Double the Anniversaries, Double the Fun! Jan 2013 PTR | TR HAS STARTED! 2/13

[Twoboysnmygirl]

10 days!!!!!!! WOOT!

LOVE LOVE LOVE your snow pics with the furry kids! I'm starting to get in the spirit too, I want to put the tree up but I'm trying to restrain myself until after this crazy week of Thanksgiving petsitting work I have!

Ok, my yoda, please explain chasers. I purchased my first vinylmation on the trip and Trollie is happy to have a friend, but I know NOTHING about this obsession I'm entering into!

GREAT that AK has extended hours for your trip! that's strange for January, isn't it? Maybe they will do that for our trip as well, Savannah LOVES AK and we would jump at a chance to be there when it's dark!

 

[Terkina]

a great update. Making luggage tags is a great idea. I may have to steal that one

 

[marDgreen88]

Once again, I love your luggage tags! Those are so awesome.

BAH the Heat and Snow Miser ornaments!!! Those are fantastic. Hallmark has the best ornaments. We always get ours there too! (Except when we get them from Disney of course. Hahah.)

It's honestly one of my Disney goals to go to Animal Kingdom at night because it's such an incredible park during the day already, I just really want to witness it at night too! Yall will definitely have to hit up Garden Grill one of these days though.

CANNOT BELIEVE there is already snow up there! That's just insane. Our temps are still averaging 50 at the lowest!

YAY 10 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!

 

[sunnysideup3]

YAY, you're back!

Can't wait for our WDW (me) and DL (you) Tweetfest!!!

That's funny you were in Stevens Pass, my BFF was up there with her kids this past weekend!

 

[smile4stamps]

I think I am JUST missing you at Disneyland! I am planning on making a quickie trip there on Tuesday! I will drive down Tuesday after work, spend a half day at DL, Full day Wednesday at DL and then a few hours on Thursday and drive back for work Thursday night.

 

[danimaroo]

Dis time has been shorter than usual over here too!!! Don't worry, I totally understand!

Your trip is coming up so soon!!! You must be getting so excited!!

Glad you understand! I'm still struggling on DIS time, especially with the holidays now being in full swing, plus uhh, yeah, WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND HERE SOON!

10 days!!!!!!! WOOT!

LOVE LOVE LOVE your snow pics with the furry kids! I'm starting to get in the spirit too, I want to put the tree up but I'm trying to restrain myself until after this crazy week of Thanksgiving petsitting work I have!

Ok, my yoda, please explain chasers. I purchased my first vinylmation on the trip and Trollie is happy to have a friend, but I know NOTHING about this obsession I'm entering into!

GREAT that AK has extended hours for your trip! that's strange for January, isn't it? Maybe they will do that for our trip as well, Savannah LOVES AK and we would jump at a chance to be there when it's dark!

WAHOO! I can't wait for our trip! The pups loved the snow, especially Anya. We are now in full-on Christmas-mode, which I'll post photos of here shortly...

It's a little weird they extended hours, but not surprised, especially for the MLK weekend. Then again, they stayed open til 7pm a few nights during our last trip, too, so maybe it's not that weird? I hope it's open late in February for you guys, too!!

a great update. Making luggage tags is a great idea. I may have to steal that one

Thanks! You should totally steal it!!

Once again, I love your luggage tags! Those are so awesome.

BAH the Heat and Snow Miser ornaments!!! Those are fantastic. Hallmark has the best ornaments. We always get ours there too! (Except when we get them from Disney of course. Hahah.)

It's honestly one of my Disney goals to go to Animal Kingdom at night because it's such an incredible park during the day already, I just really want to witness it at night too! Yall will definitely have to hit up Garden Grill one of these days though.

CANNOT BELIEVE there is already snow up there! That's just insane. Our temps are still averaging 50 at the lowest!

YAY 10 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!

Ahh thanks, I like them a lot. Can't wait to put them on our bags here in the next few days!

Hallmark does have amazing ornaments! We bought a few from the Disney Store this year, though, too. Our collection is kind of insane, hahaha.

Yeah, I'm very excited to go at night. It was fun last trip, though we left at 6pm because we had an ADR. This time, we're closing out that park til 7!

They actually opened up the ski resort shortly after that weekend, so yep, plenty of snow! None near our house yet, but as long as it stays away from when we're going on our trips, I'd love to see some snow!!

