Disneyland – Hoots of a Night Al

Beauty, Decor, Disneyland, Married Life, Monthly Favorites

February Favorites!

March 1, 2014 6 Comments

It’s March! What?! I’m excited for springtime colors and (hopefully) pretty weather, but I’ll miss boots, hoodies, and chili! Today marks March 1st along with the end of February, so I wanted to share a few of my February Favorites with y’all…

Disneyland: I haven’t really talked about it much here, but Louis and I went to Disneyland again from February 6-10, and it was so fun! We spent 3.5 days at the park enjoying rides, sharing ice cream, and meeting characters. I also got my first two pairs of Mickey ears! Spending all summer there made it feel like “home,” so we were happy to visit again. Now we have equal love for the Disney Resorts on both coasts! Guess we need to go to some international parks now? 😉 I need to post some trip recaps soon!

The Monuments Men: We were so excited for The Monuments Men to come out this February, but it didn’t get very good reviews (scoring only 34% on Rotten Tomatoes). Thankfully, we decided to risk it anyway, and I’m so happy we did! It was funny, emotional, and (loosely) based on a great, true story. I’d definitely recommend it if you’re a fan of Clooney, Damon, Murray & Goodman! My only criticism would have been more Bill Murray screen time because his character was pretty hilarious (as always)!

Revlon Matte Balm in Sultry & Standout: I’ve already blogged my love for Revlon’s new(ish) Matte Balms, but I seriously loved wearing them this month. I even went against my better judgement and wore Standout to substitute for Middle Schoolers. Sultry has been my go-to everyday lip product because it packs just enough of a punch to be dramatic without making me look stupid. So..yay for that.

Nalgene: This one’s kind of silly, but I’ve been using my favorite Nalgene a lot more lately. I’ve always been a big water drinker, but this post, on Sweat Stretch Eat encouraged me to drink even more and keep track of how much I drink to ensure I get enough each day. Since my Nalgene is 32 oz, it’s easy to keep track of exactly how much I’ve consumed. Plus, since it has a screw on lid, it’s easy to carry around with me. And that bright orange? Love. I snagged mine at Target for under $10, and they have tons of great colors if you’re interested!

Chevron Ombré Tile: I snagged this Chevron Ombré Tile at Target on the clearance rack at the beginning of February to add to our bedroom for $9! It’s still listed at $19.99 on their website, and I could only find a tiny white-on-white ding on mine, so I was psyched! It matches our bedroom wall perfectly, and Lou said it’s his new favorite thing in our room, so I’d say that’s a success. It’s much more vibrant in person, but you know I had to add that Instagram filter.

Downton Abbey: Another season of Downton Abbey has come and gone (everyone in the UK is like…uh, ya, we know.) much too quickly. I look forward to this show every week, and my favorite thing may just be the costuming…or the accents. I’ve started saying the words blueberry, strawberry, and spoon with a British accent for some insane reason (I’m not making this up unfortunately), and I can only assume it’s due to this show. My one, very serious, qualm is how short the seasons are! I’m sure it costs about $1.7 million (uhh..or pounds?) to produce each historically accurate (maybe?) episode, but come on. We need at LEAST 12 episodes a season. Please producers, listen up. Give us more Downton.

Super Nintendo: Yes, you read that correctly. My hubbs is a computer genius (not exaggerating), and he bought this mega-cheap computer (I think it was like $25?) called a Raspberry Pi (it’s the cute little rainbow box below) several months ago (could I have had any more parenthesis in this sentence? So sorry.). He’s used it for various projects here and there, but this month he made the incredible decision to turn it into a video game console. We can now download and play virtually any video game from the original Nintendo up to a Playstation 1. I’m not much into current video games, but Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 were my jam back in the day. He can also download old school arcade games. We bought a USB Super Nintendo controller off Amazon, and I’m pretty sure we’ve played almost every day since he set it up. Our current fave is Diddy’s Kong Quest, since we beat Donkey Kong Country. Of course, Mario has to sneak in every once in awhile, too. I really can’t get enough of it. Talk about cheap entertainment.

Hope y’all’s Februarys were amazing, and you’re ready to jump into spring!

