Disney World Chronicles #4: Duck, Duck, Chicken Strips

Disney World is full of creatures.  Donald is a duck, Mickey is a mouse, Pluto is a dog, Goofy is... a strange dog.  While these creatures... er... characters are lots of fun to give hugs and get pictures with, for some reason, they didn't entertain me quite as much as some of the more natural, normal sized creatures:

Unfortunately, while Mickey and Minnie seem to possess some kind of magical intelligence unknown to all other mice, the living, quacking mallards at Disney World most definitely were not blessed with the same level of brain power.  I'm convinced that animals who find homes on Disney property are so often fed and oogled at by people, that the animals themselves think they are people.

So of course, I went after one, with my creeper hands and all.

I'm not sure why my arms naturally go to that "creeper" position... but I am definitely sure that it makes me sneakier.

Come here duckie duckie. (Notice that he is totally oblivious...)

Just a little further!

I was literally an inch from him and little duck-face could've cared less.

"Quackity quack quack," which means, "If this lady's not going to feed me churros and chicken strips, I'm out of here!"

And thus, he left me.  If I would've had chicken strips, I just might have fed him.  It's amazing that I didn't have chicken strips right then because chicken strips and french fries are Baby T's (or rather, Fetus T's) favorite food. 

Luckily Disney has no shortage of fried potatoes and chicken.  Although, with the amount of clucks & fries I was consuming that weekend, they might be having a shortage right now...

One thing I didn't ever get to eat at Disney World... was duck...

Disney World Chronicles #3: The Initial Nemo Encounter

We found it interesting that some Disney movies, Pixar specifically, are featured much more than others at Disney World.  For example, there were lots of references to Finding Nemo but very few of Cars, Incredibles, Up, and the Tanner classic, WALL-E.  Despite our disappointment that not everyone shares in our affinity for the cutest robots alive... we loved all of the Nemo attractions.

Part of Future World at Epcot is called The Seas, and is all based around Finding Nemo.  

Our favorite part of Epcot?  No lines!  Hoorah for Disney World in January!

We rode in clamshells as we looked for Nemo.

And tried to watch out for these guys:

We even got to talk to Crush!  The highlight of that little show was this beauty of a conversation Crush had with Grant:

Coming out wearing an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny, red polka dot bikini, Crush asked:

  "Hey guys, I found this thing and I was wondering if you could help me figure out what it is!"

The audience, mostly filled with toddlers and their parents, were silent.

 Grant: "A bikini top!"

"What's it used for?"

"Uh... it's for the ladies..."

"You mean this is a chick outfit?!"

We spent the rest of the weekend coming up with alternative answers to Crush's somewhat leading questions...  

But Logan's favorite part of The Seas... scratch that... Disney World... were these little guys:

Mine! Mine! Mine... Mine!

Really... he was laughing about it all weekend.  Mine! Mine!

Luckily we got lots of Nemo in the days to come at other parks.  Don't worry, the Nemo-ness will continue...

Disney World Chronicles #2: The Marathoners

We picked the Mallory's up at the airport on Thursday morning.  They had been flying since 10:30ish the night before... yuck.  

Queen of naps: "Want a little break before we head out to the park?"

Marathoner Mallorys: "Nah, we're okay."

QN: "Maybe just like an hour nap?" (That's short to me)

MM: "How about just a quick Denny's trip and a splash of water on our faces?"

QN: "Are you serious?  Maybe just a half hour? Fifteen minutes?" (I might have been fishing for myself here)

MM: "No... really we're okay."

QN: "Phew... Heaven bless your crusade."

And Heaven did.  We stayed at Epcot until at least 8:00 or 8:30 that night.  Here are the troopers in action:

We tried for a similar pose... but I guess we're just not as trooper-esque.

Or picture ready... 

But excitement?  Oh yep. We had that.

We had lots of that.

Disney World Chronicles #1: The ride that got us to the rides

We decided a few months ago to go to Disney World.  The Mallory's moved to Seattle in October and we decided a reunion was absolutely necessary.  In Florida. Which means a two hour flight for us... and an entire night of flying for the Mallory's.  What good sports!

We stayed at a hotel in the Downtown Disney Area which was great for transportation to and from the parks.  However, they did not offer a free shuttle to the hotel from the airport.  Instead, they wanted your left pinky finger and your right earlobe.  Thus, we rented a tin can.. err.. a car.

Grant loved our little Aveo because of all the head room he had.  Although not very spacious front to back, our little tin can had lots of room for taller Disney goers like Grant.

We headed back to the airport to pick the Mallory's up the day after we arrived but their flight was delayed.  Thus, we spent a lovely morning in this cell phone lot (read: dirt patch).

Luckily, this gave me lots of time to check out the lovely luggage compartment.

This looks like that scary scene in the Grudge 2 when the girl is crawling up the inside of the well... Wow, I'm glad I haven't seen any horror movies since high school...

My hair... is long...

Successfully fits one!

Although movement was somewhat limited...

And somewhat painful...

Glad I could offer your Friday night entertainment...

Oh wait!  This trunk actually fits one + a lemon sized baby!

Luckily, the Mallory's showed up soon after this which means you don't have to look at any other crazy pictures of me.  I would like to claim that that lemon-sized baby is what makes me do all these stupid things... but I'm such a (crazy) saint, I just can't lie!

