Disney w/ my girlfriend and my parents for 7 days. Woop woop! April/May '09

[TeaForTulips]

Following the penguin sign we came across many more animals...

Timon! On the other side of their glass was the savannah where Pumba was... I'm sure they were happy.

Meer kats are just cute...

Here is another view of the lions as we walked along... remember the ostrich? There he is!

We then came across more kitties!

It was apparently nap time and they did not want to smile for the camera...

Then I saw it....

My friends! The penguin pavillion! I was so excited!

Continued in next post ...

 

[TeaForTulips]

I was looking forward to this... this zoo was very nice so far and I was excited to see my fave animal. So we went in...

I must say I was a little let down... I have been to zoos all over the country and this penguin pavillion was not up to par for me. But I was still happy to see my guys!

Their glass was very dirty so it was super hard to get any clear pictures...

Their little room seemed small and plain... I wanted to take them all home and build them something better... after seeing that huge savannah area I was just bummed the penguins didn't have better digs...

Then the next area was a much larger room, but there was only two little penguins in it. (back right corner)

Up close...

After being a little let down Jen brought me back up... she said it must be the two little penguins anniversary too so they let them have the room to themselves. Now that is prolly cheesey to many people, but that was right up my alley and I love her for thinking of it.

After the penguins were some fish and things...

Here is a little turtle swimming along.

There were some creepy fish too. I apologize for the flash..

After creepy fish were creepy snakes.

This one was following Jen's finger...

There were also itty bitty turtles... I wanted to put one im my pocket and name him Tucker.

Continued in next post...

 

[TeaForTulips]

We were approaching another exhibit and we heard "polar bear" ...

But it wasn't a polar bear, it was a white tiger! The girl had no stripes. She kept hiding behind the log.

They were so pretty. Here is the Mr. White Tiger with stripes

We later came across some alligators. They were sun bathing.

I said look a buffalo! Jen then corrected me and said bison... hmpf.

Here are some sleeping monkeys that children kept calling skunks.

This was "monkey island" but we saw no monkeys... nice waterfalls though.

Bobcat anyone?

Oh! These were gianormous koi ... the picture will not do them justice. I mean yeah every zoo has the huge koi but these fish were like the size of my leg!

So that pretty much wraps up my Mini Zoo TR... I took a ton of pictures, but photo bucket didnt load them all and I hate that it gets them out of order. I hope everyone enjoyed...


We stopped at a couple places along the way home. I bought some plants that I thought were pretty for my mom and sister.

My mom has these huge rose bushes in her back yard. I snapped a picture this weekend. I know its hard to tell but this rose bush is as tall as I am if not taller. I am 5'8"

Look at all the buds! They are always so pretty when they bloom.

To end the day we stopped and had dinner at this fish place I ALWAYS wanted to go to. I didn't take any pictures but it was SOOOO good. It was a really good day. I love my Jen.

We did some shopping this weekend and I bought some new shorts that Jen picked out. I tried them on and everyone said how cute they were so I got them. I will have an update tomorrow maybe with that. Jen told me earlier today she started on her packing list for Disney and wants to start packing tonight. yay!


15 DAYS!

 

[TxRabbit]

Very nice zoo report. Again, bringing back good memories...

Wow! Only 15 days!!!

How cool is that?

 

[TeaForTulips]

Ahhh I love penguins too!!! I can't wait to see them! Hope you had a great anniversary at the zoo You leave sooooo soon are you getting excited???

Yay for fellow penguin lovers! I am getting so excited! I cannot believe it is almost here. It feels like my first time all over again because it has been so long and I was around 16 when we went! I'm sooo ready!

I LOVE zoos!! This one is totally reminding me of the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita. When DS was 18 months or so, summer time, we had a membership to that zoo. Seriously, every other DAY we were at the zoo. What do you want to do today? "ZOO WALK!!!" Ok. Kids wake up early you know. We would be there by opening. We saw all the animals in active time.

I loved it because you could get a tub of popcorn and then get free refills. I used only two tubs the whole summer. And if you had a souvenir cup, you could get $1 refills. (I used to be totally addicted to Diet Coke). AND they didn't care if you brought in outside food. Their petting zoo was much better than that one though.