4 days, almost THREE NOW!

YAY, you're back!

Can't wait for our WDW (me) and DL (you) Tweetfest!!!

That's funny you were in Stevens Pass, my BFF was up there with her kids this past weekend!

Haha we are going to be awesome Disney tweets this week!!

That is really funny/random! I wonder if they were there when we were! There were a few families up there playing in the snow, hahaha. Such a small world!

I think I am JUST missing you at Disneyland! I am planning on making a quickie trip there on Tuesday! I will drive down Tuesday after work, spend a half day at DL, Full day Wednesday at DL and then a few hours on Thursday and drive back for work Thursday night.

OH MAN! We are going to miss each other! Such a bummer... but so exciting for you!!

Our flight gets in at 1ish, so I'm guessing we'll be checking in around 1:45ish or so. I hope you have a wonderful time though!!

 

[danimaroo]

Hey everyone!! I promise a PTR update before we left for our trip, and so I'm here!

This is honestly probably going to be my last update before we leave for Disneyland. I just can't believe it's almost here!

Between getting everything I can get done at work before I leave (and to prepare for next month) AND just getting everything ready for our trip, I'm not sure I'll have much time to update before we leave.

Plus, Wednesday is my birthday, so I'm sure we'll do something small that evening before we finish packing everything for Disneyland!

I am definitely excited for this trip, but I won't lie, a have a bit of anxiety! Mainly because I just feel like I have so much to do before we go.

I know it's a pretty short trip, but I don't know. I'm thinking I'll do some packing tonight since I just some laundry, but ugh. I'm just feeling somewhat unprepared over here, I won't lie.

Okay, trip aside, we've had a fairly busy few days off. Thanksgiving was nice with Matt's family, and of course I participated in Black Friday... though nothing too crazy.

My biggest "deal" was saving $286.50 at Bath and Body Works. Seriously, I bought so much stuff and only spent $54... Even the employees were impressed and I had a little crowd around me to see how much I'd saved, hahaha.

It was pretty awesome, and I didn't have to wait in many massive lines or deal with crazy people.

After I rested on Friday, we started decorating the whole house/outside! Well actually, we were smart and did some of the lights on Wednesday outside because we didn't want to be stuck in the rain working on putting up all the icicle lights.

We still ended up being stuck in the rain anyway, but at least we'd already gotten a good portion of everything done.

Obviously, I wanted to share with you guys some photos of our Christmas decorations! We put them up this past weekend and I have to say, this has to be our best year yet!

Be warned, you're about to see a TON of photos!

There's a whole ton more I took of our tree ornaments, and even a video, but it's all on Facebook and I can only share so many photos with you guys in this post, wompwomp.

But you get the gist of it; we're huge fans of Christmas and are very happy with our house this year!

Saturday we also celebrated my birthday with Bruce and Amy and one of their gifts they gave me was a Gorillapod tripod for my Nikon D5100... and you better believe it's coming with us to Disneyland!

I'm pretty excited about this since it'll be helpful for lower-light situations, and isn't a massive tripod either. It's pretty neat because you can have it grip onto railings or whatever is around, and it'll keep your camera nice and secure for photos! I'm hoping to use it for fireworks photos, along with photos of the Christmas parade.

That's about it from me for now! I may have a very quick goodbye update as we leave on Thursday morning, but I can't guarantee it.

I will most definitely be doing a TR for our Disneyland trip when I get back, and will post a link when I'm finally ready to share what I hope is an amazing trip!

 

[sunnysideup3]

Have an AMAZING trip!!! So excited to hear all about DLR!!!

I love your ornaments...I hope to score some more ornaments in WDW this year...

 

[Terkina]

What a great Christmas decoration you have both inside and outside
Have a great trip to Disneyland

 

[Nermel9]

Yay Disneyland is so soon!!! Maybe you feel anxiety because you've never been to Disneyland...I was trying to plan a trip there back in 2010 for our honeymoon, but I got so flustered and overwhelmed trying to plan, I said forget it, and we went to Disney World instead!

Your house looks beautiful, I love Christmas! I love all of those pictures of your ornaments too, are you really into photography? I really have to get a real camera someday, I've always been too intimidated and stuck with point and shoots, but the real one take such amazing pictures!

Have an amazing trip, can't wait for the TR!!!