California, Disney, Disneyland, Family, Travel

Sassy Kat Does Disneyland!

August 22, 2013 3 Comments

When one of my favorite people is within an hour of one of my favorite places, what else is there to do besides go to DISNEYLAND?! My mom has been with my dad before, but they visited in 1980! Check this out…

How much are you loving my mom’s purple tube top and my dad’s short white shorts? Surely not as much as I am. Anyway, as I was saying…it was Sunday, and we were heading to Disneyland!

How cute is my mom?? We were up early and leaving the hotel around 5:30 AM to get to Disneyland by park opening, and of course it started drizzling (for the first time ALL summer) as we were headed out. I’m pretty sure this Disney poncho is one Amy got on a Disney World trip in high school. Our family has been Disney fans for quite some time 🙂

When we finally arrived at the park, we hopped on a tram and headed to Disneyland!

We were obviously super psyched to be there. We lined up on Main Street right in front of the castle, and as soon as the park officially opened, we headed straight for Fantasyland. My mom’s favorite Disney ride is Peter Pan’s Flight, so we wanted to make that our first ride of the day.

After boarding a magical flying ship to travel over London with Peter, we decided to enjoy the rest of Fantasyland. That included Snow White’s Scary Adventure (which actually seriously scares me), Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (which ends with the rider traveling to Hell…I can’t make this stuff up), and pictures in front of some various Fantasyland landmarks.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride — Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride

Trying to pull the sword out of the stone behind Sleeping Beauty Castle!

In front of the teacups and Matterhorn Mountain!

We also made sure to enjoy a couple of boat rides near Fantasyland. The first was Storybook Land Canal boats. This ride was so cute! We hadn’t been on it before, and it was full of miniature sculptures from various Disney movies. The sights may look unimpressive below, but they were beautifully crafted and the accompanying music and tour guide really made this ride special.

Sultan's Palace from Aladdin — Sultan’s Palace from Aladdin

Cinderella Castle! (not quite as big as the one in Walt Disney World...) — Sleeping Beauty’s Castle (this one looks more like the replica in Disneyland Paris, I think!)

Another boat ride we had to enjoy was “it’s a small world.” No trip to a Disney park is complete without riding this classic at least once. Even though this ride is also at Disney World, the Disneyland version has integrated some Disney characters and princesses throughout their version of the ride. It was fun to try to seek them out in their respective countries and states! I won’t bore you with pictures of the inside of the ride, but trust me that it’s a happy, fun Disney classic!

The facade here is much larger than Disney World's! — The facade here is much larger than Disney World’s!

The happiest cruise that ever sailed!

We ran into Princess Merida outside of "it's a small world!" — We ran into Princess Merida outside of “it’s a small world!”

We then made the very unfortunate decision to go on Finding Nemo Submarines. We had heard great things about how fun it was. Nope. It was so crowded and claustrophobic. My mom immediately pulled out her fan to cool herself off, and poor Louis was so tall he could barely bend down far enough to see out of the submarine window. We thought the ride would never end.

You may notice above that we all have on Mickey or Minnie shirts. I am always down for wearing character shirts, but Louis isn’t such a huge fan. My mom really wanted us all in Disney shirts for pictures though. She asked Louis if she promised to ride Space Mountain if he would bite the bullet and wear a Mickey shirt. He only agreed if she would ride Splash Mountain as well. Shocking all of us (probably herself most of all), she AGREED! Louis and I hustled over to the Disney store before she arrived and found the coolest Mickey shirt I’ve ever seen. Then, my poor mom was locked into facing her fear of thrill rides. After Fantasyland, we finally convinced her it was time to tackle her first terror of the day: Space Mountain.

I can safely promise to everyone reading this, that I have never laughed as hard in my ENTIRE LIFE as I did when my mom rode Space Mountain. I was laughing so hard I almost threw up. Yes. Threw up from laughter.

In line for the ride. — In line for the ride…

Too many great things going on in this photo.

My mom seriously SCREAMED the entire ride. She alternated between, “OH MY GOSH!!!”, “HELP!!!!!”, AND “I’M GOING TO DIE!!!!!!”. I told Louis later, I would have paid $500 for a video of her on the ride. It was probably the highlight of my entire summer.

