Hoots of a Night Al

Disney, Disney World, Married Life, Travel, Walt Disney World

Disney World 2013: Part 2

December 23, 2013 5 Comments

Our first morning at Disney started bright and early when we headed to Animal Kingdom for rope drop. We rushed straight to Expedition Everest and rode it multiple times before there was any line! After we got our Everest fill, we headed over to Dinosaur and went on a prehistoric adventure back in tiiiiiiime. Eventually we made our way over to the Africa section of the park and enjoyed Kilimanjaro Safari.

My goal this trip was to get a suitable picture for our 2013 Christmas card, so I couldn’t pass up a picture with Mickey and Minnie in holiday attire! (Side note: Please excuse my bizarre hair waves, untied shoelace, and the weird haze from a fingerprint on my camera lens. Needless to say, this was not our Christmas card photo.)

Already in picture taking mode, we snapped a few (of SEVERAL) shots in front of the Tree of Life.

We were getting hungry for lunch, so we headed to our FAVORITE quick service location in all of Walt Disney World: Flame Tree BBQ. Yum. I could eat their shredded BBQ pork sandwich everyday. The view’s not too bad either. 🙂

After some Expedition Everest selfies we posed for a few more Tree of Life pictures sans Ray Bans..

If you remember from my last post, each park has its own themed 65-foot tree. Animal Kingdom’s had (SHOCKER) animal ornaments all over it. I snapped the shot below on our way out of the park for the day.

We left Animal Kingdom and arrived at Hollywood Studios, where I got a picture of their Christmas tree. Theirs has traditional holiday ornaments but a distinct film reel base.

We were excited to arrive because Hollywood Studios is one of our favorite Disney parks! It has several of our favorite rides that we were ready to enjoy!

We hit up Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Rollercoaster right away because those are two of our favorite (and some of the only) thill rides at Disney World! Also, we had used our Magic Bands to book some Fastpass+ passes for some attractions, so we were excited to use those.

We made sure to ride one of my favorite classics, The Great Movie Ride. I know it’s a little outdated, but I still love “being in the movies!” The Animation Academy is nearby, so we walked over there to get a picture with Wreck it Ralph and Vanellope Von Schweetz. Right before we took this picture, Ralph stepped on my foot, and was trying to apologize (which is difficult given the fact that he can’t talk or move his fingers). I told him it was okay since it’s his job to wreck everything, and he seemed to not feel as guilty.

Eventually we made our way over to The Backlot Tour. We wanted to make sure to ride it because there are rumors it will be torn down soon to make way for a Cars Land expansion similar to the one in Disney’s California Adventure. This ride is always a fun one, and one of the best parts is the exhibit at the end where they have movie props from over the years. I was SO excited this time because they had the traveling clothes and marionettes used by JULIE ANDREWS from THE SOUND OF MUSIC on display! I’m such a huge fan of Julie Andrews, so to see the actual props was very exciting for me! I’m sure Louis thought I was being ridiculous 😉 I mean…I only stared at them for 15-20 minutes…it could have been a lot worse. When we left the Backlot Tour we ran into the one and only Goofy! He decided to dress up like Santa for Christmas, and we couldn’t resist taking a picture with him. Well…I’m sure Louis could have resisted, but I couldn’t 🙂

We were able to use our Fastpass+ passes to bypass the 2-3 hour wait for Toy Story and get on Louis’s favorite ride. My score wasn’t too great, but Louis’s was super high as always! Once it finally got dark, we worked our way over to The Osbourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights! No, not THAT Osbourne family. The father of THIS Osbourne family ~~doesn’t need subtitles when he talks~~ set up a Christmas light display for his daughter several years ago at their home, and it just kept growing. Eventually it go so large that families were trying to sue them for the congestion on their street and the (obviously) bright lights. Finally, Disney stepped in and the entire display was moved to Hollywood Studios and has grown even more over the years! There are millions of lights that are synced up to Christmas songs, and it miraculously “snows” in Florida! It’s definitely a beautiful sight to see! We had a great time enjoying the lights, but it was PACKED, so we didn’t linger over there too long. The rest of our time at Hollywood Studios included more of our favorite rides before we closed down the park. The bus lines were crazy again, so we hopped on another Art of Animation bus. While there we grabbed a snack in their amazing food court to enjoy on our way back to the hotel. I got a chocolate chip cookie and 1 liter of bottled water (even in December the Florida sun can drain you!), and Louis got a beautiful vanilla cupcake!