That was a fun time. Your pics are bringing back nice memories.

Bummer about your shoes not working out.

Keep it coming!

How great! I love the zoo too! My fave zoo is the Henry Dorly Zoo in Omaha, NE. This zoo was far from great but it is the closest decent zoo in the area sadly. It was good enough for sure.

Thanks for the shoes sympathy... Im truely so bummed about it! Especially since I attempted to make them work I know I will not be able to send them back. I hope someone will buy them from EBay. They are practically brand new because I wore them for about 3 hours tops. So I dont feel like I wasted $50 I pretend that something else was more expensive.

Very nice zoo report. Again, bringing back good memories...

Wow! Only 15 days!!!

How cool is that?

Thanks! I'm glad it brought back some zoo memories! I am so excited about our trip! I cannot believe it!

 

[Angela0917]

Great zoo pics!!! I'm a penguin lover too! Last year for my birthday, DF and I went to the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, and they have a penguin encounter were we got to meet the penguins up close! It was sooo much fun!!

Woo hoo for 15 days!!!!! I'm only a couple days after you!!!!!! I am sooo excited!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TeaForTulips]

That is sooo awesome, Angela! I want to pet a penguin.. Aww Im super jealous! That must have been so great! I need to google and see if anything like this is in my area. I used to live in Erie. I cannot believe that was two hours away and I did not know. Thank you for sharing your pic!

I am super excited too! Although you have WAY more reasons! Yay for your wedding and Disney honeymoon!

 

[Angela0917]

That is sooo awesome, Angela! I want to pet a penguin.. Aww Im super jealous! That must have been so great! I need to google and see if anything like this is in my area. I used to live in Erie. I cannot believe that was two hours away and I did not know. Thank you for sharing your pic!

I am super excited too! Although you have WAY more reasons! Yay for your wedding and Disney honeymoon!

It was so much fun! They took us "behind the scenes" and showed us where they prepared the penguin food and stuff, and we learned so much. They're just so cute!! I would LOVE to have one as a pet!! If you ever happen to be in the Pittsburgh area again, I'd definately go!! I wonder if Sea World has something like this?

Ohh, I'm wayyy more excited for Disney World than I am for the wedding!

 

[autumnpalm]

Awwwww I love your zoo pictures! That looks like an amazing zoo. You got some really great pictures... they make me want to go to the zoo here this weekend! Thank you for sharing them!

I'm glad you and Jen had such a great anniversary.

And for only 15 more days!

 

[Trista_Daisy]

Doin' a dance for your 13 days! The zoo looks great! I wanna take the kids real bad! Yay for penguins!!

 

[TeaForTulips]

Awwwww I love your zoo pictures! That looks like an amazing zoo. You got some really great pictures... they make me want to go to the zoo here this weekend! Thank you for sharing them!

I'm glad you and Jen had such a great anniversary.

And for only 15 more days!

Thanks! 12 days now! We are both super close!

Doin' a dance for your 13 days! The zoo looks great! I wanna take the kids real bad! Yay for penguins!!

Pierce will love this zoo! It was so friendly...






No Disney major updates right now. I'm slowly getting what im wearing planned and Im waiting on one last online order to come in.


Last night we had a tornado come through the area. It was moving really fast to it wasn't here long, but it did some damage. I was trapped in Wal-Mart for a little bit because of it. When I finally was able to get out (thanks to unruly customers who got the doors open ) The wind was so strong I could barely walk, it was so dark I had to find my car with my alarm, and it started to hail. Once the hail came, I was in tears! It makes me laugh now, but I was freaking out! I've seen Twister, I know what hail means! Whenever we've been near tornado scares before, Jen would always say that it was when it began to hail that you needed to leave.... It was crazy getting out of the parking lot because people were going nuts trying to leave! Turns out the tornado was not very far away! The whole area down the road is closed from damage. We are lucky that so far I've not heard of any serious injuries due to the storm...

Anyway, thats my tornado scarey story.

I am excited for this weekend because Jen was able to borrow this bunny costume from work. Shes gonna wear it on Sunday and hide eggs. We're going to have Pierce look outside to see the Easter Bunny hiding eggs for him to find! How fun! I'm not sure, but I believe its a whole bunny head and everything! I will be taking pictures!