After the thrill of Space Mountain, we decided something slightly tamer was in order. We hopped on Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, and my mom promptly tripled my score! She’s like some sort of shooting wizard!

We then headed over to New Orleans Square to enjoy Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and lunch at French Market. On our way there, we stopped for a picture with Aladdin and Jasmine.

With mom in the Court of Angels in New Orleans Square!

Then, with a tummy full of yummy French food and after much encouragement from us, my mom decided it was time to tackle Splash Mountain. We lent her one of our Disney World ponchos and sped through the line with the FastPasses Louis had wisely obtained. The funniest part of this journey was after the drop inside the mountain in the darkness. Once we reached that drop, my mom started screaming, “I PASSED OUT! I NEED TO GET OFF THE RIDE! I’M PASSED OUT!” I had to control my laughter long enough to assure her that she was not passed out, since she was talking to me. I still don’t know how she convinced herself to get on this ride! I’m so proud of how brave she was! Check out what a champ she was…

After getting soaked on Splash Mountain, we headed to the bathroom, so my mom could change out of her wet clothes. She really came prepared! 🙂 Knowing that Space and Splash were over, it was like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders! We set off to enjoy the rest of the day. First up was character pictures!

Mom enjoying tea with Minnie at her home!

After hanging around in Toontown for a bit, we decided to do some souvenir shopping before dinner on Main Street. As we were walking towards Main Street, I ran into a cast member I met on 4th of July. His name was Levi, and he was so friendly. He remembered me as well, and while we talked, I told him how my mom was visiting Disneyland, and we were spending the day fitting in all of her favorite things. He asked us to hold on for a moment, and when he came back, he told us he had put us on the list for VIP Fireworks viewing!!! We were soooo excited! I know it sounds cheesy, but I seriously think God had me meet him on July 4th, so I would see him again with my mom and be able to have VIP seats for her Disney day. Full of excitement we headed to look for my mom a Disney ornament and Henry some monogrammed Mickey ears! You’re never too young to start being a Disney fan, after all.

We also stopped on Main Street to watch Mickey’s Soundsational Parade. It’s such an amazing parade, and while the princess float was going by, Belle noticed my mom and waved right at her! She was beautiful…definitely still my favorite princess!

After the parade, my mom treated us to a delicious dinner at Carnation Cafe on Main Street. We enjoyed the special of the day (Shrimp Alfredo Penne Pasta), and Louis ordered Mac ‘n Cheese (because he’s a big kid at heart).

Not long after dinner, it was time to grab our snacks for Magical Fireworks Spectacular and head to our VIP seats! The view was absolutely incredible. The show was so beautiful, and I’m so thankful my mom got to experience it with us from our amazing seats.

After the Magical show, we strolled over to enjoy Fantasmic! in the Rivers of America. Finally, we enjoyed a late night ride on Haunted Mansion and snapped some pictures in front of the castle as the park was closing for the evening.

The beautiful castle with Walt waving goodbye for the night!

It was such an amazing day, and I wouldn’t have changed a thing about it! I loved how my mom was brave enough to ride Splash & Space Mountain. I loved how we got to meet so many characters. I loved that we opened and closed the park. And I LOVED that we got VIP seats for the fireworks. We had SUCH a blast, and I love that we got to experience Disneyland with my mom! Hopefully next time we head to a Disney park, it will be with the whole family!

Beauty, California, Disney, Disneyland, Married Life, Travel

God Bless America & Disneyland

July 12, 2013 4 Comments

Since Louis & I are in Cali, we couldn’t attend my parents annual 4th of July Party this year. To distract ourselves from that, we decided to spend our Independence Day at Disneyland. Nothing’s as great as being with family, but we definitely had a fun day! Since we are in a hotel, I didn’t get to decorate for America’s Birthday. To appease my pain, I decided to decorate my body as much as I could. Okay, that sounded weird. What I mean is, I wore red, white, and blue eyeshadow and painted my nails navy and glitter! It was probably too much, but when else can you be that patriotic and not be judged?

