A very merry unbirthday to....ME!

On Saturday - 8/29 - I turned 25 years old. Now I have been somewhat dreading this day for months now. I'm a quarter of a century old. I'm 1/3 of the way to dead b/c, let's face it, I'm probably not gonna live much past 75 lol. Plus 25 just seems so....old.

So I told my hubby several months back that I wanted him to take over the planning for my birthday this year - that I needed a little extra TLC this birthday lol. And boy did that man ever come through.

Now granted, turning 25 was not as bad as I thought it would be. I was totally freaking over nothing - which anyone who knows me know I tend to do this often. There are definite benefits to getting older and I honestly have a good feeling about this year. My marriage is getting stronger, my little boy is getting bigger, my job is going well, we're shopping for a house. Just lots of good things going on and I'm enjoying my life right now. So once I put the emotion of "getting old" behind me, I was able to see lots of good in life lol.

But back to my amazing husband....

I'm sure you know that Disney is running a special where you get in free on your birthday. So James decided that we would go to Disney World's Animal Kingdom for the weekend. We've been to MGM (which is apparently NOT called MGM anymore??) once and Magic Kingdom twice. We've wanted to do Animal Kingdom since the first time we went to Disney, but have never had the opportunity (read - the people we were with didn't want to go lol). SO we got a hotel room in the park for Friday - Sunday (btw - it pays to live in Florida as we saved like 30% or something on our room) and headed for Orlando. It's a short 3 hour drive and we talked the whole way, which was great.

So Friday, we check in around 4 and then hang out around the hotel for a couple hours. We had dinner reservations at The House of Blues in Downtown Disney at 7:30 that night. Let me just tell you - they had the most awesome BBQ ribs I have EVER had! Seriously - I ate like 3/4 of a rack of ribs and usually I don't eat more than 1/4. They were freaking amazing. We walked around Downtown Disney for a little bit afterward and then decided to head back to our hotel and turn in early, with plans to get up at 7am and find a MCd's for breakfast and a Target. I had forgotten to pack a swimsuit and needed a second one for home anyway, so we figured we'd grab one at Target so we could swim that night.

Saturday - we actually got up on time, which is rare for us, and headed out. I was having horrible allergy eyes and discovered at Target that Zyrtec makes an eye drop. Let me just tell you - these things are awesome. Now they didn't work for the 12 hours they were supposed to, but I'm thinking the fact that I spent the day surrounded by animals and plants - both of which I'm allergic to - had something to do with it. But they lasted for about 7 hours and even then, my eyes weren't too itchy. Awesome stuff!

Moving past that though! We got to the park at about 930 and headed straight for the safari. At the safari, we met:

Now of course there were tons of other animals - really cool ones! - at the safari, but this fun ostrich friend came walking right up to the car and I seriously could have touched him had I not been afraid of losing my fingers.

There were tons of cool things in Animal Kingdom, but to tell you everything would take too long! But if you go - ride the roller coaster in the Asia section b/c it's amazing and take time out to see the Lion King show and Flights of Wonder.

Flights of Wonder was a free flying bird show. Totally awesome! We learned about a ton of birds, heard one sing "how much is that doggy in the window" (this parrot knows SEVEN!!!!!! songs), and just generally enjoyed ourselves.

One of the highlights of my day though was at the Lion King. At Disney, on your birthday, you get a Happy Birthday pin to wear. I totally wore mine all day and it paid off big time (apart from having everyone I met wish me happy birthday! I feel one should be the center of attention on one's birthday, so this was fine with me). While waiting in line for the show, one of the employees asked if I wanted to magically help open the doors since it was my birthday. Of course I was all over that and off James and I went to the front of the line to help out! The guy told the crowd it was my birthday and then on the count of 3, I waved my hands and - poof! - magic! - the doors opened. We also got front row seats, so that was cool. If we had had to wait in line, we would have been in the back area, so yeah.

I got a cool certificate for my "magical moment" (this pic was taken at the Finding Nemo Musical):



But the Lion King show was just AMAZING! I'm telling you - if you ever go - totally check it out. It was right up there withe the Safari in my opinion.

We finished up at the park at around 6 and then went back to the hotel to swim. We went to dinner late and then came home and crashed.

Sunday - we slept in until 9 (it's amazing what having kids will do to you as far as sleeping in goes. I remember when 9 was an early wake up!) At 1030, we headed back to Downtown Disney for the House of Blues Gospel Brunch. Oh my Lord! It was wonderful. The food was awesome! There was a made to order omelet bar and I swear there were 4+ eggs in my omelet, plus it was STUFFED with ham and cheese! The music was good and exciting and they were all over praising Jesus. I loved it! Definitely something to check out if you're ever in Orlando on a Sunday morning. Of course, cameras were not allowed, but we snapped this shot outside afterward:


After the show, we walked around Downtown Disney and just hung out. Here are a couple of pics from that:




And one more from the park on Saturday: