Ode to the Birthday Boy(s)

This past Saturday was Ryan's 27th birthday.
It was also my brother Ben's 21st birthday.
(How convenient is that??!)

To celebrate, we had planned on going to Dollywood (Look!  I made a link thanks to my bff cousin Erika! Look!  I did it again!!) in Gatlinburg.  However...we didn't.  See, apparently there was a bit of rain over on the east coast (aka Hurricane Irene), and a bunch of people decided to come visit the hills of Tennessee for a few days.  So when we got to watching the news Friday night--watching the reporter interview hotel owners who were out of rooms to rent--we realized that these people weren't just going to spend this lovely Saturday in their rooms.  Why, no.  They were animatedly going on and on about all the exciting places they were going to visit...on Saturday.  Great.  Sooooo...ex-nay on ollywood-Day.  :(

However, Saturday morning we conference called the family and took a vote.  The resounding result?  Putt-putt!!  Suh-weet.  So we totally got our Tiger Woods on (minus, you know, the 16 strippers) and headed out to meet the green.  Fun?  You be the judge:

Judging up the putt

Jenn and Carter

Sister wives!

Ryan and Val

Ryan's pretty purple confection!

Sp apparently there aren't standard "male" birthday cakes--so we went with the more masculine purple opposed to the hot pink.  Granted, he still would up with butterflies.  But hey--it tasted good!

After putt putt and an amazing dinner at Sonny's Barbecue, Ryan and I headed on over to EarthFare.  It, mi amigos, is home of my very own crack cocaine.  No, seriously.  Feast your eyes on this:

HEAVEN in a bottle.

This is Homestead Creamery's chocolate milk.  And it is to-die-for.  As in, when I don't have in for a few weeks, I start dreaming about it.  I daydream about it.  It's delish.  So get your booty off the computer and go try some.  You'll thank me, I promise.

Hope you guys had a great weekend!

Disneydisneydisneydisney...

It's currently 2:24 pm and I'm taking a break from reading Living Dead In Dallas drinking obscene amounts of Mountain Dew googling international real estate work.  It's been rough.  Since 8:30 am, we've had about 6 people come through our doors.  Most Mondays we get around 4, just to give you an idea of how cah-ray-zy busy the beginning of the week is. *Insert eye rolling here*  I'm honestly not even sure why we bother to be open...

In other news, Ryan and I have finally booked our HONEYMOON!!  After 3 months of marriage, we finally realized that if we didn't just set dates and go, we'd never get one--it would just wind up being a vacation, not a HONEYMOON.  (Yes, it's in caps because it's Special. So there.)  Drumroll please........we're going to Disney World for 10 days at Christmas!!!!!  How cool is THAT?!?!!  We were mulling over destinations in over dinner (hot dogs over the fire!) last week, and said, "Well...why not Disney?" 

I immediately began researching every aspect of the holidays at Disney, where we wanted to stay, etc.  I knew that I was insistent on staying at an actual Disney resort for several reasons.  A) If you're gonna do Disney, you want to get the most for your money.  By staying at a Disney resort, you get free shuttle services to all the parks, plus, each day of the week one of the parks opens an hour early just for Disney resort patrons.  (SOLD!)  B) It's our honeymoon.  If there's ever a time to splurge, do it on your honeymoon, right?  That seems a good time to do so.  C) I freaking love Disney.  If you know me at all, you know that I know every line to every song from every movie.  Seriously.

So, we've booked a one bedroom suite(!!!) at Disney's Old Key West resort from Dec 17-26.  (We're having a Disney Christmas!!)  After reading all sorts of reviews and spending many hours online doing research, I picked the OKW resort because, frankly, it has the biggest rooms.  It is also the first of Disney's resorts (and, duh, the oldest) but has gone through a massive remodel this past year to update all rooms/suites/villas.  See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lclTv0fWv6w   (Someday, someone will teach me how to embed links...)  Or, you can just echo my excitement by looking at the floorplan below!:

Also, this means that we will finally be able to embrace our inner-wizards and check out Hogwarts at Universal Studios.  Score!!  I'm going to drink Butterbeer til....til...til I can't drink it anymore.  (Then I'll probably want a nap.)  And I'm totes gonna wear an eyeliner scar on my forehead for the day.  You just wait for the photos--those are gonna be priceless!

So that's the news in my world.  I sit around, plotting how to convince Ryan to wear the bride and groom Micky-and Minnie hats with me...  You know, just another Monday.  :)

<3
r.