I've Got the Magic, Magic, Magic

A little over 3 weeks ago (my, how time flies!!) I headed down with Grahambo to the land of magic itself (no not Never Never Land--although we did stop in briefly while we were there), Orlando, Florida! We met my mom and dad as well as my sister Keri, her husband Joel and two kids Rami and Ada. First of all I would just like to say: I LOVE DISNEYWORLD. It makes me giddy now even thinking about it. Talking the monorail into Magic Kingdom just brings back so many fun memories as a kid that I can't even explain. Getting to see my nieces experience the magic for the first time was even more amazing. There really isn't anything better than seeing a little girl light up at the sight of a disney princess, folks. I get it, I get it, we are just promoting a society where little girls expect to grow up and be swept off of their feet by prince charming and live happily ever after in their ginormous castle, but you know what? Why not! Enough talk about the girls, when I got to hug Mickey Mouse I somehow forgot about the crazy person inside the costume and just enjoyed a big kiss on the cheek from the starter of it all. Who am I kidding? I am the one who drove to Atlanta from Chapel Hill in a day and a half so that I could try to be the crazy person in the mouse costume!! Yes, I auditioned to be a disney character. Preferably a pricess, but with my height restriction, more likely a mouse. Or Stitch.

I only have one little bone to pick with Disney. Why you gotta make every "children's" ride absolutely TERRIFYING at some point or another. For example, we are at Animal Kingdom, right? Perfectly harmless. We had just enjoyed a visit with the vine lady, who was absolutely amazing and we were headed to our first "ride" of the trip: A 3D adventure with Flik from A Bug's Life. It starts out nice with a butterfly right within "arms length" when all of a sudden the evil grasshopper guy pops out of nowhere, the fog machines and strobe lights cut on and it goes pitch black in there. I mean seriously??? My poor 5 year-old niece is now scarred for life and we cannot go on another ride for the rest of the week without her asking, "It's not going to be like that bug ride, right??" Thanks, Walt.

On another note, the first night in Florida we visited my favorite restaurant in the whole world (this says a lot considering how much I love food and how many restaurants I've been to) by Emeril Lagasse called "Tchoup Choup". Pronounced Chop Chop. With an asian flare the restaurant is decorated with brilliant blues, oranges and purples with hints of bamboo , an ethereal lily pad pool in the center and waterfall down the back wall. Needless to say, the meal was amazing. And as if we weren't all stuffed to the brim, in perfect Dad-like fashion we hop a boat to Universal's City Walk straight from the restaurant and make a b-line for cinnibon and split 2 caramel pecan rolls between the fam. I'm talkin' about somethin' down right good.

I have not done this trip any bit of justice by this blog post, so I will leave you a few pictures to express my excitement!

LOVE M-I-C...K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!

Mickey and Minnie!

At Mickey's Halloween Spooktacular! Love me some crazy family time.