Oh, the places we've gone! (Recipe not included)

From all appearances, we have either been eating out an exorbitant amount, not interested in making new foods, or have given up the blog entirely. While we have been eating out a little more than normal, the absence was in large part to allow me some time to prep for our spring break vacation! While this is predominately a food blog, I wanted to share some personal pics from our recent trip as a lot of you who regularly read this are friends and family.

Your regularly scheduled food pics and recipes will be appearing in the very near future! Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Now on to our adventure... Guess where we went? Here's a hint:

We met with the big cheese himself. My girls are in the Minnie shirts (thanks Aunt Caren!), and the adorable boys are my nephews. My youngest nephew had a massive fear of characters, so he opted not to stand next to the giant-headed mouse.

 Being silly in Downtown Disney:

 

Do people go to Disney World and not ride Dumbo?! For the record, I was the dumbo on this ride. I was so concerned about trying to get the below picture, that I didn't realize that we actually controlled the ups and downs of the ride and was convinced ours was defective until almost the end. Not one of my brighter moments. The rest of the day went much smoother.

My youngest and I:

Grandpa and my youngest nephew skipping along together:

A couple of the grand kids cuddling up with Grandma and Grandpa in Tomorrowland:

 My oldest dancing with Chip:

And the youngest enjoys dancing with Grandpa:

 Trapped by the Evil Emperor Zurg:

Big hugs from Pooh Bear:

The two oldest cousins loved Space Mountain. As you can see, they gave it two thumbs way up. This was my 6-yr.-old daughter's first official roller coaster and I loved her fearlessness as she was whipped around in the dark. :)

Nap time for the youngest cousins:

What visit is complete without a Mickey Mouse ice cream bar? (Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!)

We bought the girls neon mouse ears and they were so cute in the dark:

The girls were so excited to see the castle lit in one of their favorite colors: PINK!

Taking a boat taxi to Epcot:

The girls were wearing shirts that said "Epcot" on them, so the Tinker Fairies pretended that the girls' names were Epcot 1 and Epcot 2. The girls thought it was hysterical.

My little viking:

A highlight of the trip was our lunch with the princesses / Mary Poppins. We didn't know which princesses would be at the lunch and were shocked when Mary Poppins came out! Both girls were super excited to see her and didn't seem to mind that she wasn't a true "princess".

I ♥ this picture:

My family ♥:

After Disney, we visited with friends who currently live in Florida. They are incredibly kind and hospitable, while also being terribly ornery and we love them for it. ;)

Then we headed to Bradenton to reconnect with Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Chris, Aunt B.J., and the cousins. The kiddos (and us!) enjoyed some delicious orange soft serve at a local market. 

Enjoying the beautiful waters in the Gulf of Mexico! What beach trip is complete without some boogie boarding?

And some cuddling with Daddy?

And the obligatory burying-Nate-in-the sand pic:

Enjoying a tasty pre-Easter ham dinner together in Chris and B.J.'s vacation house. The amount of wood paneling in the rental was impressive. :)

We also:

And said a big, fat "awww..." when we peeked at the boys and saw this:

On our way home, we made a stop in Atlanta and decided to climb the face of a mountain. My youngest whined her way onto Uncle Chris' back part of the way up (thank you Chris!!), but walked with Aunt B.J. the entire way down.

The vacation ended with my baby getting sick (5 times) in the last 60 miles, resulting in 6 additional stops and an extra hour added to the already 11-hour trip home. Poor baby. :( Fortunately we were able to contain it all and none got on the car we borrowed from my mom to make the trip! (Thanks for the car and hotel at Disney, Mom!)

Now that we're back and I've hit three grocery stores in the last two days, I have a feeling you'll be seeing a new recipe on here soon! Stay tuned!