For anyone DYING to recreate this American look, the products are as follows: Blue-Ulta eyeshadow, Red-Urban Decay Gash, White-MAC Blanc Type. My eyeliner is Maybelline Unstoppable Eyeliner in Onyx, and my mascara is Maybelline Falsies in Blackest Black.

For my nails, I painted two coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Navy Baby. Once that dried I added a stripe of Essie Beyond Cozy for some American sparkle.

Don’t worry, I don’t always do my makeup and nails this obnoxiously, but I figured I might as well go all out for the 4th!

Louis and I headed to Disney California Adventure first, so we could ride the thrills over there before heading to Disneyland for fireworks! It was a beautiful, sunny, hot day. We rode Tower of Terror THREE times without a wait! I guess everyone wanted to spend their day in Disneyland, and we were happy to have DCA to ourselves.

After Tower of Terror, we enjoyed the Disney Animation Academy building (a nice break from the heat), Toy Story Mania (Louis’s fave), California Screamin’ (another great way to cool off…it’s speedy!), and Soarin’ over California (one of my faves). Those are all favorites of ours, so I’m happy we were able to enjoy them! We figured Disneyland may reach capacity for the fireworks, so we headed over there around 3:30 PM to enjoy more rides. We grabbed lunch right away (corn dog for me! Yummmmm.) and enjoyed some people watching in Frontierland. After a bit of relaxation, we headed to ride Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion. Is there a better way to celebrate Independence Day than with Pirates and Ghosts? We didn’t think so. By then it was almost 6:00, so we decided to get a spot for Mickey’s Soundsational Parade.

The parade was cute and a fun way to see several of my favorite characters. We also had a great view of Sleeping Beauty Castle and of Matterhorn Mountain.

As you can see, it was a beautiful, blue sky day! Another thing it was that day? CROWDED. The fireworks were scheduled for 9:30 PM that night. Louis and I assumed we could stake out a good spot around 8:00 PM. However, when we got our seats for the parade at 6:00 PM, there were already people saving seats for the fireworks! Even crazier, we talked to the people sitting behind us, and they had been saving their benches since 8:00 AM!!! They hadn’t gone on any rides or anything! They took turns grabbing food and using the restroom, and that was it! Louis and I weren’t that insane, but we decided to stay put to keep our spots for the fireworks show. While Louis saved our seats, I grabbed him a Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bar and a nice cold Coca Cola to wash it down (along with some Space Mountain FastPasses!). The crowds were so crazy and thick, that it was almost impossible for me to get back to him!

The time went by surprisingly fast as we chatted with the fellow Disney lovers sitting around us. We all exchanged stories, tips, and memories, and had a great time. Soon the castle was lit up for the evening.

Finally, 9:30 arrived and the incredible fireworks show began! The entire thing was probably around 20-30 minutes with speaking interludes, fireworks synced to patriotic music, and projections on the castle. I can’t lie, I definitely teared up a few times, while thinking about how proud I am to be an American! The show was beautiful, whimsical, patriotic, fun, and magical! Everything I have come to expect from Disney! The pictures below are a small sampling of one portion of the show, but they definitely don’t do it justice. The final picture is from the finale, which was obviously too bright and amazing for my iPhone camera to handle! Haha!

When the amazing show came to an end, we headed toward TomorrowLand because I was craving a yummy Mickey Pretzel. We perused the gift shops until our Space Mountain FastPasses were eligible, and then we hopped on our rocket to outer space! Since Louis had work the next day, once our rocket returned to earth, we decided it was time to head home. I ~~passed out~~ kept Louis company on the drive back, and we got back to the hotel around 1:00 AM. After our showers, we fell into bed, exhausted from our long, exciting 4th of July. It was a fun-filled day and a great way to celebrate America!

California, Disney, Disneyland, Married Life, Travel

Disney Dreams

July 1, 2013 8 Comments

Exciting news! Louis and I spent last Sunday at Disneyland! We took the big financial plunge and invested in annual passes, so we can enjoy the parks all summer long. We felt SUPER official and very “legit Disney fans” having our official passes with our names on them and everything! Definitely worth the chunk of change to us. Plus, we only have to spend 6 days in the parks for them to “pay for themselves.” Also, we get 15% off food, and 20% merchandise in the parks! Another big plus is it covers parking, which is $16 a day (ouch!). All of the positives added with our love of all things Disney meant the passes were the perfect purchase for us!