 

[onelilspark]

Love all the Christmas stuff! We need to put our stuff up still. I can't wait to start collecting Christmas decorations now that we have a house and I have a place to store everything during the rest of the year!


Have a BLAST in Disneyland!!

 

[marDgreen88]

SO excited for yall. The decorations are amazing!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Happy birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you have a wonderful day!!!

You are officially my hero!!! How did you save so much at Bath and Body Works???? That's awesome!!

Have a great time at Disneyland!!

 

[__disneygirl]

ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL JOB! I especially love the Bumble tree topper. Oh my God, that is freaking awesome.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANI!!!! I hope you have a fantastic day!!!

 

[danimaroo]

Have an AMAZING trip!!! So excited to hear all about DLR!!!

I love your ornaments...I hope to score some more ornaments in WDW this year...

Thank you so much! I am SO EXCITEEED! I hope you have the most magical time on your trip, too!!

I hope you score lots of awesome ornaments while on your trip!!

What a great Christmas decoration you have both inside and outside
Have a great trip to Disneyland

Aww thank you so much! It takes a lot of time and effort but it's totally worth it!

Thank you, I can't wait to go and come back and tell you guys all about it!

Yay Disneyland is so soon!!! Maybe you feel anxiety because you've never been to Disneyland...I was trying to plan a trip there back in 2010 for our honeymoon, but I got so flustered and overwhelmed trying to plan, I said forget it, and we went to Disney World instead!

Your house looks beautiful, I love Christmas! I love all of those pictures of your ornaments too, are you really into photography? I really have to get a real camera someday, I've always been too intimidated and stuck with point and shoots, but the real one take such amazing pictures!

Have an amazing trip, can't wait for the TR!!!

I know.. I mean, hello, ONE DAY! ADFL:KJDLFKJ. Sorry, just had a moment.

I think you're right about the anxiety thing! But now I'm just BEYOND excited and can't wait to get there. I'm really hoping we have other Disneyland goers on our flight down so I can be excited with them!

I hope you guys try to go to Disneyland! I'm also hoping my TR helps some WDW vets who've never been to DL but are considering it, too!

If you couldn't tell, we're huge Christmas fans, haha. And thank you! I actually would say I'm just an amateur photographer, but I'm starting to try and learn a lot more about photography. These photos were taken with my new Nikon D5100 and it's a fantastic camera!

I'd suggest if you're wanting a dSLR at the entry level, something like a Nikon D3100 or even the newer D3200 would be AWESOME.

Thank you! We most definitely will.. and I can't wait to write my TR for it!!

Love all the Christmas stuff! We need to put our stuff up still. I can't wait to start collecting Christmas decorations now that we have a house and I have a place to store everything during the rest of the year!

Have a BLAST in Disneyland!!

Thank you! I'm just glad it's all up so we can enjoy it while we can. I swear, Christmas will be here before we know it! It's awesome when you have a house to store everything; makes life a lot easier, haha.

Thank you, I'm sure we'll have a fantastic time!

SO excited for yall. The decorations are amazing!

YAY! Thanks Marissa! I CAN'T WAAAAIT.

Happy birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you have a wonderful day!!!

You are officially my hero!!! How did you save so much at Bath and Body Works???? That's awesome!!

Have a great time at Disneyland!!

YAY THANK YOU! Can't believe it's my birthday, so weird!!

I saved so much by taking advantage of the one day where they let you stack coupons... so I saved a bunch of coupons I'd received from them, plus this app SnipSnap, and ended up saving a TON of money. It was AMAZING. Black Friday at that store is the best!

And thank you! We most definitely will!

ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL JOB! I especially love the Bumble tree topper. Oh my God, that is freaking awesome.

Aww thank you! Bumble has been our tree topper for 7 years now, that's his perfect spot.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANI!!!! I hope you have a fantastic day!!!

THANKS KAREN!! I am having a great day, and can't wait for this Disneyland trip to kick off tomorrow!!

 

[danimaroo]

Hey everyone! Do you see that ticker? 1 DAY!

So I actually have some time at work because I'd worked my booty off to get a lot of my big projects done before we left for our trip, and so I don't have a crazy amount to do... Well, I'm sure there's SOMETHING I could be working on but I'm too excited right now between it being my birthday and that we're leaving for Disneyland TOMORROW that I can't really focus on work.

So obviously, I come here instead.