I hope everyone has a friendly holiday weekend!

 

[TxRabbit]

Oh my! That is FREAKY about the tornado and the hail!

I lived in Kansas for about four years and never once had to deal with a tornado. There was one time when the warning sirens went off. We were at dinner and the sliding glass doors to the patio were open. The weather was calm and absolutely gorgeous. DH and I looked at each other, like seriously?, tornado sirens? It wasn't a test. I'm still not sure why they went off...

DH's boss had a freaky story about a tornado. He was driving on I-35 and he could see the tornado coming his way. Well there was nothing around to take shelter. NOTHING. So he pulled over on the side of the road, and him and a bunch of others that had pulled over headed over to a ditch, the lowest ground around, and he had to hunker down lying flat in the ditch, I think there was water in the ditch and he had to hold his breath and have his head as low as possible as the tornado passed right over him and these random others.

I would've freaked out too, if I were you.

On a different note, I think there is a penguin encounter at Sea World. I know that the Sea World in San Antonio has a big penguin exhibit. It's a great place to grab some a/c on a hot Texas day! And I think they have a back stage encounter type tour thing where you can meet a penguin.

 

[Angela0917]

Oh my goodness, how scary about the tornado! I would have been crying too!!!!!

That is so cute that Jen's going to dress like the Easter bunny and hide eggs! Your nephew will be so excited!

 

[TeaForTulips]

I will have a purchase and packing update soon... I promise. I've been waiting for some things to be delivered. I plan on getting organized this weekend and packed for the most part, so I plan on having an update by Tuesday... and then we leave Thursday.

ONE WEEK!

​

 

[autumnpalm]

AHHHH ONE WEEK!!!!

I am so excited for you guys. You're gonna do a TR, right?

 

[TeaForTulips]

AHHHH ONE WEEK!!!!

I am so excited for you guys. You're gonna do a TR, right?

It is almost oddly no fun that it is so close because it is so close that I am losing my mind! I hope that made some sense...

I am getting nothing accomplished I feel like. I sold my non fitting crocs on EBay so I went to the store last night to get something to ship it in... I ended up buying travel soap containers, Trivial Pursuit To Go (travel version of Trivial Pursuit), car snacks, etc, etc ... guess what I didn't get?

Per the fedex website my last package was delivered today so maybe I can get things together to have an update sooner...

I am def going to do a TR! I bought an extra memory card for my camera so between the two I can hold about 2,000 pictures. My mom will also have her camera with two memory cards. I am oddly enough very much looking forward to doing a TR when we get back, but I guess you DISers understand that.

Jen asked me this morning... "do other people plan their trips like you guys?" I then was like "you know my DIS friends I talk about?" She was like "oh yeah..."

Im sooooooooo ready!

 

[HoneyLSU]

Hi! I followed you over from my PTR and it took me a little while to get all caught up because I jumped on board too late (I almost missed your PTR all together!) It's so exciting that you are almost about to be at Disney!!

A couple of things I wanted to comment on:
-Your dad "resting his eyes" at the zoo - we must have the same father!! I have tons of pics of him doing that!
-I loved that LSU/Mickey logo! Too cute! I'm going to have to head over to the board one day to check everything out.
-Your zoo anniversary day trip - Me and my BF did the same for our 2 year! Well actually we spent the weekend in NOLA and Friday night we did a ghost tour and on Saturday we went to the Audubon Zoo and on Saturday night we went out to dinner. Our 3 year anniversary will be in Disney though!
-Can I ask you about your migraines? I've suffered from them since I was 4 (I'm 24 now) and my nightly medicine has basically stopped working so the last few months have been awful on me adjusting to new meds. I was wondering what you were on and how it works for you? You can PM me on that if you'd like.

Anyway, I'm SO excited for you and I hope y'all have tons of fun! Can't wait for your TR!!

 

[TeaForTulips]

Hi! I followed you over from my PTR and it took me a little while to get all caught up because I jumped on board too late (I almost missed your PTR all together!) It's so exciting that you are almost about to be at Disney!!

