Where Did July Go?

Hi friends! Or should I say, Hi anyone who is still reading.... Have I really been blogless for a month? What happened to July? One thing is for sure, the time is FLYING by! I have a lot to update on so I'll start from the beginning and go from there.

Disney!! For our 2 year anniversary Ben and I took a last minute trip to Disney World. I say last minute because literally, it was. That's what we do. Wait till the last day possible (the day before we leave) and then book the trip. I literally booked the hotel the day before and we called Carnival on the way to Orlando to take our names off the waiting list for the cruise leaving Port Canaveral. We were on the waiting list because we waited last minute to attempt to get on the cruise. Anyway, we didn't make the cruise so we went to Disney instead.

I have to say that I love all things Disney but Ben doesn't exactly share the love. I mean, he tolerates it and somewhat enjoys parts of it, but he could really do without. I hope this changes when we have children. Anyway, I was pumped! I packed up our road trip survival kit: Oreos, Peanut M&M's, Reesce's Cups, Sour Patch Kids, and Cheez-its, and we hit the road.

We stayed at the lovely Dolphin Hotel (where the "dolphins" look more like giant goldfish, but oh well) that is in the Disney Park and has Disney transportation but isn't really Disney... so it was the best of both worlds. We got a good deal on the room since it was, after all, a last minute thing.

Our hotel was right off the Disney Boardwalk which lines the lake and is full of cute little shops and restaurants. It was a short walk from our hotel to Epcot or we could take a little boat to MGM (now Hollywood Studios) or Epcot. The location was really perfect. We probably would've spent more time in the parks and at these little shops had it not been a hundred thousand degrees and packed full of crowds of people who have no concept of personal space.

My time at Disney confirmed my distaste for crowded areas and sweaty people who don't wear deodorant.

The fireworks and lazer shows at Epcot and Magic Kingdom were really amazing! The people at Disney definitely go all out and pay attention to every detail. The parks are spotless and beautiful if you can manage to get a glimpse of anything around all the people. (Can you tell I am bitter about the crowds? Never go on a holiday weekend and never go in the heat of summer. You have been warned.)

The Magic Kingdom has had the long time standing of being my favorite park for many years now. However, this year I do believe it was surpassed by Animal Kingdom with Epcot falling in a close second. Ben and I rode the water ride at Animal Kingdom where Ben refused to tighten our seat belt so we would be able to stand up and avoid getting hit with water. While I almost smashed my face into the hand rail in the middle of the raft, we did escape the ride as the driest passengers. Go Ben.

One of the highlights of the trip was the dinner show "Hoop-Dee-Doo Review." We loved the food, we loved the show, we loved the service, it was so much fun! If you ever venture to Disney World, this is definitely worth the time and money. However, do not waste your time and money on the "Pirates" dinner show. Do not. Don't do it. Do. not. do. it.

So, Ben and I are two years into this whole marriage thing. Where did those two years go? Would you believe I am just now getting around to ordering wedding pictures? Seriously! Just now. I can't believe how fast the time is going by. Hopefully this time next year I not only will have my wedding pictures, I will actually have them in frames and hanging on my walls! Lofty goals... lofty goals...

Two Weeks Later...

Hi Friends!

I am currently sitting in a creekside cabin in the beautiful mountains of Blue Ridge, GA waiting on the rest of my family to arrive. Sadly, Ben won't be able to join me until Saturday but I am already looking forward to him getting here! This is the annual Highfield family summer vacation and while we usually go to Sea Grove, we decided to change it up a bit this year. Anyway, pictures and more family fun to come but in the mean time I need to catch this blog up to speed with my life since May. It.Was.Busy.

Here are a few pictures of some of the highlights (more on births, anniversary, and freezer cooking to come):

So, as I (sort of) mentioned before, Ben and I joined our friends Josh and Shelley on a long weekend trip to Panama City. Josh and Shelley are two of my best friends from pharmacy school and Ben has grown to love them as well. We always have so much fun whenever we can find time to get together.

Here are Shelley and me showing off our jumping skills.

Here are Ben and Josh showing off their um, jumping skills...

Could this sign contain any more adjectives?

Oh, and what a pleasant surprise! We were there during Thunder Beach Week. What is Thunder Beach week? It is basically the week that anyone in the continental U.S. who owns a bike rides it down to PCB and drives it around for the entire week as loudly as possible. Awesome. This is what we found during our Wal-Mart run. Seriously, there were A LOT of bikes in PCB.

Here are some atypical Thunder Beach participants:

Here is a typical Thunder Beach participant:

Just kidding. We did, however, see a little bit of everything that weekend including a man wearing a "Cole Slaw Wrestling" tee shirt. Said tee shirt featured scantily clad cartoon women wrestling in cabage. I took a picture for the blog but decided against posting it because that picture definitely would've made this blog entry PG-13. Needles to say, Thunder Beach made our little weekend getaway very entertaining if not peaceful.

Upon our return home we found this:

A few special gifts from our friend Daniel. Seven hundred and seventy four of them...

We did what any other person would do. We played in them.

Then we put our poodle in the middle of them.

And he had no idea what to do. So he just sat there. The end.

Now that I am working the 7 on 7 off schedule, I only have every other weekend to spend with Ben. We took advantage of one of the few Sundays (ever) that we had no other obligations and took Pete and Berkley to play in the pond at Mimi and Pop's (Ben's parents).

Pete was pumped.

Berkley, not so much. Apparently he had forgotten how to swim since last summer.

Pete obsessed over his ball

While Berkley watched from a safe distance

Sometimes its hard to be a poodle.

Earlier that morning, Ben made us his special homemade doughnuts!

These things are awesome! My mom used to make these from time to time when we were little and Ben and I like to make them every now and then when company comes over. You just buy canned biscuit dough, ball it up, and drop it in the fryer.

Once the dough balls are nice and brown, let them dry (get off as much of the oil as possible for best results) and then drop them in the baggie of powdered sugar. Shake well and then serve. Yum!

We didn't let these dry enough before coating them in the confectioners sugar, thus they were a bit on the over-coated sugary side. Less is more in my opinion because the powdered sugar will kind of cake up in your mouth if you have too much on the doughnut. Also, we have tried different variations of dough shapes and have found the dough ball to work the best. Oh yeah, and you can't eat just one. Don't hate me.

I'll leave you with that but hopefully I'll be back before next month.