Beautiful weekend for a Birthday
I absolutely love when you can take your birthday off and make it a three day weekend. :)
Bear took Buttercup into Camp Bow Wow early Thursday morning. Checked in on her a few times during the day on the webcam and she was romping around with the other dogs having a good ol' time. Unofrtunately, I didn't get everything done that I wanted to before the day was through, so I threw my clothes into a backpack as soon as 5:00 hit, grabbed my laptop, and I worked off-line on the way there. I *thought* I had finished everything up about 10 minutes before getting there, then realized I forgot to approve purchases for the copyright group. Arg! Then realized I couldn't approve purchases without being on-line because I didn't copy a version of the database to my laptop. Double Arg! Oh well, just meant I would be on-line a little longer than I originally wanted to when we got to the hotel. Anyway, Bear and I were both hungry, so we stopped at Downtown Disney to eat. It was strange seeing "Pleasure Island" open but none of the bars open. Really sad too because we *love* the adventurer's club. My understanding is that they're going to be changing everything over into shops and/or restaurants over the coming years. But, we walked past it all and then settled for the Portobello Restaurant. There was a 35 minute wait, so we walked a while before coming back. Dinner was good, however not as memorable as the last time we ate there (we had this roasted garlic which was scrumtious last time!). After dinner we went to the Carribean Resort and checked in. The individual that helped us was from Columbia and was named Jesus. He wished me a happy birthday and gave me a birthday pin which he scribbled my name on. Needless to say, we joked about the devine birthday greeting I received (and before someone gets on me, "yes I do know it's pronounced with an H in Pureto Rico where he's from).
Room was clean and filled with Disney references like normal. I jumped on the bed and spent and hour finishing up the work from the day. Bear made sure my present in a red box was very prominently displayed, staring at me throughout the night. He so knowns how to keep a pixie's curiousity up.
I woke up on my birthday in my sweetie's arms. It's the way I so love waking up. :) After rubbing the sleep out of my eyes my sweetie grabbed the present and placed it in front of me. I ripped into it and started laughing. It's a Cannon D50, exactly like the one I gave him at Christmas except with a slightly better lens (this one goes from 17-300, whereas the one I got him for Christmas went from 27-210). He said that I had been commenting on how much better his was compared to my old Cannon D10, so he wanted me to have one for my own. He's so thoughful. :) We finished up prepping for the day, Bear placed my new camera into my backpack, and then we headed for the Magic Kingdom.
I had come to Disney back on my 35th birthday, so I knew they tried to make you feel special. Back then, they had different buttons for each park and we went to each park to get the button. They changed their practice though, so now you're wearing just one button which has your name on it and everyone wishes you a personal happy birthday greeting. Again, it's so surreal having people you don't know wishing you a greeting by name all day long. :) This year is also Disney's year of celebration, so they are giving away free tickets or other special gifts if you already have a ticket. We decided to go with the free ticket avenue for me this time around, however we found out later you could get a free fastpast to all the rides if you picked one of the other options. So, we might do that for Bear's b'day in November. :)
As always, it's always a blast going to Disney. We explored new places today we didn't realize were there. We saw the barber actually *HAD* 2 real barbers who would give you a haircut. There were two kids getting one at the time, otherwise I would have thrown Bear into the seat. :) We also found a place where you could take photos w/a bunch of cardboard cut-outs of Disney characters. Perfect place to play with my new camera.
My goal today was to try to go to as many rids as possible that I hadn't been on in forever. For the most part we succeeded. The park wasn't *too* crowded, so we were able to breeze in and out of most rides in less than 20 minutes. We had a couple of rides, like the Peter Pan Adventure and Splash Mountain, which took upwards to 40 minutes to get out of. Again, not bad times with all things considering. We made reservations and ate at one of the restaurnts in the park at noon and supposable "the boss" made sure they put confettii nad streamers on our table before we got there to help us celebrate. :) Besides eating, we got off pretty cheap this year in the park. The only thing Bear bought for me was a set of pins while we were in the park of the Muppets wearing Micky ears. we stayed until the fireworks display, which closed down the park at around 8:30, then took the bus to downtown Disney to go get something to eat. We decided to eat at the House of Blues. I was still wearing my button and they waitress wished me a happy birthday. She was incredibly pleasant and nice throughout the night. At the very end of the night, she brought us some cake w/a candle. The table next to us was getting up ready to leave, then they stopped and stood around my table and sang happy birthday, referring to my pin when it got to my the name part. :D After dinner we then caught the bus back to the hotel. It was a truely happy and wonderful birthday.
Saturday we woke up and it so felt like a Sunday. We paked everything up and went to breakfast at the hotel, where Bear bought me a Micky straw to sip my orange juice with. We decided to eat outside for it was suppose to get up into the low 80's today, and it felt like it was mid-70's in the morning. The wildlife around the area was abundant and staring at us the whole time as we ate. However, we knew better than to feed the wildlife, so we didn't.
