anniversary and other such things!

i know it's been awhile but i feel like i have been super busy lately! the number one thing that i want to blog about is mine and rey's anniversary! it was such an amazing anniversary and i'm already feeling as though i'm forgetting some of the good stuff so i figure i should post before it's too late!!

well, since rey's unit is off at bridgeport (well, they are coming back today) he has been getting off around 1, so on friday the 10th rey got off at 1. We took Chloe to my friend's house that was watching her for the weekend, stopped off at quiznos for lunch, then made our way to disneyland! Since we had to drop Chloe off and then ate lunch we got there around 2:30, which worked out pretty good because we technically couldn't check in until 3 but I heard that they will check your luggage and then you can go to the parks and they will text you when your room is ready and you can go up to your room and your bags will already be there. In the end our room was already ready so we went on up! The room was seriously amazing! everything was mickey and i wish i would have taken more pictures of all the mickey themed stuff! Although the best thing about the room had to be the light up head board that played music! I want one! The only thing that I could probably complain about was our room view was slightly tainted and lame since there was some construction going on in the back which ruined our view! Anyway, after checking out our room we went out to the brand new pool which had only been opened for like a week! It was so cool because it had waterslides and they were super fun! Besides me and Rey it was only little kids going down so that made me feel a little stupid but it was totally worth it! After our dip in the pool Rey and i came back, showered up and went to Goofy's Kitchen in the Disneyland Hotel. It's a buffet where characters walk around and take pictures with you. I had heard some bad reviews about the food and said that it was more about the atmosphere but i thought the food was amazing! they had kid foods like hot dogs, mac and cheese, and this amazing pb&j pizza.. then they had really adult food... i can't remember what but it was almost as if they had to make it seem really adult to try and appeal to the adults.. either way it was delicious! Then there was dessert! They had like two full tables full of desserts and i think i ended up with like 20 things on my plate! it was ridiculous! After dinner we decided to go and walk around downtown disney for awhile since it was right outside of our hotel! We walked around a bit and we started our very own disney vinyl collection! They are so fun to collect since you pick a box without knowing whats in it and hope it's one of the ones you wanted, and if its a repeat you can try and trade! It's a fun hobby and fun to collect, but its very addicting and you can spend way too much money on it.. which we did! ha! As were walking back to our room we passed by the movie theatre and saw that super eight was playing so we decided to go and see it. We bought our tickets and had about 30 minutes so we decided to run our new vinyls back to our hotel room since it was literally like 2 minutes away. At this point we had probably been gone for 2 hours and we came to find our room all decked out in flowers! It was super cute! We then went and saw Super 8, which we both really liked and then headed to bed since we were waking up early for our day at the park!

We ordered breakfast through the hotel and had it delivered at 6, and after eating breakfast we made our way to the park. Since we were staying at the hotel we got to go in an hour early at 7! Since star tours just reopened it's generally about a 2 hour wait so we hit that up twice, then rode space mountain before the park even opened to the general public! After that Rey and I went and started a locker RAK! I have recently become obsessed with an iphone ap called mousewait! Basicallly you can check wait times, but there is also a lounge area where people can post pictures from the park, and everybody talks about disneyland, and people at the park do things called RAKs which stand for Random Acts of Kindness. The most popular ones are where people will hide fastpasses and you can go find them, or they will have something like a pin or a vinyl and you go and find them.. or there is the locker RAK like the one we did. What you do is someone gets a locker, leaves something in it and a book that people can sign to say they stopped by your locker. All throughout the day people will stop by, take something out of the locker and then leave something for the next people! It was so much fun and by the end of the day we ended up with about 25 signatures from people stopping by! We said it was our anniversary and some people wrote the sweetest things and I am definitely keeping it as an amazing memory of our anniversary. We also then went to the train station and made a reservation for the Lilly Belle. The Lilly Belle is a cart at the end of one of the trains that Walt had decided he wanted to have when VIP's came to the park. He ended up dying before it opened so his wife Lilly decided to finish it and designed it to look like Walt's Apartment in Main street. It even has the same carpet as up in Walt's Apartment. Riding that was seriously one of my favorite memories since not many people even know about it and very few actually get to ride it.