I am in this odd state of ridiculous amounts of excitement but also anxiety. I think the anxiety stems from the fact that this trip just came on SO quickly, and now I feel like I'm going to forget something while packing!

Mainly the things I can't pack until the morning we leave, like my hair straightener, toothbrush, etc. I've made a list so hopefully I don't forget anything!

OH! The one thing I really need to hunt down is my Trip Journal! You know, the infamous one from my last TR, my awesome UP one! Problem is, I have no idea where I put it.

I guess if I don't find it for this trip, it's not the end of the world. I'm not sure how much time I'll have during the day to really write in it anyway.

I'll probably just use my iPhone to keep tabs, along with all of the photos I plan on taking to help remind me of everything we did!

Soooo yeah, our flight leaves tomorrow at 10:30am! We're going to leave the house at 7 to drop off our car at the long-term parking facility, then catch a shuttle to the airport.

I know 3 hours in advance is kind of crazy but you never know how long it'll take to drop off your car and catch a shuttle, so I'd rather be safe than sorry! Plus security and checking our bags, I don't want to miss our flight!

The flight is supposed to be 2 and a half hours (nice change of pace from all of the 5-6 hour flights I've been taking these past few years!), but we're flying JetBlue so those TVs always help pass the time.

I'm not going to lie though, I'm hoping we make up time in the air and somehow magically land early. I'll take all of the time I can get in Disneyland!

After we arrive at the airport, we're catching a ride from Zippy Shuttle to our hotel, Desert Inn and Suites, which is literally right across the street from Disneyland/DCA!

I don't think we can actually get into our room until after 2pm, so we'll just drop off our luggage (the hotel allows you to store your stuff) and head off to get our GOLDEN TICKETS, some celebratory First Visit/Birthday pins, and then go explore. I'm sure we'll be pretty hungry for some lunch, so we'll probably find some place to catch a quick bite to eat while we're strolling around Disneyland.

The parks close at 8pm tomorrow night, so we're planning on just exploring and getting a better understanding of the park layout on this day, watching the Castle lighting/snow, and going on whatever rides we can.

After that, we're planning to check out DTD to do some shopping, grab some dinner (the plan is the brand new EARL OF SANDWICH!), and then probably head back to our room to get settled in and catch a good night's sleep, because Friday is going to be an EPIC day for us.

Speaking of which... After hearing from numerous people (including my CEO) about RideMax, we decided to buy it for $15 because we've heard nothing but amazing things about it.

You basically tell it what rides you want to go on, the time you'll arrive/leave the park, the pace you go at, etc... and it literally will tell you where to go in order, when to grab FPs for certain attractions, etc.

My CEO and his wife both raved about it and said over July 4th they never waited more than 15 minutes in line.

We don't usually do these types of things because when we're in Disney World we don't have to sweat it with all of the time we have plus going at a slower time of year... but because we're in Disneyland for such a short period of time, we figure this actually might be extremely helpful in allowing us to get on a good amount of rides in a small amount of time.

That and honestly, I have a feeling Friday and Saturday will be pretty crowded in the parks... but we are prepared!

I still need to sit down and actually do some of our itineraries, so I'll probably do that today if I continue to have free time and make sure we're all set.

I think that's about it for now! Sorry for the lack of photos in this post, but I promise there will be plenty when I write my TR for this trip!!

I'll see you guys when we're back from our trip!!

 

[MrsBearcat]

Happy Birthday Dani! And so excited you get to leave tommorrow!! Have a great time!

 

[marDgreen88]

AHHHHH, it's tomorrow?!? Wow, I seriously thought yall were leaving Friday morning!!!

Omg, reading this just made me so excited for yall but MAN I wish I was going to DLR or WDW soon. (Pity party of one going on over here, I apologize.)

FJDKALJ KLJKAJKFLDJAKL HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME AND I'LL BE STALKING YOUR TWEETS AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR YOUR TR!!!!!


And happy birthday again!!!

 

[Nermel9]

Yay!!!! I can't believe you're going to Disneyland TOMORROW!!! You are going to have such a great time! I cannot WAIT to hear all about it! I am really, really hoping I can convince my DH into a Disneyland trip next year, after all these trips to WDW I feel I need to see the park that Walt created and actually walked in!

I've heard of people talking about RideMax on the DIS but I never knew what it was, it sounds pretty cool!

Have a great time, and I know I said it on twitter, but happy birthday again!