After breakfast we set off towards Orlando. There was a traveling exhibit on the Muppets happening at the History Center. We got there around 10 am and were really excited. Unfortunately, they told us that under no circumstances could we take phots in the exhibit. :( They did tell us to stick around until 3:00 because "A Better World: Living in Harmony" was going to be shown. So, we headed up to the area and there was Kermit welcoming us inside. They had him under lock and key at the front enterance. Going inside, we saw a lot of Henson's storyboards, drawings, and concept art. They were also showing commercials he had designed. And there were muppets and props, of course. We saw the Mah Na, Mah Na's who were there, Stadler and Waldorf's balcony, and props from the Dark Crystal, such as Kira's dress. At the very end of the exhibit, there was a small gift shop. There were some books there that I thought might be beneficial to own once we start volunteering at the Children's hospital. The books were on making puppets. There was also a Kermit photo prop, which I've had on my wish list for years. We decided to forego getting anything right now and do it after the 3:00 pm show.
We got done early and went out to eat and then strolled around the park nearby. There was a wedding of two women going on at the time. Very beautiful...It was at the park under an arch. Both women were wearing wedding gowns and we came across the wedding ceremony when they were about ready to walk down the aisle with their fathers (they were in two different places in the park so they couldn't see each other). We unfortunately couldn't watch the festivities for too long because we wanted to get back by 3:00 and only had around 20 minutes to scoot.
Got back in time for the talk and were stopped by the woodchip pile. We got up to the desk to show them our ticket however the museum stopped us and told us there was an additional charge for the talk. Jim mentioned that we would pay, however we weren't informed of this up front. The museum said they would give us a special 2 for 1 ticket price. The talk was great. They showed several National Wildlife Federation clips that Jim Henson created, a less well known episode about the rainforest, and finally several episodes of Fraggle Rock. During this, Mokey (played by Kathryn Mullen) appeared at the podium and spoke for several moments about her spa that she opened up after Fraggle Rock. Finally, it wrapped up with questions, and Heather Henson was there to field a few questions from individuals. She was trying to lure us all back next week when they'll have "a singalong to the Muppet Movie w/Heather Henson". Sounds like it will be a blast.
After the talk was over, we went downstairs to go buy a few things from the Henson Museum shop. Unforutnately they were already closed for the day. Bear spoke with someone about this since they said in the talk it was going to be open and the museum opened up the shop for us. We purchased the 2 books and the Kermit posable figure.
Finished up the day driving back to Indy and then crashing in bed. Overall a really great weekend thus far...However this is the first time I've had a birthday on the same weekend as daylight savings time kicking in.. Bear's still sound asleep at 10:30. Arg!
Bear took Buttercup into Camp Bow Wow early Thursday morning. Checked in on her a few times during the day on the webcam and she was romping around with the other dogs having a good ol' time. Unofrtunately, I didn't get everything done that I wanted to before the day was through, so I threw my clothes into a backpack as soon as 5:00 hit, grabbed my laptop, and I worked off-line on the way there. I *thought* I had finished everything up about 10 minutes before getting there, then realized I forgot to approve purchases for the copyright group. Arg! Then realized I couldn't approve purchases without being on-line because I didn't copy a version of the database to my laptop. Double Arg! Oh well, just meant I would be on-line a little longer than I originally wanted to when we got to the hotel. Anyway, Bear and I were both hungry, so we stopped at Downtown Disney to eat. It was strange seeing "Pleasure Island" open but none of the bars open. Really sad too because we *love* the adventurer's club. My understanding is that they're going to be changing everything over into shops and/or restaurants over the coming years. But, we walked past it all and then settled for the Portobello Restaurant. There was a 35 minute wait, so we walked a while before coming back. Dinner was good, however not as memorable as the last time we ate there (we had this roasted garlic which was scrumtious last time!). After dinner we went to the Carribean Resort and checked in. The individual that helped us was from Columbia and was named Jesus. He wished me a happy birthday and gave me a birthday pin which he scribbled my name on. Needless to say, we joked about the devine birthday greeting I received (and before someone gets on me, "yes I do know it's pronounced with an H in Pureto Rico where he's from).
Room was clean and filled with Disney references like normal. I jumped on the bed and spent and hour finishing up the work from the day. Bear made sure my present in a red box was very prominently displayed, staring at me throughout the night. He so knowns how to keep a pixie's curiousity up.
I woke up on my birthday in my sweetie's arms. It's the way I so love waking up. :) After rubbing the sleep out of my eyes my sweetie grabbed the present and placed it in front of me. I ripped into it and started laughing. It's a Cannon D50, exactly like the one I gave him at Christmas except with a slightly better lens (this one goes from 17-300, whereas the one I got him for Christmas went from 27-210). He said that I had been commenting on how much better his was compared to my old Cannon D10, so he wanted me to have one for my own. He's so thoughful. :) We finished up prepping for the day, Bear placed my new camera into my backpack, and then we headed for the Magic Kingdom.