It was another successful, exhausting day in the parks. I know the clock in the picture above only says 8:30, but when you wake up at 6:00 AM (5:00 AM Texas-time), and spend all day power-walking 10-20 miles to get to all your favorite attractions in the Florida sun you get drained fast! And this was only our first full day! We still had lots of fun to come 🙂

Disney, Disney World, Married Life, Travel, Walt Disney World

Disney World 2013: Part 1

December 22, 2013 5 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, Louis and I enjoyed our 4th trip together to Walt Disney World in Florida. As always, it was so fun and magical, and we enjoyed it during Christmas, which is always extra special. We flew out of Bergstrom Airport in Austin on December 3rd, which frustrated me because it was my first time to fly out of that airport, and I was no longer a Bergstrom! 😉 We ate Salt Lick BBQ while we waited for our flight, and I started rereading Mockingjay, while Louis began a recently purchased Ender’s Game. We also tried the Toy Story antibacterial hand sanitizer I purchased just for our trip, and unfortunately realized it smelled like garbage (literally, like a dumpster). Shame on you, Walgreens $1 shelf.A little after we tossed the hand sanitizer, we boarded our plane to head to Orlando! A few hours later we touched down in sunny, HOT Florida! We slipped on our Magic Bands that we had been selected to test and checked in to board our Magic Express to our hotel. (So much magic already…) We picked red and green Magic Bands to celebrate our Christmas trip!We were greeted by a beautiful Florida sunset on our trip to our resort! We checked in at Pop Century and quickly headed to Epcot. It was going to be open late, and we wanted to catch their amazing Christmas fireworks show: Holiday Illuminations.

Before we could get into the park, we had to upgrade our Disneyland Annual Passports to DISNEY PREMIER PASSPORTS. We are BIG TIME, y’all. Basically, this pass allows us to visit any of the Walt Disney World or Disneyland theme parks for a full calendar year. I feel stupidly honored to be this type of passholder. Disney Nerd Alert. (In case it wasn’t obvious yet.)

Our first stop (after the obligatory entrance shot), was the newly redesigned Test Track. Well…new to us! I think it’s been remodeled for over a year now, but we were excited to try it out! The track is basically identical, but all of the inside elements were changed. It was a lot more modern, and lots of the special effects were really cool! Our favorite part of the remodel was the ability to design your own vehicle to be tested through each of the trials during the ride. You get to pick everything from the design to the engine to the tires to the color! Louis obviously let me pick the color :). After Test Track, we realized it had been quite awhile since we ate lunch, so we headed to Mexico in the World Showcase to enjoy some “authentic” Mexican food. We ate at La Cantina de San Angel, which was PACKED, but we were able to snag a table right by the World Showcase Lagoon. I enjoyed some yummy nachos, and Louis chowed down on some beef tacos. After dinner we rode Maelstrom in Norway and decided to stake out a spot for Illuminations. During Christmastime, this is probably our favorite nighttime show at the parks. After the regular Illuminations show there is an incredible fireworks finale set to “Let There Be Peace On Earth” that drops our jaws every time. We love it so much we made a point to see it twice on our trip, so I’ll try to add a video in my next post about Epcot! After Illuminations the park was clearing out, so we took a little bit of time to explore some of the empty showcase pavilions. We strolled around Morocco for a long time, and realized we have never noticed the beautiful architecture and details. Each of the countries represented in the showcase are fully or partially designed and funded by their respective country. Apparently, the KING of Morocco personally selected items and details to be part of the Morocco pavilion in Epcot! I’m not sure if that means there just isn’t much going on over there or if he’s super into Disney, but either way, their pavilion is beautiful! We made a quick stop in Canada for some obligatory phone booth pictures as well. Apparently, you can actually call the phones in these booths, so if you’re ever lonely or want to check the weather at Epcot give them a ring. Each of the 4 parks has its own 65-foot Christmas tree full of lights and ornaments. Epcot’s tree had ornaments representing all of the countries and twinkly multi-colored lights!

We were pretty pooped at this point from our long day of traveling, so we hopped on the bus back to our resort…sort of. Pop Century’s bus line was crazy long, so we took a bus to the adjoining Art of Animation Resort and simply walked from there back to our room. Aren’t we such savvy Disney travelers? 😉 The Art of Animation is a brand new value-level Disney resort, and it’s really fun! We loved the details and enjoyed exploring the resort as we strolled over to Pop Century.

We were, fittingly, assigned to the 1990’s section of Pop Century, and laughed at many of the pop culture references to the generation we grew up during. I snapped a picture of the stack of floppy disks, and we joked about how most kids these days only know floppy disks as “the save button.” They’ll probably never realize it was something we actually used to use! We had 5 full days left of exploring the parks, so we quickly hit the hay! I can’t believe we packed so much fun into just a few hours at our first park! It was a great sign for the days to come…

Food, Married Life, Recipe

Yummy Breakfast Tacos

November 13, 2013 1 Comment

A few weeks ago, I made a big batch of breakfast tacos to freeze, so Hoot Hubby and I could have a quick breakfast available on rushed mornings. Here are the quick easy steps that allow for an inexpensive, yummy breakfast for a couple of weeks!

First, gather your supplies. We kept it simple with eggs and sausage, but you could definitely add or substitute other ingredients that appeal to you (cheese, veggies, bacon, potatoes, etc.).

Prepare and combine your taco filling choices. First, I cracked and scrambled my 6 eggs. Next, I browned 1 pound of sausage. After my sausage was cooked through, I drained the fat and added my scrambled eggs. I continued stirring and combining my eggs and sausage until the eggs were completely cooked. Once my taco filling was finished, I set it to the side while I cooked my tortillas.

Hoot Hubby suggested making the tortillas for the breakfast tacos fresh. I wasn’t brave enough to make completely homemade tortillas, so I met him in the middle and bought a pack of the raw tortillas that you cook on the stove. The brand that I got was La Abuela, and I found it at Walmart. I’ve also used the HEB brand since then, and they also taste great.

The raw tortillas are very fragile, so be careful! As you can see in the pictures above, I accidentally tore the first one I tried cooking. Don’t worry though, they still taste equally delicious. 🙂 Also note that the tortillas will burn if the stove is too hot (duh). The stove should be on medium to low heat, and the tortilla should be flipped each time it starts bubbling up. Also in the burnt tortilla picture you can see an uncooked spot on the left of the tortilla. When the stove is too hot the tortilla will burn in some spots while other parts remain raw. Make sure all of the tortilla is cooked evenly and none of these raw spots remain. It is okay if there is some slight browning on the tortilla as seen in picture three, just make sure the spots don’t get too dark.

Once the tortillas are cooked, spoon the desired amount of taco filling into the tortilla and roll it up! If you’re eating the breakfast tacos right away, this is your last step, enjoy!

However, we were making a large batch of tacos, so I proceeded to wrap two at a time into paper towels and then place them in Ziploc storage bags in the freezer. Once we were ready to eat them for breakfast, I simply popped them in the microwave for a minute to heat them up! Feel free to sprinkle in some cheese before you heat your tacos or dip them in some salsa for an extra kick!

Half a dozen eggs and a pound of sausage made about 16 breakfast tacos. You could make more (or less) depending on how much filling you use in each taco. Based on the cost of my supplies, I’d say these tacos are less than $.50 each to make! Not too bad, especially when you consider a Whataburger taquito is usually over $2! Hope you enjoy this easy breakfast idea! (And thanks to Hoot Hubby for the idea of making these yummy tacos!)

Humor

Stories of a Sub

November 6, 2013 5 Comments

Today, I had my first assignment as a substitute teacher! I subbed for an 8th grade Social Studies class, and let me tell you…a LOT has changed since I left middle school. Granted that was 10 years ago (what?!), and I was in a bubble with about 15 other nerds in an advanced program. Either I was may more naïve than I realized (probably the case), or kids are exponentially more mature these days. Or perhaps they aren’t more mature, they’re just discussing MUCH more mature subject matter. I didn’t even know about some of the stuff they were talking about today, and I’m almost twice their age!

Figured I’d review some memories of the day, so I’ll never forget my first day of subbing. 🙂

1) Without fail, every class spent several minutes pestering me about how old I was and trying to guess my age. “You’re married?! How old are you??”, “Are you even old enough to be our teacher?”, etc. I generally just pushed off the questions with, “I’m old enough to be your substitute. Work on your assignment!” However, one class kept pushing and were shouting out what they thought my age was. Then the following conversation occurred:

Class: “21? 24? 26? 22?”

Boy: “My mom’s 26!”

Me: “Aren’t you 13 years old?”

Boy: “Oh! I mean my lesbian mom!”

Me: “So not your birth mother?”

Boy: “Nope! My birth mother’s 40! Her partner is 26 though! I actually have 3 moms! My dad’s girlfriend is 32!”

Me: “Okay class, this has nothing to do with the Constitution. Back on task, please.”

I thought kids had learned how to filter what comes out of their mouths by middle school, but I guess not.

2) No matter how many times I reminded everyone of my name, all anyone ever called me was ‘Miss.’ “Hey Miss, can you help me?” “Miss, how your hair so long?” (I never knew how to answer that…because it grew?) “Miss, can I go to the bathroom?” My last name is one syllable. It’s not like it’s difficult to pronounce. Has this always been a thing? I always remember utilizing my teachers’ last names growing up. And what do they call their male teachers/subs? Sir? Mister? Man? Very odd.

3) In 3rd period, the school had the morning announcements over the intercom. About 20 minutes after the announcements, I heard a beep over the intercom, and then someone said, “Excuse me.” I assumed someone had accidentally leaned on the button in the front office and wittily replied, “You’re excused,” thinking no one could hear me but the students. Moments later, the intercom replied, “Umm, I’m sorry. If Theresa is in this classroom please send her to the office.” The students then explained to me that the front office can intercom into any individual classroom to request a student to come to the office. Hopefully they just thought it was a kid being a smart aleck and not the substitute? Oops.

4) You’d think since the students thought I was so young, they would realize that it hasn’t been THAT long since I’ve been out of school. Each class presented a new way of trying to trick me including the following:

While trying to explain what it would be like for them to be in a foreign or unfamiliar place, I used the example of them being in China. One boy quickly replied, “Well I was born in China, Miss!” I instantly asked, “Oh how interesting! In what city?” He immediately blushed and stopped talking as his classmates giggled. SHUT DOWN.
Trying to creatively stack and prop open books and notebooks to hide their cell phones from my view.
Acting like they were working on their assignment when they were really staring at their phone in their lap. Do they not realize how obvious it is when they stare at their crotch for 15 minutes without looking up?
“Miss, he lets us use our phones in class!” Oh really? Then why does that huge sign on the wall say “PHONES SHOULD BE OFF AND OUT OF SIGHT” in bold, red letters?

Nice try kids, but you’ve gotta wake up PRETTY early to fool this girl. Lord, listen to me. I do sound old…maybe I’m not as young and hip as I think I am.

Anyway, all this to say, it was a long, interesting, eye-opening day. Perhaps next time I’ll try to get an assignment at an elementary school…they don’t have cell phones yet, right?

California, Family, La Jolla, Travel

Sassy Kat Visits La Jolla: Part 2

November 4, 2013 2 Comments

Does anyone remember when we were in La Jolla? Well, already 10 weeks have passed since we were there! Crazy, I know! I still wanted to recap some of our time there, so I can remember it in the future! (I have a terrible memory….this may be the only chance I’ll have of any hint of memories of the trip.) When we last left off, my sweet mom (fondly known on the blog as Sassy Kat), was in town visiting us to enjoy La Jolla and take a trip to Disneyland. We also spent a day shopping around La Jolla, but one of the best days was when we went to the aquarium! Louis and I visited there a few weeks before my mom came, and I wanted to head back because I knew she would love it!

Sassy Kat loved looking at the relaxing, beautiful exhibits full of the sea creatures!

We even had a sweet little sting ray smile at us. 🙂

I couldn’t get over how vibrantly colored the exhibits, fish, and underwater plants were! It made me wish I could scuba dive to see them on a grander scale in the ocean as nature intended.

Let’s take a moment to admire how beautiful my mom is. She was totally rocking the Cali style!

Aside from her looks, she’s got a great personality. 😉 Sassy Kat is definitely a kid at heart! We were laughing our way through the aquarium, and I’m sure everyone there thought we were crazy!

We wandered outside to the balcony where you could touch starfish and sea cucumbers in the tide pool exhibits. We mostly enjoyed the beautiful weather, the breath-taking views, and being together.

Seriously, when I told you before that everyone probably thought we were crazy? I wasn’t kidding. We both share the philosophy that life is too short to worry about being embarrassed at the cost of having fun.

We enjoyed one last sweeping view from the aquarium and decided it was time to head down to the water to enjoy some lunch.

When I looked up our restaurant, it was only a mile or so from the aquarium. In Texas, that probably would have meant a straight, flat shot. However, I forgot we were in California. A 30-minute walk up, down, and all around ~~mountains~~ hills, we finally reached our destination! Guess we were burning calories for the food we were about to enjoy?

We couldn’t complain though, because the view on our walk was absolutely stunning, as usual.

Not to mention, I was with my amazing mom, and that’s ALWAYS a fun time!

We finally arrived at Caroline’s Seaside Cafe. If you’re ever in La Jolla, I definitely recommend checking it out! Our sandwiches were delicious, and they had a great assortment of soups, salads, and fresh, yummy dishes. The view was spectacular as well!

If anyone’s curious, my nail polish is “Easy Going” by Sinful Colors. It was a gift from Sassy Kat. 🙂

After our yummy lunch, we wandered down closer to the water. I understand why Californians want to be outside all the time! The sound of the ocean, the cool breeze, the sun shining down…it was all so relaxing. We spent some time sitting on a bench and just enjoying the environment and each other’s company.

Did I mention this is part of a college campus? There were students sitting all over the place studying textbooks and writing papers on their laptops. Um, can you imagine walking out of your dorm and being feet from the ocean? I loved going to Texas A&M, but I can’t deny La Jolla is definitely a little bit more beautiful than good ole’ College Station.

We were pooped after our long walk all around La Jolla, so we headed back to the hotel to rest up until dinner. Once Louis got off work, we all went to Torrey Pines golf course to pick up some souvenirs for my dad. He’s an amazing golfer (like got a full scholarship to play in college and grew up on a golf course amazing), so we knew he’d love some items from the famous course. I only wish he could have visited with my mom, so he could have played! I’m sure he would have dominated all the holes! While we were there, some super important putting championship was going on (how obvious is it I know nothing about golf?), and we were just talking and laughing away right by the players before we realized how quiet everyone else was. Oops. Very typical. Just living life and half the time totally unaware of what else is going on around us! Hopefully my mom and I didn’t embarrass Louis too much. As you can see below, the course was absolutely beautiful!

From Torrey Pines, we headed to downtown La Jolla for some more souvenir shopping. We happened to catch it right at sunset, and, as usual, it was breathtaking. We spent about 30 minutes just admiring the beautiful sunset, snapping pictures, and marveling at how stunning it was. I tried to capture some of the sunset below…my pictures really can’t do it justice though. I couldn’t have imagined a better trip for my mom to make out to La Jolla to visit us. The entire time we just laughed and had a blast being together. It was great to have her bring a piece of home out to California during our long trip. I’m so thankful we’ll always have these memories!

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