Throwback Thursday - Disney Style!

(Throwback Thursday is a way to document pre-blogging life.)

These e-cards basically tell my Disney story...

1) I think there might be something wrong with a person if they hate DIsney.

2) I'd prefer to be at Disney rather than work, any day.

3) I don't even know any Nickelodeon stuff. 

4) And yes, I do love Disney as much as (if not more than) your average child. 

So what?  

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I've taken so many trips to Disneyland, I honestly can't even begin to count them. 

It's one of the advantages of living in So Cal.  

Almost every time we had out of state visitors when I was a kid, particularly my mom's side of the family, that's where we went.  The happiest place on earth!  

It's a family thing.  

Anyhow, here are some pics from before my blogging days, of various trips to both DisneyLAND and DisneyWORLD over the years.    

(Prepare for a photo overload!! It wasn't easy to cut any out! )

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This one is a classic.  Splash mountain splash camera!  

This is from 2003.  

My little brother in the front, he's 21 now.  ;-) 

This was a trip I took about 5 years ago (with my mom & 2 aunts) when my cousin was doing an internship at WDW.  See that Mt. Everest in the background?  That's where she worked while she was there.  The best roller coaster in all of the parks!

On the left of this collage is the 5 of us (plus a totally awesome and willing participant riding next to my mom) sleeping on Expedition Everest after our 12th time riding it that day.  hehehe   

Then us getting ready to ride it AGAIN! and me with my "baby" cousin. 

More of us on that particular trip.... group shots in front of Disney landmarks.

 An earlier DisneyWorld trip with just one aunt...lots of ME at Epcot!  :-)  (I LOVE Epcot.)

This is from a trip when my aunt was in SoCal visiting.  We like visors. 

Same trip, in front of the Haunted Mansion.  YIKES!  ;-)

Do you guys remember that year when Disney was letting everyone visit the parks FREE on their birthday?  Well, I took full advantage.   I forced convinced my MIL to go on her birthday (in January) and we had a BLAST!  She is not a big Disney fan but it was a really fun day, and I think I swayed her toward the Disney point of view.

I also talked my Dad into coming down from San Francisco so we could go on HIS birthday (in March).  This was a really fun trip, too.  I got him a birthday pin so every park employee wished him a happy day, and he was so genuinely happy and thankful, it was adorable.  (Still in my visor stage.)

And...a few other randoms that make me smile.  

We never get tired of the "no dancing" signs on the rides. ;-)

OK, I better stop with FB/MySpace reminiscing before you all fall asleep.  ;-)  

DISNEY!  I love it!  That is all.  :-) 

(If any of you are ever in SoCal and going to Disneyland, I'm a great tour guide! haha)

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Sometime in the not too far future, I am hoping to turn Throwback Thursdays into a link up, with the lovely ERICA of Mi Todo.  She is in the process of moving to another country right now (!!) so it might be a few weeks more before we get anything figured out.  

But, if you're interested, leave a comment so I can try to remember to let you know once I know more.

Throwback Thursday (Hawaii)

Hey guys!  Hope your weeks are going well out there wherever you are.
(Where are you, btw?  Lemme know if you comment!)

Welcome to another installment of Throwback Thursday :-)  
I did a guest/sponsor post recently (for Mish!) about our trip to Hawaii (and my unfortunate accident there).  I loved going through those pictures so much, I decided to put together a Throwback Thursday about it.  We visited Hawaii just a few years ago, 

but it was before I was blogging and I have a lot of pics to share!

We first went to the Big Island of Hawaii for 3 days, where my aunt lives. 

This is her coffee shop, which is attached to her restaurant,
where we ate delicious food for every meal. 

And we drove through and around lots of growing coffee.

 We drove all over the island in the time we were there.

While on Hawaii, we spent a day in Kona, drove to the volcano, and ate like kings!

Interesting fruits at the farmers market that my aunt hosts on the weekends. 

We saw this house being taken back by the jungle.

We went to the southern most point in the United States.

We drank out of coconuts.

We went to the Hawaiian Royal Palace.

Us on the sea wall behind palace.

Our last morning on Hawaii.....

Then we hopped over to Maui and spent 3 more days.  
 Maui from the sky...

 Upon settling into our rental car and heading toward the hotel, we saw a double rainbow. (Couldn't get a good pics of it though.)

These were some of the views from our hotel...

Ready to go on the volcano bike ride. 
(Nice cheeks.  Thanks helmets.)

We chased some cows. 
(Actually, he was just walking out into the grass so I could get a better picture, 
but I snapped this one at the right time!)

I crashed on the bike and had to spend the last 2 days crutching and wheelchair-ing around. 

In my wheelchair at the luau!

It was so much fun! 
Good food, good drinks, good entertainment, good table mates. :-)

We made some new friends at the luau. 
It wasn't so bad on my knee, what with the unlimited tropical drinks!  

Our last breakfast before coming home. 

Oh, and uh...this is what happened when I got home. 
Yep.  The volcano got me good.

Have you visited Hawaii?  What island?  

I.can.not.wait.to.go.back!! 

Roundup of Links I'm Lovin

Hey guys... Happy Thursday!

 Right at this moment I have this cooking in my crock pot at home. Mmmmmm...

Source: storyofmylifetheblog.blogspot.com via Cynthia on Pinterest

Split pea soup, gonna be so good!  It even rained last night so (hopefully) it won't be like eating hot soup on a summer night this evening!  We'll see.  ;-)   
(Thanks JENNI for the recipe!)


