of the training programs for RunDisney. I trained for the race using his run-walk-run method. At the expo they had an inspiration station. Here people could make signs and the runners could get a temporary tattoo. We all decided to get one and

Finished the 5k

Thursday morning was the 5k. Because of how many people do the Disney races, each participant needs to be lined up in their corals before 5 am. This means a 3 am wake up call. Rachel, Keith, my dad and I got up and left to the race. The weather was pretty nice when we ran it. Along the race are different characters that you can stop and get a picture with. I didn't wait in line for any pictures but I did take a few pictures of the characters as I ran by. The 5k course goes through and around Epcot.

LtoR Guy, Allison, Keith, Rachel, Wendy, James

After the race we went as a family to the Magic Kingdom. We walked A LOT! Probably more than we should have. It was Guy's and Keith's first time though so we wanted to let them see as much of it as possible. Guy's favorite ride was Space Mountain. I liked that one but I also really enjoy the Seven Dwarves Mine train. One of the things Disney has started doing is making the wait queue more interactive. We ended up staying out until almost 10 pm. Pretty late considering we got up early the next morning

Finished the 10k

Friday morning we had a 2:30 am wake up call. Keith, Rachel, Dad and I got up and went to the 10k line up. The 10k course is similar to the 5k except you run more on the highway and the parking lot. We ran out for a mile from the parking lot then turned around and went back the way we came to get to the "course". After we finished running we met up with my mom and Guy and went to Disney's Hollywood Studios. There's not as much to ride in the Studios but there are a few. Guy's favorite ride was the Tower of terror. It drops you from a height than shoots back up and drops you again. Each time you ride it there's a different drop sequence so you never have the same ride. While there we also watched a few shows. We got to see Storm Troopers storm the park. The last ride of the day we did was called Toy Story Mania. It's a 3D game where you try and pop as many targets as you can to get the most points. Guy and Keith tied for 1st. Guy in a last minute effort beat me.

Storm Troopers

Later that night the weather started to pick up so RunDisney announced that they were monitoring the weather conditions. Typically a race is held rain or shine. There was a pretty strong thunderstorm moving in and because of the chance of lightning at 7 pm Disney decided to cancel the half marathon. I was kind of bummed about that since we had trained for it but it is what it is. Disney is letting us either defer our race or get park tickets or get a gift card refund. We decided just to defer to a different race.

Animal Kingdom

Saturday morning since the half was cancelled we all slept in. Once we woke up we went straight to the Animal Kingdom. It was pretty cool and rainy so it wasn't a ton of fun to be outside. One of our favorite things in the park was the African Safari. Disney had just has a baby elephant born and introduced back in to the herd so it was exciting to see her out! Disney drives you through the landscape and all of the area is an open safari ground so it was fun to see the animals eating breakfast. We saw two shows in the animal kingdom; Finding Nemo the musical and The Lion King. We wanted to ride Expedition Everest (an awesome roller coaster) but it was closed and we didn't want to stay around waiting for it. We did walk about 13 miles in the park though to make up for no race. We went to bed early that night since the marathon was the next day.

Baby Elephant chasing mom

Freezing before the final race

Sunday morning we woke up at 2:30 and left for the marathon. It was SO COLD! I think the temperature was 25 and the feels like was 20. Since you have to be in your corals for several hours we just about froze. I had as many layers on as I had packed but I was still cold. At the 7 mile mark we ran past the hotel we stayed in. I was able to shed a few layers and left them with Guy and mom. The marathon was a lot of fun! You were able to run through the parks and then on the highway they put different characters along the way. Some of the characters are those that aren't often seen. There's also a lot of people to cheer you on the way and a lot of people around you so you never feel like you are in no man's land. At mile 18 you run into the ESPN Sports Center and they have your picture on the big screen. I finished the marathon in 5 hours 32 minutes. A little slower than my practice marathon but I'm proud of it over all. I still got my dopey challenge medal and goofy medal (marathon and half-marathon) even though I didn't technically do the half-marathon.

Finished the marathon!

After we got cleaned up we went to meet mom and Guy who were already in Epcot. They went earlier in the day since it was going to take us longer to get there. It was still pretty cool in the park so we didn't stay to long. Plus we were hungry so we decided to bail after a little bit there. I wanted to take Guy to see the fireworks but we ended up skipping them since I was cold and we didn't want to go back out.  We ate at the buffet that night then all went to bed early since we were wiped. We got up early the next morning to head to the airport to catch the bus to our cruise.

A terrible picture but a brief look at all the medals. The castaway one is from our cruise.