Back to our first trip. We are staying in La Jolla, which is about an hour and a half from Anaheim where Disneyland is located. We woke up around 4:45 AM to leave at our planned time of 5:30 AM! EARLY. Thankfully, we’re still on “Texas time,” so it felt 2 hours later to us! After a quick stop at Ralph’s to grab some breakfast, we hit the road! Thanks to Louis’s lead-foot, Disney Way popped up on our map after only about 45 minutes of driving! Apparently, the speed limit wasn’t 85 MPH…oops?

So, we rolled into the Mickey ‘n Friends parking garage at about 7 AM…only 30 minutes earlier than planned 🙂 We parked on Daisy Duck’s level and ~~sprinted~~ strolled down to the tram. We couldn’t contain our smiles as we rode towards the park!

We hopped off the tram and power-walked to the gate. We arrived 45 minutes before the park even opened! Haha! Typical over-zealous Disney lovers! We stood waiting and chatting with fellow passholders about the best rides to go on first and extra park tips. Since it was our first time at Disneyland, we were soaking up any information we could!

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, we were let into the park! We rushed to adventure land, as we planned to go on Indiana Jones Adventure first. As soon as the rope dropped we ran over and were one of the first people on the ride! The theming was incredible, and it was SO much fun!

After Indiana Jones Adventure, we walked toward New Orleans Square to take on some rides. It felt like we had the park to ourselves! We were able to ride Pirates of the Caribbean with an entire boat to ourselves! It was so fun to experience the Disneyland version of the ride with just the two of us. And I must say, the Disneyland version was much more fun than the Disney World one!

We hopped off our boat and walked right on to another one of our favorites…Haunted Mansion!

It was fun to see all of the differences between this version and Disney World’s, but I think DW’s version takes the cake this time! We stepped out of our Doom Buggies (with a hitchhiking ghost!!!), and walked right on to Splash Mountain…with our ponchos on of course! We stayed relatively dry, and loved following Briar Rabbit through his adventures. We then stepped onto The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh to dry off a bit from Splash Mountain. And this was all before 10:00 AM!

It was time to dry another Disneyland classic, so we walked over to Matterhorn Bobsleds. It was quite obvious to our bodies that this ride was built quite a while ago…I think my tailbone is still bruised!

After that, we strolled over to another Disney classic and were met with our first line! It was well worth the wait though! Disneyland’s Space Mountain was AWESOME. I think it was my favorite ride of the day!!! I can’t wait to go on it again.

After Space Mountain, Louis grabbed his favorite Disney snack (a churro), and we decided to head over to Disneyland’s 2nd park, Disney California Adventure. Several parts of it really reminded us of Disney World’s Hollywood Studios because it had an “old Hollywood” feel. We journeyed over to the newest portion of DCA, which holds Cars Land!

This area is themed SO cute! Louis and I aren’t huge Cars fans, but this area was so fun to walk around. The one big downside is new at Disney=CROWDED. They wait for the main ride, Radiator Springs Racers, was OVER 2 and a half hours ALL day! We explored the rest of the park and rode Tower of Terror, California Screamin’ (twice!), Toy Story Mania (Louis’s favorite in DW), Little Mermaid (I know my mom will love this one!), and strolled back to Cars Land to tackle the wait for Radiator Springs Racers. We waited TWO AND A HALF HOURS. Ugh. We were dying to get out of line, but the ride was fun! Granted, it wasn’t worth that long of a wait. However, at least we can say we experienced it! We’ll only ride it again this summer if we can snag some fastpasses though!

That long line did us in, and we walked out of the park to head home surprisingly early! We decided to eat McDonald’s for dinner instead of paying 5 times as much for the same amount of food in the park! Hey, our annual passes don’t give us THAT big of a discount! Disney is expensive! Even though or feet were killing us, on the way home we were already planning our strategy for our next trip! We’ve actually already returned since I’ve written this…but that’s for another post! 🙂

Can’t wait to share our remaining Disney adventures we have planned for the summer!