Friday, 4/8/2011

We had a wonderful day at Disneyland today.  Here's what we did:

*Saw Mickey Mouse first thing.  I got Katie her first pair of ears while she waited in line with Ben.

Katie kissing Mickey's nose

*Katie and I went on the Buzz Lightyear ride while Ben, Jennifer, Spencer, and Kate rode Space Mountain.

*We all rode the Peter Pan ride.

*We had our only non-Disney character brush with fame on the Teacup Ride.  Dancing with the Stars couple, Chelsea and Romeo, got on the ride just before we did.  Kate yelled out "I love you Romeo", to which he replied "I love you too."  Pretty cool!

*We waited for about 45 minutes in line at the Princess Fantasy Faire.  Once it was our turn, Katie got to have special time with princesses Ariel, Belle, and Tiana.  What an amazing experience for her!

*We had lunch, and then went on the Jungle Cruise.

*Katie and I met Jasmine and Aladdin, with Ben taking photos, while Spencer, Kate, and Jennifer rode the Indiana Jones ride.

*Ben, Katie, and I watched the Mad Hatter play musical chairs with several park guests, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan.

Alice told Katie that she was cute:)

*We met Cinderella's Fairy Godmother and avoided Snow White's evil Stepmother.  She was one of the only characters Katie didn't want to go near.

*We didn't make it in line fast enough to see Cinderella the first time we spotted her, but we did find her in the same place a little while later.  One more princess crossed off our list!

*We finished our time in the park with about an hour in Mickey's Toontown.

*And then, we had dinner. Ben's Webb classmate, Michelle, her husband Dan, and their daughter, Annalise, met us for dinner in Downtown Disney at Jazz Kitchen. For appetizers, we all had Southern garlic cheese bread with fresh basil and mozzarella.  It was, by far, the best bread I have had in months, maybe this year. Ben and I each had a plate of pasta jambalaya--gulf shrimp, andouille sausage, roasted chicken, spinach fettuccine, Creole seasoning.  I passed on the shrimp.  Katie had carrots and chicken strips.  The mojitos we had were nicely sweet and strong:)  For dessert, we shared a Double Chocolate Bread Pudding.  OMG...I can't even describe how wonderful it was.  What a fabulous dessert!  The meal finished with a glass of port. I am thankful that our friends could join us for this great meal.  It was so nice to finally meet the little girls:)

Sunday, 12/26/2010

This afternoon we drove to Ben's Aunt Chris' house for the annual Ruegg family gift exchange.  It was nice to spend time with our extended family and catch up a bit.  We got to meet a new baby in the family and watch Katie play with her cousins.  Jennifer made cute little tuna sandwiches, and we took cinnamon roll cookies.  Since we snacked for three hours, we didn't need a big dinner.  We finished off the tuna sandwiches and ate more dessert.  

I must say, Katie has been a trooper.  We've been gone since Tuesday and her naps and bedtime have been anything but consistent.  She went to bed gladly and let the adults settle in for a movie. 

Monday, 5/24/2010

This morning we drove to San Francisco. Again, we had a pretty big lunch, so for dinner we decided to go for drinks and dessert:) We went to an Italian restaurant, just a few blocks away from our hotel, called Cioppino's. Once there, we just couldn't not have bread too. Ben and I ordered garlic sourdough bread, and Spencer ordered bruschetta. I must say, that bruschetta was amazing. I'm usually not one for raw tomatos, but I LOVED the garlic, oil, and herbs mixed in with them for this appetizer. Ben, Spencer and I had margaritas with the bread, and I think Jennifer had a glass of wine.

Spencer and I shared a chocolate lava cake with ice cream. Jennifer had tiramisu, and Ben had triple chocolate mousse. They were all delicious. We definitely had a great non-dinner at Cioppino's.
Here's a fun picture of the drink diversity at our table:

I should point out that we got real food for Katie, but she didn't eat much of it. We ordered her a separate kids meal for about 1/2 of our meals. She rarely ate enough to make it worth the extra expense.