A Rockin' Honky Tonk Evening

We just got back from the awesomest (yes, awesomest) trip to Disney World.  However, I'm already a bit behind on other adventures and thus, must document those first.  

A few weeks ago, my parents came to visit!  It has been a year since my mom has come to visit and my dad has never been out since we moved to good ole Tejas, so I was very excited.

Unfortunately, I was the puke/migraine queen all weekend and didn't get to participate much in the festivities.  You can read all about that excitement here.

Anyway, on Saturday night we headed to the Fort Worth Stockyards for the concert of the year (at least in my eyes...)

But first we wandered around and checked out the merchandise:

Of course, Mama found the pigs.

Attempt to ignore the pale sickliness look I've got going on.

There have been a few recent additions to the Peterson Family in the last few months, namely, Roosevelt, Hollywood, and Cougar.  You can read a bit about them (and see the cutest baby on earth) here.  It was especially fun to look at all the cowboy equipment with my Dad because he's the coolest cowboy I know.

We also saw a few horses hanging out on the way to the concert.  

The concert was at Billy Bob's Texas, the largest honky tonk in the world.  Despite the ridiculously smoky atmosphere, it was a pretty sweet place.  Grant's favorite part was the giant dance floor.  We might just have to go back & get our boot-scootin' boogie on.

And then... we witnessed the most impressive display of rockin' tunes known to man...

Know who it is yet? (You should be ashamed if you don't...)

Maybe this video will help.  I highly recommend listening to this clip.  However, actually watching might be hazardous to your health...

Styx (in case you haven't figured it out yet) was awesome.  Most of the band were the original members and they sounded as good as they ever have.  Thank you Dad for introducing me to awesome music as a child.  I'm listening to Rhythm of the Rain by Dan Fogelberg as I write this.  Love you.

The Joys of Carrying a Parasite... err.. Fetus

There really are lots of joys of pregnancy!  Hearing the little peanut's heartbeat and getting to see a little sonogram were two of those joys.  Looking forward to the future is certainly a joy (however sleep deprived that future may be), as well as talking about possible names, and picking out our baby's first footed p.j.'s, (the only piece of clothing our baby has, as of yet).

Unfortunately, this post is not about those types of joys.  Instead, this post is a short dedication to the other types of pregnancy joys, including: an increase in migraines, a decrease in migraine medications available to me, lots and lots of puke, uncomfortable nights with little sleep, as well as other "unmentionable" symptoms, as my mother would call them.

I had one enchanting evening in the E.R. last week.  Of course, the never ending puke ordeal had to come during the 48 hours that my parents were in town.  The plus: nobody takes care of you when you're sick like your own Mama!

I'm posing the extra flattering picture below.  I don't actually look like that when I'm suffering... hopefully.  This was just the picture to send to Dad & Grant to make sure they weren't having too much fun at the Dallas Stars game without us.

After two months of this lovely yuckiness, it is either starting to get better or I'm getting used to knowing when to take my medication.  I'm guessing it's the latter.

Recent milestones include: 2-3 days without throwing up, 1 day without taking migraine medication, and running a whole mile without stopping.  Really, it was more of a light, light, jog, but man, I've never been more proud of a 12 minute mile!

As far as pregnant belly goes, I don't have too much of one yet.  This picture was taken two weeks ago.  I am now at 14 weeks and I've grown a little, but not much.  It's hard to gain weight when you can't really eat...

But don't worry, I've been on the new and innovative Cheetos diet lately so I should start showing soon.  Perhaps the growing fetus inside me might assist in that growth too...

I'm Married to a Murderer

For this New Year's Eve (can you believe it is 2011?!) we were invited to a Murder Mystery dinner party!  Each party member was given a part to play as we read through the dialogue and clues to discover who committed the horrendous crime.

Caitlin & Jared were Mama Rosa and Marco, the wife and son of the deceased.  Jared was a wannabe soccer player and always said, "I'm gonna be world cup!" in a Mario & Luigi-esque voice.  Best line of the night, hands down.

Zach & Megan were Rocco and Tira Misu, the brother of the deceased and his floozy fiance.  You will be impressed to know that my computer did not spell-correct the word floozy.  All is right with the world.

Heather & Jeremy played Angle, daughter of the deceased, and Father Al Fredo, the priest of the parish the family attended.

Grant played Beau Jalais, boyfriend of daughter Angel, and I played Clair Voyant, Mama Rosa's psychic.  I clearly forgot to control my eyeballs in this picture.

Okay, that's at least a little better.

Caitlin, er.. Mama Rosa made a delicious Italian meal for all the guests and we had a lot of fun reading the dialogue.  However, I think the best part was trying to figure out all the accents.  Grant was supposed to be French, but inevitably ended up being Mexican (of course).  I was supposed to have a deep husky voice... that I also tried to make Italian... not so easy.  And of course, all the Italian accents got pretty interesting all around.  We had some Scottish Italians, some British Italians, and of course, some Mexican Italians.  It was awesome.

Grant ended up being the murderer... Sneaky little bugger.  Unfortunately, my psychic powers proved insufficient as I was unable to figure it out...  But man, I totally had the best husky-Italian-Mexican-fortuneteller accent!