I had come to Disney back on my 35th birthday, so I knew they tried to make you feel special. Back then, they had different buttons for each park and we went to each park to get the button. They changed their practice though, so now you're wearing just one button which has your name on it and everyone wishes you a personal happy birthday greeting. Again, it's so surreal having people you don't know wishing you a greeting by name all day long. :) This year is also Disney's year of celebration, so they are giving away free tickets or other special gifts if you already have a ticket. We decided to go with the free ticket avenue for me this time around, however we found out later you could get a free fastpast to all the rides if you picked one of the other options. So, we might do that for Bear's b'day in November. :)
As always, it's always a blast going to Disney. We explored new places today we didn't realize were there. We saw the barber actually *HAD* 2 real barbers who would give you a haircut. There were two kids getting one at the time, otherwise I would have thrown Bear into the seat. :) We also found a place where you could take photos w/a bunch of cardboard cut-outs of Disney characters. Perfect place to play with my new camera.
My goal today was to try to go to as many rids as possible that I hadn't been on in forever. For the most part we succeeded. The park wasn't *too* crowded, so we were able to breeze in and out of most rides in less than 20 minutes. We had a couple of rides, like the Peter Pan Adventure and Splash Mountain, which took upwards to 40 minutes to get out of. Again, not bad times with all things considering. We made reservations and ate at one of the restaurnts in the park at noon and supposable "the boss" made sure they put confettii nad streamers on our table before we got there to help us celebrate. :) Besides eating, we got off pretty cheap this year in the park. The only thing Bear bought for me was a set of pins while we were in the park of the Muppets wearing Micky ears. we stayed until the fireworks display, which closed down the park at around 8:30, then took the bus to downtown Disney to go get something to eat. We decided to eat at the House of Blues. I was still wearing my button and they waitress wished me a happy birthday. She was incredibly pleasant and nice throughout the night. At the very end of the night, she brought us some cake w/a candle. The table next to us was getting up ready to leave, then they stopped and stood around my table and sang happy birthday, referring to my pin when it got to my the name part. :D After dinner we then caught the bus back to the hotel. It was a truely happy and wonderful birthday.
Saturday we woke up and it so felt like a Sunday. We paked everything up and went to breakfast at the hotel, where Bear bought me a Micky straw to sip my orange juice with. We decided to eat outside for it was suppose to get up into the low 80's today, and it felt like it was mid-70's in the morning. The wildlife around the area was abundant and staring at us the whole time as we ate. However, we knew better than to feed the wildlife, so we didn't.
After breakfast we set off towards Orlando. There was a traveling exhibit on the Muppets happening at the History Center. We got there around 10 am and were really excited. Unfortunately, they told us that under no circumstances could we take phots in the exhibit. :( They did tell us to stick around until 3:00 because "A Better World: Living in Harmony" was going to be shown. So, we headed up to the area and there was Kermit welcoming us inside. They had him under lock and key at the front enterance. Going inside, we saw a lot of Henson's storyboards, drawings, and concept art. They were also showing commercials he had designed. And there were muppets and props, of course. We saw the Mah Na, Mah Na's who were there, Stadler and Waldorf's balcony, and props from the Dark Crystal, such as Kira's dress. At the very end of the exhibit, there was a small gift shop. There were some books there that I thought might be beneficial to own once we start volunteering at the Children's hospital. The books were on making puppets. There was also a Kermit photo prop, which I've had on my wish list for years. We decided to forego getting anything right now and do it after the 3:00 pm show.
We got done early and went out to eat and then strolled around the park nearby. There was a wedding of two women going on at the time. Very beautiful...It was at the park under an arch. Both women were wearing wedding gowns and we came across the wedding ceremony when they were about ready to walk down the aisle with their fathers (they were in two different places in the park so they couldn't see each other). We unfortunately couldn't watch the festivities for too long because we wanted to get back by 3:00 and only had around 20 minutes to scoot.
Got back in time for the talk and were stopped by the woodchip pile. We got up to the desk to show them our ticket however the museum stopped us and told us there was an additional charge for the talk. Jim mentioned that we would pay, however we weren't informed of this up front. The museum said they would give us a special 2 for 1 ticket price. The talk was great. They showed several National Wildlife Federation clips that Jim Henson created, a less well known episode about the rainforest, and finally several episodes of Fraggle Rock. During this, Mokey (played by Kathryn Mullen) appeared at the podium and spoke for several moments about her spa that she opened up after Fraggle Rock. Finally, it wrapped up with questions, and Heather Henson was there to field a few questions from individuals. She was trying to lure us all back next week when they'll have "a singalong to the Muppet Movie w/Heather Henson". Sounds like it will be a blast.
After the talk was over, we went downstairs to go buy a few things from the Henson Museum shop. Unforutnately they were already closed for the day. Bear spoke with someone about this since they said in the talk it was going to be open and the museum opened up the shop for us. We purchased the 2 books and the Kermit posable figure.
Finished up the day driving back to Indy and then crashing in bed. Overall a really great weekend thus far...However this is the first time I've had a birthday on the same weekend as daylight savings time kicking in.. Bear's still sound asleep at 10:30. Arg!