As a proud Hoosier (okay.......technically I'm a Hoosier, but we all know that by the grace of God I'm a Boilermaker!), I am so incredibly excited that our city is hosting the Super Bowl this year. We've been prepping and planning and planning and prepping for this event for years. So for it to finally be here, seems unreal.
Our city has done an AMAZING job at transforming our downtown into a true Super Bowl Village. Everything from the ice sculptures to the pyrotechnics show each night, to the larger-than-life Roman numerals, to the zipline......Indy has made Super Bowl 46 one for the record books!
Andy & I experienced the night life this past weekend, while celebrating a friend's birthday. The energy, the atmosphere.....everything was simply electrifying! You could walk down Georgia street with an open beer, hopping from one tent to another with no worries that a cop was going to stop you. It was great! You could walk down "radio row" and see all the anchors broadcasting the evening's news through the open windows. It was so much fun!
This was the ending zone of the zipline.
Another view of the zipline.
One of the ice bars on Georgia St.
On Saturday afternoon, we came back downtown with the kids to let them experience some fun at the NFL Experience. They enjoyed seeing all the neat displays and activities, but it was way too crowded to fully enjoy it. That was my only complaint. The NFL should limit the number of tickets they sell for this....that, or extend it another weekend for the hometown crowd to enjoy before the big crowds arrive. You had to wait in line for hours upon hours to do anything. There were even lines to look at trophies, or to get your picture taken with a replica of a player's locker. Now, that's a bit crazy.
Poor Drewbie; he wasn't enjoying this too much!
But how cute does he look all suited up?!?...
All-in-all, it was a fantastic time. I definitely have plans to come back down throughout the course of the week. There is so much more talent and activities lined up, that I can't wait!
Oh, and did I forget to tell you........that I'M GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL on Sunday?
The story: As with most kids, Emma loves stickers and temporary tattoos. It's one of her "things." So while Andy was making dinner the other night, he realized that he hadn't heard from Emma in a little while.
That's never a good sign.
Sure enough, he finds her in the bathroom, applying a whole page of temporary tattoos to her belly.
After 2 years and 8 months, it was finally time to transition Drew into his big boy bed.
It was a bittersweet moment for me. On one hand, I didn't want to accept the fact that my little boy wasn't a baby any more. If he's no longer in a crib, then I guess I couldn't technically call him a little baby anymore, could I? But on the other hand, I may have been just a teensy bit excited to be able to cuddle with him at night.
And cuddle I do!
He loves his big boy bed. He loves getting all cozy and comfy underneath all the covers.
In fact, he's the exact OPPOSITE of his big sister...
It was HELL getting her to sleep in her big girl bed. I remember that first night....heck, I don't think Andy and I will ever forget it, as much as we'd like to! She got up about 30 times before we threw in the towel and just sat on the floor in her room. And then, for about the first month or so of her being in her big girl bed, we'd have to sit on the floor until she fell asleep. No eye contact, no talking, nothing. Just pure silence until the girl fell asleep. Fun times. Super-fun times when you're 6 months pregnant, I might add!
But not Drewbie. He hasn't got up once since putting him in his big boy bed. He's such a good little guy. Love my little man to pieces!
We took the kids (well Emma, really) to see Disney On Ice: Dare to Dream this past weekend. And in true Disney fashion, nothing they do is ever in done in on a small scale. Their costumes were cool, the set design was spectacular, and the ending was fantastic.
Wearing her Disney shirt!
We put pink streaks in her hair.
I thought it was an appropriate time to allow her to get a little "glittery."
Look at all that "hair"
The floating lanterns.
The fantastic ending full of fireworks.
It isn't a Disney production if there aren't fireworks involved!
I feel as though I haven't blogged about my job in a bit.
How lucky I am to have one that I enjoy as much as I do.
How lucky I am that I work with some fun and energetic people.
How lucky I am that - upon the occasional times I travel - I get to go to some pretty fun places and stay at some pretty spectacular hotels.
A couple of weeks ago, right after returning from Orlando with the family at the wonderful world of Disney, I got to travel with our buying team to Southern California to see what our brands have coming up for the holiday season.
SoCal in the middle of January, not to shabby huh?!?
My thoughts exactly.
I began each morning with a nice walk along the beach, enjoying the stunning sunrise above the Hollywood Hills, and ended each day with a relaxing chromotherapy bubble bath, complete with a latte and bite-size cupcake. All in my own private room.
Pure Heaven.
Enjoying the sunrise on the pier at Manhattan Beach.
So incredibly beautiful.
It's hard to believe that these photos are not photo shopped.
This is 100% real.
Manhattan Beach Blvd.
90210, baby!
There it is, my little piece of heaven.
Right there in the center of my hotel room.
How I ended my day each night:
bubble bath, latte, cupcake
Our 4th and final day was spent at the wonderful world of Epcot. I must tell you, when we were planning our trip, I was hesitant to go to this park. As a kid, I just remembered thinking that Epcot was "boring" and was for "the adults."
Turns out, I was way off.
That rarely happens, bytheway.
Epcot was extremely cool.
We started our adventure at The Living Seas.
We boarded a "clamobile" and joined our undersea pals on a quest to find Nemo, on The Seas with Nemo & Friends. This movie has a special place in my heart. And while my dear husband doesn't remember it (*sigh*), this was the first movie we ever saw together. So while I felt a little pitter-patter in my heart as I climbed aboard my clamobile, Andy just hopped right in and made some annoying sound effect.
They incorporated animated fish (Nemo) into a live aquarium. It was so cool!
These were (I believe) live jellyfish.
My two men aboard the clamobile. Love them more than life itself.
In The Seas area, they have a haaauuuuuge underwater aquarium, complete with colorful coral reef, beautiful fish, sea turtles, sharks, and a manatee rescue center! Manatees are such sweet, sweet creatures.
That's Emma in there.
Perhaps one of the coolest things (I thought) was an interactive show with Crush, the awesomely chill sea turtle from Finding Nemo. This was a live show that allowed audience members to actually have a conversation with Crush. I'm not sure how they do this, but they must have someone behind the screen, "operating" Crush, who can see the audience because he as soon as the show starts, he swims up to the window and begins chatting with the audience. Check out these videos to see what I mean.
After hanging out underwater, we headed over to The Land to take a ride in the skies on Soarin'. Soarin' is a free-flying, hang gliding ride that is so cool! You sit down, strap on your safely belt as you normally would aboard a flight, and enjoy the scenic view of our great nation. As you feel the wind in your hair, you get a bird's eye view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Then you suddenly smell the scent of grapes as you head into the wine gardens of Napa Valley. Before you know it, your toes are about to crash into the waves in the Pacific Ocean. Finally, you return "home" to a fantastic finale of fireworks above the Cinderella Castle at Disney World.
Then we headed over to Imagination! to see Captian EO. Remember this video?!?.......Michael Jackson, back in the 80's, when he was so freaking cool?!? I certainly enjoyed this, but man. Andy LOVED it. He can vividly remember watching this video back in the day. Could be his age (just saying), but he loved the cool 3D effects and how the seats moved when the space ship landed. It was neat-o, for sure. And the kids enjoyed it to. 30 years later, and MJ's still cool. Damn, I miss the 80's MJ.
We ended our day at Epcot with a Mission to Space. And hole. Lee. Hell. Let me just tell you.....this ride was unbelievable. This is as close as blasting off to space as you can, without leaving Earth. This ride realistically mimics what an astronaut might experience might experience during a space flight to Mars. It says it's for teens and young adults, but after Missy Lucille's thrilling time on the Tower of Terror, we knew this would be a walk in the park for her. (And it was.) But as for mom and dad? Well, let's just say that we had to have a little recovery "time out" afterwards. I'm not sure how they do it, but they use G-forces - more than twice the force of the Earth's gravitational pull - to "blast" you off. I literally thought I might lose my lunch. (They had barf bags right next to your hands, if this tells you anything.)
Emma went on it twice.
We had such an amazing time on our Disney Vacation. Words cannot express the moments we shared together and the memories we made.
On our 3rd day, we ventured over to Disney's Hollywood Studios, "where action takes center stage."
And, boy does it!
From the Backlot Express tour, to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, to the Fantasmic show.....you name it, Hollywood Studios has it!
Upon entering the park, we immediately "Fast Pass'd" the Toy Story ride, which already had a 45-minute wait. (Our friends gave us some helpful tips, one of which was to make sure we Fast Pass this ride first thing. It fills up fast!)
While waiting for our Toy Story time slot, we met a handful of characters, including:
Jake, from Jake and the Neverland Pirates
Toy Soldier from the Toy Story movies
Piglet
Phineas and Ferb
Lightening McQueen and Madar
We took the Studio Backlot Tour, which shows you how they create some really cool movie scenes like battles and storms at sea. I must say, the coolest part was taking a tour through Catastrophe Canyon, where an earthquake, flood, and explosions happened right in front of our eyes. It was super-cool!
We enjoyed a little Muppet 3D show, which was quite cute. I'm not a huge Muppet fan - but Andy and the kids really enjoyed it. Emma got a kick out of experiencing the 3D effects, however Drew just enjoyed (what must have been) the weird 2D show, because he wouldn't keep the glasses on!
After a bit of action-packed shows and tours, we let the kids play on the larger-than-life playground at the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure.
Next up was the "Disney Junior - Live on Stage!" show. Emma and Drew watch this every morning, so we were excited to have them watch this interactive show featuring the Disney Junior pals from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. However, Drew's body had other plans.....little man slept through the entire show!
After that show, we checked out Princess Ariel at the Voyage of The Little Mermaid. That was a pretty cool show. It was a short musical of the movie, with live actors, cool lasers, and awesome effects.
Emma was just dying to get her face painted, so we let her choose what she wanted to get done. She picked the "rainbow froggie." Doesn't she look cute?!?
Aside from Toy Story Mania, the only other "ride" that we went on at Hollywood Studios was the Tower of Terror. And let me just tell you.......that this is one HELL of a ride. I can't believe that my little 5 year old not only rides this thing.....
But LOVES it.
In fact, you know how they take pictures of you where you can see yourself at the end of the ride?!?! Well, here I am bracing not only Emma's lap, but the stranger's lap who's sitting next to me, fearing for my life. And Emma? Well, she's sitting there with her hands straight up in the air. Loving every thrilling second of it.
DARE DEVIL.
This ride takes you up 13 stories (it's like you're in an elevator), opens up the door showing you the entire park, then suddenly drops. Then goes back up again. Then drops.
Scary. As. H-E-double-hockey-sticks.
One of the coolest sights to see was as night, with the Spectacle of Dancing Lights on the Streets of America. They have built a set that looks like a typical, busy street in Manhattan, and draped millions and millions of lights all over the buildings. At night, we saw this spectacular show where millions of these lights "danced" in synchronized motion to holiday music, accompanied by snow. It was so awesome!
We ended our day at Hollywood Studios at the Fantasmic! show. It's a night time spectacular hosted by Mickey Mouse with lasers, lights, dancing fountains and special effects. It was such an amazing show; truly the BEST way to end our day.