A Few Notes from Neverland: 
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1) The lovely Erica, over at Mi Todo has been writing a Throwback Thursday series, 
to document events/trips that took place pre-blogging.  
We've emailed about co-hosting a link-up!  
I know I have tons of ideas already.  She has already done quite a few fun ones!  
In fact, her trip to British Columbia is what inspired my first Throwback post, and I wrote about Vancouver last week.  :-)  
Erica has kindly offered to make us a button so we should be getting something a little more organized together soon!  
So, if you think that sounds fun... 
a) let me know! 
(so I can try to put you on some kind of reminder list maybe? Am I that organized?? We'll see.)
and b) stay tuned!

2) The typewriter necklace giveaway is still on over at Be Freckled, check it out! 

3) My BRAVE giveaway is still going on, see below!! 

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On to some link love... 
I keep a running list of stuff I find online that is fun or interesting, and I figured why not share it with you, my wonderful readers?  :-)  
I hope you find something you like, or a new blog to read, or just a laugh!

1) Ex-pat blogger Lauren and her husband devised an adorably cute plan for finding out (and revealing) the sex of their TWINS!  Too stinkin' cute if you ask me. 

http://www.aspiringkennedy.com/2012/11/guess-what-were-having.html

2) If you liked this post I wrote mentioning The Babysitters Club, you will LOVE this site.  Trust me, just click on it!

http://www.whatclaudiawore.com/

3) I just love these journals, recipe organizers, planners, etc. from Gadanke.
http://www.gadanke.com/product/she-gray-european-paper-writing-prompt-journal-quote-collection-1-0

 

4) Alyx is another momma-to-be blogger.  I seriously love her baby thoughts so far.  
I kinda love her in general, she's a cool/funny lady.
http://www.itsalyx.com/   

5) I LOVE THIS ETSY SHOP (Pretty Whimsical)!!   
Especially these Scrabble tile pendants... I could buy one for everyone I know! 
(As demonstrated below. A few for me, a few gifts.  I think I could go for a baker's dozen actually!  haha)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/prettywhimsical

 #1 for Me, #2 for Gesci, #3 for English 
#4 for Renee, #5 for Me, #6 for Janna
#7 for Gesci, #8 for Kristen, #9 for my Mom

There are also a few new blogs that I have found via giveaways and swaps I've been involved in lately:
Nikki won the yellow/gray earring giveaway on Mish's blog  

Erica won the butterfly earring giveaway on Kristen's blog 
Elise is my ornament swap recipient 
and Crystal is my ornament swap giver via Erin's swap!

If you are on the look out for new blogs, check these ladies out! 

Hope everyone has had a good week so far.  Looking forward to Friday!  

Although I found out this week that my company "accidentally" scheduled our floating holiday incorrectly.  We all THOUGHT we had Monday (Veteran's Day) off, but we don't!  LAME! Luckily I didn't have any real plans but still.. I thought it was gonna be a 3 day weekend!  :-(  Well, at least Thanksgiving is coming up.  ;-)

Throwback Thursday - Vancouver!

Couple of quick notes... 

1) I am being featured over on Ricci's blog today (along with her other lovely November sponsors)! Yay! She has been great to work with so far and a really sweet girl and a new aunt!! :-)

2) Also, I should be finding out about the Ornament Swap (button on my sidebar) with Erin at Living In Yellow today! Kind excited about that. 

 

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So, for today's post, I poached borrowed this idea from the lovely Erica at Mi Todo...Throwback Thursdays, a brilliant idea!   

It's basically a chance to document pre-blogging life.  Which, I think, is pretty smart! 

I've only been writing this blog for less than a year.  My food blog, maybe 3 years?  But I'm 36, and we've been together 18 years. So...that's a lot of stuff to reminisce about!  :-) 

These are a few pics from a trip I took to Vancouver, BC (Canada) in  September of 2009.  I've been visiting my grandparents in Vancouver since I was a kid.  I used to go every summer for a week or more, hang out with cousins, and tour the sites of the city. 

My favorite spot to visit always was (and still remains) Granville Island Market.  If you've never been, it's like a giant, permanent farmer's market.  Since Vancouver is a coastal city, there are a LOT OF FISH.  Tons of fruits and vegetables.  There are also many restaurants and shops in and around the market. You can find clothing, baked goods, jewelery, local art, toys, housewares, beads... (the bead store was always our favorite store when we were tweens!) And there are plenty of maple items.  Mmmmm, maple sugar candy! You can also usually find musicians, street performers, and artisans. I always like to check out the totem poles being carves by First Nation members. 

If you've ever visited my food blog (button on sidebar!) you may recognize the first picture.  It's one of my favorites, and taken at Granville. :-)

I always enjoy a full day of browsing, eating and spending too much money at Granville. 

Another fun attraction (in 2009 particularly) are the Winter Olympic sites in and around the city.  The speed skating rink was actually just a few miles down the road from my Nana's house!  This is also the location that all of the drug testing for athletes was performed.

Since I visited before the Olympics, we got the chance to take a tour of the facility.  It was much more interesting than I originally thought it would be.  A lot of thought and care was taken to build the structure, and there was a lot of symbolism and local artistic flair incorporated into the design and construction.  

Now that the Olympics are over the building is used as a gigantic gym! 

(It probably has other uses, too, but I thought the gym idea was cool.)

I spent a lot of the weekend just chatting with my Nana, going to dinner, and enjoying the city I've grown to love.  Just last year my Nana moved back east, to Toronto, and I'm sad knowing I won't be able to visit her in this lovely city again. 

I'll  just have to be a big girl, visit on our own, and get a hotel!  ;-)

Nana and I, in my blonder and longer hair days, at the market.  :-)   Until next time, Vancouver!

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When I harassed asked Erica about borrowing her idea, she said she has done it as a link up in the past.  We discussed working together on it, so you might see a link up soon.

 I think we should all participate!  It's fun to stroll down memory lane.  :-) 

Happy Thursday everybody!!