A couple of things I wanted to comment on:
-Your dad "resting his eyes" at the zoo - we must have the same father!! I have tons of pics of him doing that!
-I loved that LSU/Mickey logo! Too cute! I'm going to have to head over to the board one day to check everything out.
-Your zoo anniversary day trip - Me and my BF did the same for our 2 year! Well actually we spent the weekend in NOLA and Friday night we did a ghost tour and on Saturday we went to the Audubon Zoo and on Saturday night we went out to dinner. Our 3 year anniversary will be in Disney though!
-Can I ask you about your migraines? I've suffered from them since I was 4 (I'm 24 now) and my nightly medicine has basically stopped working so the last few months have been awful on me adjusting to new meds. I was wondering what you were on and how it works for you? You can PM me on that if you'd like.

Anyway, I'm SO excited for you and I hope y'all have tons of fun! Can't wait for your TR!!

Hello! I'm glad you came over!

I love that picture of my dad! I think it's so funny.

We went to the New Orleans zoo... ummm I think last summer? I cannot remember when exactly. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it really is a great zoo! That is funny that you and your BF did the same thing on your anni. I'm sure this year will be the best so far for you guys! Disney makes everything better... even things that are good get better. Ok.. enough of my magic mush.

WARNING: BELOW IS OFF TOPIC... please feel free to skip if you do not want to read a rant about migraines.

I do not mind you asking about my migraines! I'm sorry you are a fellow migraine sufferer. It is always bittersweet to find someone else who deals with migraines. It is awful that you have them, but always great to find someone who understands and you can talk about it with.

I too have been dealing with them since I was a little girl. My childhood memories are being sick from having them. (for non migraine sufferers migraines can trigger numerous symptoms including nausea which was a constant thing for me growing up)

When I was almost ten we found out that I was allergic to caffiene. If I eat as much as an m&m I can have a migraine within 10 minutes. It is tragic... No coffee (even decaf has caffeine) no chocolate, and no to most sodas, etc. but even after being caffeine free for 14 years it did not fix the problem.

Sadly, I have yet too find something that works in fixing them. A few months back I even had TPI (trigger point injections) in my head and neck. They nummed the areas during the procedure, but after I was very sore. The procedure pretty much numbs what they call "trigger points" which are muscles that can cause pain... Didn't work... it was creepy because Jen said she could see the actual holes.. ew.

I go through so much tylonel, advil, ibuprofen, asprin, etc that my family and doctors are worried that I will need a liver transplant one day. when i do not have a migraine i usually have a headache on average about 3-5 days of the week. sometimes they last longer that than.

i have seen more doctors, chiropractors, neurologists, sleep clinics, etc. Any Rx drug ever made I have taken it. going to disney i am taking all the over the counter meds (tylonel, etc), along with muscle relaxers (soma), feverfew, midrin, maxalt, etc. 99% of the time nothing ever takes it away but eventually after 1-3 days it will end and until it does i keep taking things and praying. i take the muscle relaxers to help me "not care" if you will. it doesnt fix the pain but it numbs me enough to where it takes the edge of the migraine... they may or may not make sense.

ok! that is my basic run down... actually the short version. you can PM me if you want, honeylsu. ill be glad to help with what i can. i have decided i will prolly always deal with chronic headaches and migraines. i have gone through a bunch with it though so maybe i can help? a lot of the migraine Rx is just waaaay to expensive to hope that it helps and i rarely get it. maxalt, immitrex, etc. $$$$$! maybe let me know what has or hasnt worked for you so far? i too am always on the look out for something i havent tried yet.


For anyone else who read through that, i apologize and promise i wont do it again!

 

[Angela0917]

Wooo hoo! Only one week!!

I'm so glad to hear you'll be doing a TR! Hopefully we'll run into you guys at some point while we're in Disney at the same time!

 

[TeaForTulips]

Wooo hoo! Only one week!!

I'm so glad to hear you'll be doing a TR! Hopefully we'll run into you guys at some point while we're in Disney at the same time!

That would so fun! As of right now our schedules match up for 3 days... the 28th through the 30th we are planning on the same parks. That Friday is open for our schedule, so I have no clue where we will be.

I can't wait for your TR... I am so excited to see pictures of your wedding and your disneymoon!