Basically we spent the day having fun and went back to the room around 2:00 for a nap! We actually ended up waking up around 4:30, which was kind of crazy because I really wanted to make it the flag retreat ceremony at 5:00! Luckily we made it just in time and oh man that was such an awesome experience and I reccomend everyone does it at some point! I have always known that they have done it, but I didn't really know exactly what it was. They do a special ceremony and sing some songs and invite active duty and veterans to come and surround the flag. Rey didn't want to which was kind of lame, but there was a guy there that had recently recieved a purple heart and it was just so amazing. When they were taking down the flag and singing I was pretty much bawling! It was such a special ceremony and I think it's awesome that Disneyland does something that is so patriotic and that also thanks our troops! After that we made our way to the Blue Bayou for our dinner reservation. The Blue Bayou is the restaurant inside of Pirates of the Carribean and we even requested a seat by the water. While we were waiting we even found the place where Club 33 members enter into Club 33. Club 33 is an exclusive resteraunt where it's like a 35,000 dollar membership and each plate there is around $100! So it's pretty crazy and when celebrities and high up people come that's generally where they go! Well as we were waiting the fire alarm to the Blue Bayou and Club 33 went off since Club 33 is just above Blue Bayou. Rey ended up standing right next to the Club 33 door and watched all the people come out. After about 30 minutes and 30 minutes past our reservation time they finally let people back in and after about 5 minutes we were in with a seat right by the water! We had eaten there on our honeymoon but in the back, so this time it was so much more special and romantic, plus a couple next to us got engaged.. so it was pretty adorable! After that I can't really remember what we did, but we basically spent the night riding rides and having a blast!

Sunday we sadly had to check out and we were pretty depressed! After spending the past two nights at this amazingly beautiful place it was sad to say goodbye. We decided to spend a couple of hours at the park and went to breakfast at the Plaza Inn that is a breakfast buffet and disney characters walk around! If you want to eat at a cool place at disneyland and don't want to spend a buttload this would be my suggestion. It's still $25 bucks a person, but its a buffet and we had at least 6 characters come by our table! super fun and super worth it! At around 2 we left and picked up our chloe who we both had missed!

So yeah, our anniversary was pretty amazing and i couldn't have asked for a better one! yes, we spent way too much money but we figured since it was 2 in 1 and our first one together we figured it was worth it! Plus we made a pact to come back to disneyland for our 10th anniversary! we want to try and save so we can bring our kids and stay at the hotel again, so hopefully it works out! As for everything else it's going good, i'm just getting ready to move back to Utah in two weeks! I'm super sad to leave the beach and most of all disneyland, but i'm excited to be back with my friends and family. We are hoping that Rey gets to get out in August but we'll probably find out for sure this week! So I guess we shall see! I'm hoping he does get out in August cause we wouldn't even have to be apart for a month which would be fantastic!

So let's see.. I'm getting my wisdom teeth out on tuesday and i'm pretty much freaking out about it, plus it's kind of stressful cause rey's little sister is here and she is flying back to utah on thursday but rey isn't sure he'll be able to get off work to drive her, and we're figuring i will be on meds so i shouldn't be driving.. so who the heck knows!! Well, that is all for now! sorry this was probably super long and boring but i wanted to try and remember as much as i could and write it down before i forgot!

peace in the middle east,
kristen

disneyland season pass

dear disneyland season pass,

you are the best!

love,
kristen

but really! it's amazing! during the month of june i will probably be going to disneyland 7 times.. and no, i'm not sick of it.. and no it hasn't lost any of it's magic! in fact, it just gets better and better! every time i go rey and i do something different and i have found out so many cool facts! for instance, there a tons of hidden mickeys all throughout disneyland and it is so stinkin fun to look for them and find.. especially ones that i haven't read about and find on my own! another cool thing is there is a train in the back of one of the disneyland trains and it's called the lily belle and it is a super nice car and back in the day they only let celebrities and high up people ride in it.. in fact, the only way to ride it now is to get there super early and see if at some point in the day they will let you ride it. it's such a special train car that you have to have a cast member sit in there with you and when you get off you can sign the guestbook. i haven't done it yet, but on rey and i's anniversary we are planning on making it happen! also, another cool thing that i have found is a phone app! it's called mouse wait and if you are planning a trip to disneyland i would totally recommend it! not only does it have wait times, but there is a lounge area where people can talk and the people at the park will hide things for people to find or you can find the person and they will give you something cool! for instance yesterday at the park we found a girl and she gave me a little mermaid pin! how cool is that?! seriously i have had so much fun going the past couple of months and by the time i move back to utah i will probably have gone about 20 times or more! yes.. the pass was about $450 but it has saved us sooo much money.. like i said.. more than 20 times and i get free parking each time and now parking is up to $15 so right there we have saved $300 dollars and we get discounts on food and merchandise! plus, in the past couple of weeks i have gotten to ride the new star tours ride and the little mermaid all before it has even opened to the public! seriously! i am so stinkin lucky! i can't remember if i mentioned it before but rey and i are going to spend our anniversary at the disneyland hotel and i am so excited! everything i have seen about this hotel just seems amazing!! plus, they just redid the pool and a couple of other things at the disneyland hotel and it just makes me even more excited! basically keep an eye out for photos because i'm pretty sure i'm going to take a bunch! anywhoo... i'm out!

peace in the middle east,
kristen